Art Industry News: Meet the Secretive Billionaire Brothers Who Got Swept Up in the Inigo Philbrick Art Scandal + 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 Tuesday, December
10.

NEED-TO-READ

Chinese Tourists Are Flocking to
Russia’s Museums – Russia is experiencing a boom in Chinese tourists thanks to electronic
visas—but the influx is now causing problems for its most popular
museums and historic houses. The country’s deputy culture minister
said he had been receiving “mass complaints” that Chinese tourists
at the Catherine Palace in
Tsarskoe Selo near St Petersburg were crowding out Russian
visitors. The director of the former imperial palace plans to
introduce timed tickets that would require passport identification
for purchase. The Hermitage Museum is also considering timed
tickets, but seems more relaxed about its booming Chinese
demographic. (The Art Newspaper)

Banksy’s Latest Work Vandalized… With Red Noses
– Banksy’s latest mural, unveiled
in Birmingham and designed to call attention to homelessness in the
UK ahead of the holiday season and the country’s elections, has
been given an unlikely new accessory. Someone took the liberty of
adding red noses to the reindeer in the artwork, who are pictured
as if they are pulling a bench where a homeless man was lying down.
The vandal managed to get past a barricade and a crowd of people to
make his mark. (Independent)

Billionaire Brothers Get Swept Up in Philbrick Scandal –
British billionaires Simon and
David Reuben have been unmasked as the owners of the mysterious
company Guzzini Properties, which invested in art sold
by the embattled
art dealer Inigo Philbrick. The company is suing to
secure its title to a
$6.6 million painting by Rudolf Stingel that two other firms also
claim to have stakes in. [Related: read Kenny Schacher’s
latest column, where he actually tracks down and interviews the
fugitive Philbrick.] (Bloomberg)

The Rise and Rise of the Art
Collective – The unprecedented
decision by the 2019 Turner
Prize nominees to become a politically engaged collective and
jointly accept the award was “a
dadaist gesture,” says Ellen
Mara De Wachter, the author of a book on creative collaborations.
“These four artists didn’t just talk the talk, they walked it.” She
views the gesture as a victory for collectives worldwide.
Art
Review’s Oliver Basciano
examines the history of the collective, extending his examination
all the way back to the Fluxus
group, arguably the
first artists to turn collaboration into a political
statement. (Guardian)

ART MARKET

Sotheby’s to Sell a Cache of
Aboriginal Australian Artwork – The auction house is selling 33 works of
Australian Aboriginal art dating from the 1950s from the collection
of Thomas Vroom and Fiona Brockhoff. The sale at Sotheby’s New York
on Friday has a combined upper estimate of $2.7
million.(Barrons)

A Floppy Disc Signed by Steve Jobs
Sells for $84,000 – A 1988
floppy disk the Apple co-founder autographed has sold for $84,000
at the Boston-based auction house RR Auction. (Daily Mail)

Miami Condo Sales Saw a Bump Amid
Art Basel – A $5.1 million
condo in Key Biscayne, which had been on the market for nearly a
year, was the top sale last week in Miami. It was part of a $49
million splurge on luxury property that coincided with art
collectors flocking to South Florida during Miami’s art week.
(The Real Deal)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Lawrence Abu Hamdan Wins the Edvard Munch Art Award –
One of the joint winners of
the Turner Prize, the
artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, now has an award all on his own. Abu
Hamdan has won the $63,000 Edvard Munch Art Award, given by the
forthcoming Munchmuseet in Olso, where he will also be given a solo
show, as well as a residency in the city. (ARTnews)

Iceland Names its 2021 Venice Biennale Artist –
The multimedia artist Sigurður
Guðjónsson will represent Iceland at the 59th Venice Biennale in
2021. Guðjónsson is known for his video and sound installations,
and was selected by the Icelandic Art Center to represent the
country at the prestigious exhibition. (ARTnews)

The Mexican Artist Carla Herrera-Prats Has Died –
The Mexican conceptual artist and
curator, Carla Herrera-Prats, has died at age 46. The artist, who
was known for work that draws on collaborative practices and
archival research to comment on cultural and economic transactions
and question the documentary value of image and text, died from
complications due to breast cancer. (Artforum)

Catherine Opie Gets an Endowed Chair – Following a $2 million donation to UCLA’s art
school from billionaire collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the
artist Catherine Opie has been named to a newly endowed chair
position. Opie, whose own photography examines sexual and gender
identity, has been a member of the faculty since 2001.
(Los Angeles Times)

FOR ART’S SAKE

ICA Announces New Acquisitions From Art Week –
Donors to Miami’s Institute of
Contemporary Art—Andre Sakhai, Ed and Helen Nicoll, and Alberto
Chehebar—gifted the institution with new works by artists Jadé
Fadojutimi, Dalton Gata, and Shara Hughes during Miami’s art week.
The ICA also purchased a video work by the Hong Kong artist Wong
Ping. (Artforum)

Garage Launches New Platform to Promote Digital Art –
Moscow’s Garage Museum of
Contemporary Art has launched a new initiative to promote the study
and creation of digital artworks called Garage Digital. The
platform, which the museum likens to the New Museum’s Rhizome
initiative, so far includes a four-part work produced by the artist
Ezra Miller with the musician James Ferraro called
Xerces
Blau.
(Press
release)

War Artist Unveils Bosnian Massacre Painting
– The Scottish artist
Peter Howson has unveiled a new painting commemorating one of the
worst atrocities during the Bosnian War. The former Imperial War
Museum’s official war artist has created The Massacre of
Srebrenica, which
depicts the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb
troops 25 year ago. The huge canvas is on loan to Glasgow’s St
Mungo Museum of Religious Art for the next three years. The artist
said that what he witnessed during the conflict can only be
described “as hell on earth.” (Herald)

This Venice Is Made Entirely of Candy – Teams of leading designers, architects, and
engineers have been working on a model of Venice made entirely out
of candy for the latest edition of the Gingertown D.C. competition.
See the saccharine take on famous Venetian landmarks such as the
Doge’s Palace and Saint Mark’s Basilica, all along some jellybean
canals. (Bonus: No flooding!)
(NPR)

The post Art Industry News: Meet the Secretive Billionaire
Brothers Who Got Swept Up in the Inigo Philbrick Art Scandal +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.