Art Industry News: Is Banksy’s New Website a Ploy to Take His Own Skyrocketing Secondary Market In-House? + 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 on this Thursday, October
17. 

NEED-TO-READ

New York Politicians Spar Over
Sculpture – New
York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio are coming to blows (again) over the proposed
funding of a statue depicting Mother Cabrini, the first naturalized
American citizen to be canonized and a patron saint of immigrants.
Cuomo’s announcement to move forward with the project came on
Columbus Day, elating the crowd of Italian-Americans, and arousing
the ire of de Blasio, who had previously opted to exclude Cabrini
from a round of female statues proposed for the city. Cuomo plans
to work with the Brooklyn diocese for funding. (CBS News) (Hyperallergic)

All-Female Jihadist
Group Sentenced for Failed Notre Dame Attack – A gang
of female jihadists have been convicted of a November 2016 plan to
detonate a car bomb outside of the Notre Dame in
Paris. Four of the defendants received
between 20 and 30 years for various degrees of involvement,
including dousing a car with diesel in the middle of the night and
trying to set it alight with a cigarette. A fifth member of the
cell was sentenced to five years for attempting to hide one of the
main defendants. (The Local)

Could Banksy’s New E-Comm
Biz Also Become an Art Dealership? – The
world-famous street artist left a hint on his new website, Gross Domestic Product, that suggests
he could soon be getting into the secondary market, further
expanding his satirical art-market empire. A tab at the bottom of
his new site leads to an image of a guy standing in the midst of
used second-hand Banksy wares. Underneath the image, it
states: “Your first choice destination to trade in second-hand work
by a third-rate artist.” (TAN)

The Curious Story of the
‘Earlier Mona Lisa’ Becomes Even Curiouser – The
so-called “Isleworth Mona Lisa”
has been at the heart of a legal dispute over ownership, which runs
in parallel to an ongoing debate about whether it was really
painted by Leonardo da Vinci or not. While the jury is still out
regarding its authenticity, a court hearing this week—in which an
opaque Swiss consortium called the Mona Lisa Foundation is being
sued by a family that claims it owns 25 percent of the
painting—moved the narrative of its mysterious ownership forward.
At the highly anticipated hearing on Tuesday, claimant
Karen Gilbert said that the foundation “declared in front of the
judge that Mona Lisa Inc. in Anguilla was the owner of the
painting.” The plot thickens. The Caribbean island is well-known as
a tax haven, and the Mona Lisa Foundation neither confirmed or
denied Gilbert’s claim. (BBC)

ART MARKET

Patrick Painter Rides Again, Opening a New LA
Gallery – The journalist Michael Slenske talked to the
“notoriously scandalous” LA art dealer who “went from selling acid
for the Brotherhood of Eternal Love as a teenager to… representing
pioneering L.A. artists including Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, and
Kenny Scharf,” and who “once drove around town in a Versace
Lamborghini dressed like a fourth Beastie Boy with briefcases full
of contraband, then went radio silent for years after a spinal
surgery, addiction issues, and a mass exodus of his blue chip
roster.” Now he’s back, with a new gallery in LA’s Arts District,
debuting with a show of work by the painter Jérôme Lagarrigue.
(Los Angeles Magazine)

Rudolf Zwirner Helped Invent Art Fairs. Now He
Dislikes Them – Artnews’s Sarah Douglas spoke to the
86-year-old dealer, a legendary Cologne gallerist in his time whose
now best known as David Zwirner’s dad, about his new autobiography
and his role in setting in motion the total art-fair-ication of the
art market. (Hans Neuendorf, artnet’s founder, had a hand in that too.) “Art fairs are
extremely dangerous and expensive for younger galleries,” he says.
“I invented the art fair but now I have to tell galleries: Find
another way. Find something to do in your gallery.” His advice for
dealers? Go “back to the analogue. Small events. Tell people why
you are showing this art, why it’s so important.” (Artnews)

Officials Threaten Funding for UOVO – The Queens-based art storage facility
UOVO is in trouble with New York officials for a “campaign of
intimidation and misinformation” against employees seeking to
unionize. The letter penned by senator Julia Salazar, and signed by
a slew of city council members threatens to revoke public funding
from UOVO for what the letter says amounts to “aggressive and
coercive tactics.” (The Art
Newspaper)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Filipino Artist and
Activist Carlos Celdran Has Died – Celdran, a performance
artist and political activist who famously protested the
Filipino Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to a bill seeking to
make contraceptives more accessible to the poor, died at age 46
from natural causes. (Artforum)

Arthur Jafa Wins a Major Award –
The Monaco-based Prince Pierre Foundation awarded the acclaimed video artist
and sculptor the 2019 Prix International d’Art
Contemporain (PIAC) honor, which comes with $83,000 to go towards
funding for a new work. Jafa earned the award for his poignant 2016 work Love Is the
Message, The Message Is Death, a searing depiction of blackness in
America.  (Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Düsseldorf Is Getting a Hilarious Photo-Ready
Museum – Instagram-trap fever has come to Germany
via the Golden State with the new Cali Dreams Museum, a sprawling
spectacle featuring 25 sets designed to look like California
landmarks that will change seasonally. Inspired by a trip the
founders took to California, the pop-up will cost about $31 for
entry, and visitors will be provided with selfie-sticks and battery
charging banks. (The Local)

Julian Mayor Lands in Los
Angeles – Finally, for your viewing
pleasure, THE NEW gallery in Los Angeles, an exhibition space by
the contemporary design gallery Twentieth, is presenting an
exhibition of works by the London-based designer Julian Mayor. The
show, titled “Distorted Rhythm,” presents standing and hanging
light sculptures and other works, all made in a variety of
finishes. Mayor is known for designing works digitally and then
executing them through traditional welding techniques. “The
inspiration for this exhibition is all about colors, lines,
and reflection,” the artist said in a statement. The show is up
through the end of the year. See works from it
below. (Press
Release)  

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to Take His Own Skyrocketing Secondary Market In-House? + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.