Art Industry News: The Locked-Down Super Rich Are Impulse-Buying Jewelry Through Online Auctions Like There’s No Tomorrow + Other Stories - artnet News | Canada News Media
Art Industry News: The Locked-Down Super Rich Are Impulse-Buying Jewelry Through Online Auctions Like There’s No Tomorrow + Other Stories – artnet News
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, April 23.
NEED-TO-READ
Gerhard Richter’s Donation Raises More Than Half a Million – At a charity auction to raise money homeless aid, some 30 signed “Candle” prints by Gerhard Richter sold out almost immediately, raising €650,000 ($700,000) for the homeless in his home city of Cologne. Other famous artists also donated works to the “Art Helps” auction, including Rosemarie Trockel, Jeff Koons, and Markus Lüpertz. (Monopol)
Mike Kelley Foundation Revises 2020 Grants – In light of the current crisis, the Mike Kelley Foundation is lifting restrictions on how its grants, which are usually reserved for project-related expenses, can be used this year. The foundation’s executive director Mary Clare Stevens said, “In the midst of a global crisis that is putting an unprecedented strain on our cultural community, grant-making in the arts has a heightened sense of urgency.” Recipients include California Institute of the Arts/REDCAT; Human Resources LA; Los Angeles Filmforum; and the Vincent Price Art Museum. (Los Angeles Times)
Here’s Why a New Deal-Style Public Art Program Is a Pipe Dream – In this moment of upheaval, many have called for a revival of the Federal Art Project, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s sweeping New Deal plan, which put thousands of artists to work. But politics and society were different then, and partisan divides did not run as deep. President Trump and other politicians, such as Nikki Haley, have targeted arts funding in particular as an extravagance. “I’m not sure you can get Congress to agree on anything,” said Barbara Bernstein, founder of the New Deal Art Registry. “Especially not something as easy to make fun of as an art program.” (New York Times)
Art-World Figures Protest Plan to Demolish Public Sculpture – The non-profit Cultural Landscape Foundation, with support from prominent art-world figures, is appealing to the National Geographic Society to cancel plans to remove the 1984 installation Marabar from its Washington, DC, campus as part of renovations. The 6 foot-by-60 foot reflecting pool by New York-based artist Elyn Zimmerman is lined by cut boulders, and was described by Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg as an art historical “masterpiece” in an open letter. (The Art Newspaper)
ART MARKET
Will Art Fairs Return in 2020? – Sure, presumably you’ll be able to hold an art fair at some point this year—but will anyone come? It is uncertain whether, even if lockdowns are lifted, international collectors (or dealers, for that matter) will jump on planes to pack into Art Basel this fall. Dealers have until May 1 to reconfirm their participation. (TAN)
Bored Rich People Are Spending a Lot on Jewelry Online – Collectible jewelry sales are doing well amid the current crisis. As Catherine Becket, a Sotheby’s jewelry specialist, put it, wealthy clients “leading relatively dreary lives” are “wearing big diamonds inside their homes because it brings joy.” Since the beginning of March, Sotheby’s has launched four online jewelry sales, with 92 percent of lots sold and 61 percent exceeding their high estimates. Next up: a 1930s-era Cartier bracelet offered in a dedicated online sale, starting tomorrow, with an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. (Bloomberg)
Artnet’s Prints and Multiples Sale Exceeds $1 Million – Artnet Auctions’s Premier Prints & Multiples sale brought in a total of $1.1 million, up 10 percent from the equivalent sale in 2019. The auction—which was led by Keith Haring’s Retrospect, which sold for $180,000—also saw a boost in the average lot price, up 38 percent from the same sale last year. (Press release)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Renaissance Society Nabs Rising Star as Director – The curator and writer Myriam Ben Salah has been named the new executive director of the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Ben Salah co-curated the now-delayed fifth edition of the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. biennial. She will take up her new post on September 15. (Artforum)
Taipei Biennial Releases Artist List – The Taipei Biennial has released the artist list for its 2020 edition, “You and I Don’t Live on the Same Planet,” which is slated to run November 21 through March 14 at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Artists on the list include Mika Rottenberg, Hai-Hsin Huang, and the artist duo Cooking Sections. (Artforum)
Artist Lois Weinberger Dies at 72 – The Austrian artist as died at age 72 in Vienna. Weinberger was interested in nature’s influence on migration and his most famous work, What is beyond plants is at One with Them, produced for Documenta X in 1997, saw him plant foreign weeds along 330 feet of an abandoned railway track. (ARTnews)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Vandals Target Berlin’s Gay Museum – Anonymous vandals threw stones at the window of the Gay Museum in Berlin last weekend, damaging but not breaking the glass. Officials spotted the damage on Monday, but it remains unclear whether it was a targeted attack. (Monopol)
Gilbert & George Create a Free Coronavirus Work – Gilbert & George are the latest artists to offer up free downloadable posters for people to post in their living-room windows—but they are taking a slightly different tack from the colorful rainbow images put forth by others. The duo’s slogans include “Gilbert & George say: Don’t catch it!” and “Gilbert & George say: Don’t get it!” (Guardian)
See Olafur Eliasson’s Back to Earth Initiative – Yesterday, Olafur Eliasson unveiled his new artwork for Earth Day, which comprised nine animations of views over the Earth, released on the hour for nine hours. Now, you can see a sampling of the final product—produced as part of the Serpentine Galleries ‘Back to Earth” initiative—below. “On Earth Day, I want to advocate—as on any other day—that we recognize these various perspectives and, together, celebrate their co-existence,” Eliasson said of the work. (Press release)
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.
Alleged Fraud Scheme
Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.
Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.
Massive Seizure of Artworks
In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.
Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.
Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed
In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.
Court Proceedings Ongoing
The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.
Impact on the Local Art Community
The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.
For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.
As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.
While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.
Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.
As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.
