Director to leave Tate Modern for Berlin job
24 April
Chris Dercon announced that he is stepping down as the director of Tate Modern to become the artistic director of the Volksbühne (People’s Theatre) in Berlin. Dercon, who has led the London museum since 2011, intends to remain at the Tate until 2017 to oversee the opening of its £215m extension next year.
Museum of Biblical Art goes out on a high
29 April
The Museum of Biblical Art in New York (Mobia) announced that it will close in June. The museum was unable to find an affordable alternative space after its landlord sold its building. Ironically, Mobia’s final exhibition was also its best attended. Sculpture in the Age of Donatello (until 14 June) attracted more than 26,000 visitors, surpassing the museum’s average annual attendance.
New York artists criticise Frick’s plan to expand
7 May
Artists including Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman and John Currin sent a letter to New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, asking it to reject the Frick Collection’s proposal to expand. The institution plans to replace a garden with a six-storey tower. The new wing would “destroy the famed Frick experience”, according to the letter.
Artist gets nearly 300 votes in general election
7 May
The Conservative Party was the biggest winner in the UK’s general election last month, securing a majority in parliament, but Bob and Roberta Smith also had something to celebrate. The artist, who ran in the Surrey Heath constituency to advocate arts education, garnered 273 votes.
Pinault and Deydier return objects to China
12 May
The French collectors François Pinault and Christian Deydier returned gold objects to China on the grounds that they were looted from Gansu province. Pinault and Deydier, who originally donated the objects to the Musée Guimet in Paris, were asked by France’s national museum service to “retroactively annul” the donation because the French government feared that a complicated restitution process would antagonise the Chinese.
Greece will not sue UK over Parthenon Marbles
14 May
Nikos Xydakis, Greece’s culture minister, announced that the country would not take legal action to regain the ownership of the Parthenon Marbles from the UK, but would opt instead for a “diplomatic route”. The possibility of a legal battle over the sculptures was raised last year when an anonymous donor paid for a team of lawyers, including Amal Clooney, to meet officials from the Greek government.
Picasso breaks record at Christie’s New York
15 May
Almost $2.5bn was spent in a fortnight in the Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art evening sales in New York in May. Christie’s set a new record for the most expensive work ever sold at auction with Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version “O”) (1955), which sold for $179.4m. After speculation, Christie’s issued a denial that the work had been bought by a Qatari sheik.
Picasso’s step-daughter accuses dealer of theft
18 May
The Paris-based dealer Olivier Thomas was taken in for questioning by French police after Catherine Hutin-Blay, Picasso’s step-daughter, accused him of stealing works that he had been hired to store. Thomas had not been charged when we went to press.
Guggenheim heirs appeal as legal battle goes on
19 May
A group of Peggy Guggenheim’s descendants filed an appeal in an ongoing legal battle with the Guggenheim Foundation over the collection. The heirs claim that the foundation has taken too many liberties in its presentation of Guggenheim’s collection at her former palazzo in Venice. Similar lawsuits by the heirs have been unsuccessful in the past.
Head of Creative Time to lead Brooklyn Museum
19 May
New York’s Brooklyn Museum announced that Anne Pasternak, the president and artistic director of the public art non-profit organisation Creative Time, will succeed Arnold Lehman as the director of the institution. Pasternak, who has never held a full-time museum job, will be the first woman to lead one of the city’s encyclopaedic museums.
Pompidou president in talks over China pop-ups
20 May
We reported that Serge Lasvignes, the newly appointed president of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, is in talks with Chinese officials about launching temporary pop-up Pompidous at venues in their country. Lasvignes and Laurent Fabius, France’s minister of foreign affairs, travelled to China last month. The Centre Pompidou declined to comment.
Dissident Cuban artist stages new performance
20 May
In the run-up to the Havana Biennial, the artist Tania Bruguera staged a 100-hour-long reading from Hannah Arendt’s book The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). After the reading—the artist’s first performance since she was arrested five months earlier for trying to organise a free-speech performance in central Havana—Bruguera was again briefly detained by the Cuban authorities.
London’s cosmonaut show ready for lift-off
21 May
The Science Museum in London announced that its new exhibition, Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age, will open in September. The show was postponed last September due to tensions between Russia and the UK. The museum had trouble obtaining loans after the Russian government questioned the UK’s immunity-from-seizure policy.
First work from Gurlitt cache comes to auction
22 May
Sotheby’s announced that the first work to come to auction from Cornelius Gurlitt’s cache of art is due to be sold at the auction house on 24 June (est £350,000-£550,000). The 1901 painting by Max Liebermann was returned to the heirs of its original owner, David Friedmann, on 13 May. The German government restituted another work from the stash, a painting by Henri Matisse, to the heirs of the French art dealer Paul Rosenberg.