Art Industry News: Inside the Mind of the Sneaker Mega-Collector Who Dropped More Than $1 Million at Sotheby’s + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know this Wednesday, August
21.

NEED-TO-READ

Afghans Restore Art Destroyed by the Taliban
– Museum employees in Kabul are working to restore
precious artifacts and antiquities at the national museum that were
destroyed by the Taliban, who considered them blasphemous, almost
two decades ago. The museum’s staff are among those anxiously
waiting for the Taliban and the United States to reach a peace
deal, which has the potential to put the Taliban back in a formal
leadership role. In the meantime, the museum is working with
Chicago’s Oriental Institute to develop as complete an inventory as
possible in an effort to track down missing objects and assemble a
record of the collection in case of future threats. (CBS)

Will the Art World Reconsider Its Corporate Sponsors? –
From the British Museum’s
ties to the oil company BP to the Sackler family’s
sponsorship of the arts
to Warren Kanders’s
ouster at the Whitney,
cultural institutions are being scrutinized more than ever for the
ethics of their corporate ties. While some institutions are afraid
of having to subsidize exhibitions themselves through higher ticket
prices, arts critic Rachel Spence argues that the heightened
criticism of corporate giving was inevitable. Many contemporary
artists are advocates of social justice, and it has never been
easier to find out the source of someone’s wealth. Now, Spence
says, advocates and audiences are left with a question: how far
will they go? Are banks that support oil companies the next target?
(Financial Times)

Visiting Sotheby’s With a Sneakerhead – Newly-established sneaker-phile Miles S. Nadal,
chair of the Peerage Capital Group, snapped up 99 pairs of rare sneakers from
Sotheby’s for a whopping $850,000 after he read about the sale
in the New York Post—and then bought an 100th even rarer
sneaker for $437,500. A longtime collector of
cars and motorbikes, Nadal was looking for a new obsession. On a
visit to Sotheby’s with the New Yorker, he said he
believes sneakers will now become a lifelong
passion. (New Yorker)

Japan’s Art World Regroups After Aichi Triennale Censorship
– Organizers of the Aichi
Triennale closed an
exhibition about freedom of expression three days after it opened following massive
public outcry over a sculpture of a comfort woman and a video
“defacing” an image of a modern emperor. But now art and media
experts in Japan are asking whether the public even understood the
works, as the widespread anger was largely caused by out-of-context
information shared on social media. “No (substantial) discussion
will start unless you actually see the work,” says media studies
professor Kozo Nagata. Meanwhile, a group of 11 artists
participating in the show have made good on their pledge to withdraw or alter their
works in solidarity with the censored artists. (Japan Times, Art Asia Pacific)

ART MARKET

Mexican Art Dealers Fear a Market Downturn – Art dealers in Mexico are increasingly
participating in international art fairs and opening US outposts in
a bid to stay solvent in the face of the new Mexican president’s
austerity measures. Following the election of the populist
president Andrés Manuel López Obrador last July, Mexico’s arts and
culture budget was slashed by the equivalent of $50 million, to the
lowest it has been in the past 12 years. (Observer)

Marilyn Monroe Memorabilia Heads to Auction –
Julien’s Auctions is selling some
of the star’s costumes from film and television appearances
beginning November 1 as part of the auction house’s Legendary Women
of Hollywood series. The 115 Monroe items on offer include a red
sequined dress worn by the actress in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, estimated between $60,000 and $80,000.
(Art
Daily)

COMINGS & GOINGS

MCA Denver Names New
Director – Nora Burnett Abrams has been
appointed the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art
Denver. Abrams, who has has been a curator at the museum for a
decade, succeeds Adam Lerner, who stepped down in June after
leading the institution since 2009. (New York Times)

South Korean Artists Jin
Shiu and Yi Joungmin Found Dead – Two members of the South
Korean artist group Okin Collective were found dead last weekend in
an apparent double suicide. Okin was founded in 2009 to address
forced evictions from Seoul’s Jongno District. In a letter send to
friends, Jin, 44, and Yi, 48, said they were summoning “our last
remaining strength to bid farewell for the last time.”
(Artforum)

Brooklyn Museum Reopens
Asian Galleries – The Brooklyn Museum’s Arts of China and
Japan galleries are scheduled to reopen on October 25 after an
extensive six-year renovation. The reinstallation will
see classic masterworks paired with contemporary pieces from
Chinese and Japanese artists to highlight the continuity of
practices over the centuries. (Brooklyn Eagle)

Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart
Names Artistic Director – Eric Golo Stone will
succeed Fatima Hellberg as artistic director of the
Künstlerhaus Stuttgart in Germany. Stone is an artist and writer
who previously served as a curator of LAXART in Los Angeles.
(Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

German Panel Divided Over Max Stern Restitution –
A German panel established to
advise on the restitution of Nazi-looted artwork has been unable to
come to a decision about the status of a painting sold by the
Jewish dealer Max Stern in 1936. The panel ended up taking the
unusual step of recommending a conditional restitution of Hans von
Marées’ Uhlans on
the March (1859),
but stipulated that the work could not be sold for 10 years in case
the panel received new information. It also published the minority
opinion that the work should not be returned to Stern’s heirs from
its current home in the Bavarian State Paintings Collections in
Munich. The opposition claimed there was insufficient evidence that
the dealer owned the work, which he might have sold on consignment
for someone else. (The Art Newspaper)

An Agnès Varda Film
Retrospective Is Coming to New York – Lincoln
Center will host a major retrospective of the late French
avant-garde filmmaker from December 20 through January 9. The
presentation will range from her early works, like the 1954 feature
debut La Pointe Courte, to her final film, Varda by
Agnès. Film at Lincoln Center has also announced that the
57th New York Film Festival, which opens on September 27, will be
dedicated to Varda. (Press
release)

Artist Sues New Mexico
Museum for Breach of Contract – The New Mexico Museum of
Space History is being sued by an artist whose merchandise was sold
in the museum’s gift shop. Artist Krystal Wood-Kofonow claims
that the institution breached her contract by allegedly continuing
to sell her products beyond the agreed-upon end date, and by
denying her a final payment. (US News)

A New Documentary Goes
Behind the Scenes at the V&A – A new BBC Two Arts
documentary series called Secrets of the Museum will
take viewers behind the scenes of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The
show will follow the work of the museum’s curators, conservators,
and technicians as they care for, study, and tour thousands of
items usually kept in storage. (Harper’s Bazaar)

The post Art Industry News: Inside the Mind of the Sneaker
Mega-Collector Who Dropped More Than $1 Million at Sotheby’s +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.