Art Industry News: Mega-Collector Steve Cohen Is Trying to Buy the New York Mets + 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, December
5.

NEED-TO-READ

Tate Trustees Gave Green Light to
the Turner Prize Nominees – The
Tate’s trustees discussed whether the four Turner
nominees could share the 2019 Turner Prize award
and Tate Britain’s director was
aware of the proposal this summer. The prize’s jury members were
kept in the dark until the last minute, however. The Turner Prize
co-winner Tai Shani revealed to the Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins that it was
“quite a bureaucratic
process.” The artists’ proposal to form a collective went before
the Tate trustees this summer. The four jury members only heard
about it on the morning of the award ceremony. “There wasn’t much
moral wriggle-room,” for them, Higgins writes. The director of Tate
Britain, Alex Farquharson, is the chair of the Turner Prize
jury. (Guardian)

The Louvre’s Endowment Tops $277
Million – Thanks to the Louvre
Abu Dhabi and a global network of patrons the Paris museum’s
endowment is now worth €250 million ($277 million). The
state-funded museum has grown its reserves steadily since the fund
was created in 2009. The Louvre Abu
Dhabi has so far boosted the Paris museum’s coffers to the tune
of  €170 million,
with further payments pending. The rest has come from donations
from individuals and businesses. Among the Louvre’s biggest patrons
are 15 Americans and two Asian philanthropists, AFP reports.
(OuestFrance)

Collector Steve Cohen Is Trying to Buy the New York
Mets – The billionaire hedge-fund manager
Steve Cohen, who famously bought Pablo Picasso’s painting La
Reve (previously owned by casino magnate Steve Wynn) for
$155 million, is negotiating with the Wilpon family to buy a
majority stake in the New York baseball team the Mets. Cohen
already owns a minority share in the team; he is seeking a deal
that would give him an 80 percent stake, according to reports. Any
deal will ultimately be subject to approval by Major League
Baseball owners. (NYT)

Forensic Architecture Challenges
the Police Over Fatal Shooting – The Turner Prize-nominated collective has
challenged the official
report into the police shooting of a man whose death sparked riots
in London. Forensic
Architecture’s virtual 3D model of the shooting
is based on evidence gathered by an
official inquiry that found the police action in 2011 was lawful.
Eyal Weizman of Forensic Architecture says the group’s research
undermines the investigation’s findings that Mark Duggan was still
holding a gun when he was shot, and that officers would not have
seen he had thrown it away. (Guardian)

ART MARKET

Virgil Abloh Opening Off-White Store in Miami – The fashion
designer and artist is opening a flagship store
in Miami’s Design
District. Abloh has teamed
up with the star architect Rem Koolhaas’s OMA practice to design
Off-White’s new space, which is due to open in January 2020.
(Complex)

Travis Scott Takes an Interest in a Tom Sachs Painting
at Art Basel – The rapper was
photographed posing with the artist’s painting of the
Simpsons character Krusty the Clown, which is reportedly
being sold for $225,000 by Acquavella gallery. He also eyed a 1983
Jean-Michel Basquiat work titled Krong Thip (Torso).
(New York Post)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Warhol Foundation
Writers’ Awards Announced – The Andy Warhol Foundation has
announced 19 art writers who will receive grants for its 2019
cycle. A total of $680,000 will be awarded to new projects by
writers including Elvia Wilk, Jill Steinhauer, and Aruna D’Souza.
(ARTnews)

Another Portrait of
Stormzy Added to National Portrait Gallery
– London’s
National Portrait Gallery has included a photographic portrait of
the British rapper Stormzy in its halls, in what director Nicholas
Cullinan describes as a “contemporary intervention.” Two other
photographs of the rapper are already in the collection, both by
Olivia Rose. In the new portrait by Mark Mattock, Stormzy is
pictured gazing down at the Banksy-designed stab-proof vest he wore
on stage at the Glastonbury Festival this
summer. (Guardian)

Fondazione Prada Announces New Programs Leader –
Chiara Costa has been named the new
head of programs at the foundation, where she will take up her post
immediately. Costa, who has been editor of Fondazione Prada’s
publications in Milan and Venice since 2012, succeeds Astrid
Welter. (Press
release) 

New Director of National
Museums of Scotland – Christopher Breward, former head of
Edinburgh College of Art, will take over leading the National
Museums of Scotland. He succeeds Gordon Rintoul, who is stepping
down after 18 years at the helm. (Scotsman)

FOR ART’S SAKE

A #MeToo-Themed Show Opens in China – An art exhibition about the #MeToo movement in
China went ahead in Shanghai, having been forced to close early
elsewhere. Activists feared that “The Voiceless Rise Up” would be
targeted again by the authorities but the backing of
the consulates of the UK, Canada,
Czech Republic, Norway, and Sweden seems to have helped their
cause. Police confiscated
materials as well as hard drives at the Chengdu iteration of the
show, says an anonymous organizer. “The government feels that
anything destabilizing is not worth allowing.” The five-day
exhibition took place at the British Centre
Shanghai. (The Art
Newspaper)

Artadia Is Expanding Its
Grant Programs – The New York nonprofit will be
growing its grant-making platform next year to include three awards
to artists based in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Atlanta, and Houston, as compared to previous years
which budgeted two artists per city. Applications for the next
year’s $10,000 annual grants round begins in Los Angeles in
January, in New York in March, in Chicago in May, in San
Francisco in July, in Atlanta in September, and in Houston in
October. (ARTnews)

The City of New York Is
Opening a New Art Space – New York’s department of
cultural affairs and its economic development corporation have
broken ground on a major new project in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The
L10 Arts and Cultural Center will be in a 32-story mixed-use tower
and will house several key cultural institutions, including the
Brooklyn Academy of Music and a new branch of the Brooklyn Public
Library. (Press release)

Spindletop Flag Flies
During a Climate Change Summit  – Irish artist John
Gerrard has taken over the courtyard of the Museo Nacional
Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid with his work Western Flag
(Spindletop, Texas) 2017. The smoking flag sculpture, which
references the US’s first oil field, acknowledges the critical
discussions underway at the United Nations Climate
Change Conference (COP25) that are being held in Madrid until
December 13. Brought to the Spanish capital by TBA21 Academy,
here’s the video work in Texas and Madrid. (Press
release)

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