Art Industry News: The Smithsonian’s Lonnie Bunch Recalls an Awkward Visit by Donald Trump + Other Stories

by admin

Sep 2, 2019

artnet

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 Labor Day, September
2.

NEED-TO-READ

A Chinese Billionaire Museum Founder Is Arrested –
The billionaire founder of one of
Shanghai’s biggest private art museums has handed himself in to the
police. Dai Zhikang, who is the
chairman of Zendai Group, is under arrest following the
collapse of his money lending company. After its online platform
closed in June, representatives admitted to embezzling funds and
said the company has no means of repaying investors, according to a
police statement. Dai, who is also a property developer, opened the
spectacular Shanghai
Himalayas Museum designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki
in 2012. Several money
lending moguls have been arrested or fled China after a government
crackdown. (Financial
Times)

Nan Goldin Slams the Sacklers’ Settlement Proposal –
The activist-artist Nan
Goldin has called the Sacklers’ proposal to surrender control
of Purdue Pharma and contribute towards a possible $12 million
settlement deal a “deeply cynical” move. She says that the sum
mentioned “does not begin to pay back the damage,” referring to
victims of the opioid crisis. The move comes as members of the
family linked to the pharmaceutical giant attempt to head off
multiple lawsuits in the US. Goldin says that she wants the
Sacklers held responsible in the law courts, saying:
“I’d rather [they] faced trial, and
that their personal wealth was clawed back.” (The Art
Newspaper)

Smithsonian Chief Recalls Trump’s Awkward Visit –
Lonnie Bunch, the founding
director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American
History, reveals in his forthcoming memoirs a fraught visit by
Donald Trump. The then US President-elect was in a “foul mood,”
Bunch was warned, and he did not want to see “anything difficult.”
Bunch recalls how Trump seemed engaged, spending time studying a
display about the Dutch role in the slave trade in particular. But
the ex-museum director, who is now the Smithsonian’s secretary, was
disappointed with the president’s response. Trump told Bunch:
“You know, they love me in
the Netherlands.” Trump’s team also wanted the museum to close
to the public on Martin Luther King day, but he came on another day
when that request was politely declined. (Washington
Post)

German Art Activists Defy an Official Ban – The art collective Zentrum für politische
Schönheit (Center for Political Beauty) vowed to place a tank
in the center of the German city of Dresden as a protest against
the far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). The authorities
have refused to give the art activists permission to place the
decommissioned tank in front of Saxony’s state parliament but the
Center for Political Beauty said it would defy the ban. Group
member Philipp Ruch said the tank represented a “symbol of the
defense of democracy and civil society.” It has previously placed
a replica of Berlin’s
Holocaust memorial outside the home of an AfD politician. The
anti-immigration AfD made strong gains in Saxony, coming second
according to exit polls.(DW)

ART MARKET

Brothers Locked in Lawsuit Over
Warhol Print – Two
brothers in Minnesota have fallen out over the sale of two
Warhol Moonwalk screenprints. Keith Donaldson is suing his brother Robert,
claiming the sale was “unauthorized.” He now wants compensation for
the $180,000 proceeds Robert Donaldson netted. (ARTnews)

Positions Fair Expands in Munich
– The Munich art fair Paper
Positions is expanding to include works in various media, and
renaming itself Positions Munich Art Fair. The inaugural edition of
the new fair will feature 37 international galleries, taking place
from October 17 through October 21. (Art
Daily)

Gallerist Joseph Nahmad Avoids Jail
– Convicted after a drunken attack on his partner, art dealing
scion Joseph Nahmad received a
suspended prison sentence of 14 weeks and must attend 20 days
of rehab. The 31-year-old member of the Nahmad dynasty, who runs
Nahmad Projects in London, was sentenced after previously pleading
guilty to causing actual bodily harm to 20-year-old Georgia Barry. (Daily
Mail)

COMINGS & GOINGS

A Controversial French
Auctioneer Has Died – The French auctioneer Guy Loudmer
has died, aged 86. Loudmer led the “sale of the
century” in 1990, which totaled 509 million francs (€77 million or
$84 million)—a record at the time. However, he was convicted
of aggravated breach of trust after the major modern art auction.
According to French media, he had an “Anglo-Saxon vision of the
profession.” (Les Journals des
Arts)

UK Museum Workers Strike
Over Low Pay – Staff at the Science Museum in
London, as well as the group’s sites across England, went on a
24-hour strike to protest low pay. Prospect, the union
representing the striking Science Museum Group’s staff, says that
because of inflation, workers have suffered a 13 percent pay cut
since 2010. (Guardian)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Harvard Art Museums
Reveals Paintings’ Dark Histories – Harvard is seeking to
reveal dark histories long missing in its wall labels. Since
February, the university’s art museums have enlisted graduate
fellows and PhD candidates to update labels of famous works in the
collection, including contextual information about problematic
histories. For example, an 18th-century portrait of the Boylston
family by John Singleton Copley now mentions how the Boston
dynasty’s wealth was acquired through the slave trade.
(Boston
Globe)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Commissions Green New Deal Posters –Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the 14th district of New
York in the Bronx and Queens, has unveiled a series of art posters
to promote her Green New Deal plan. The posters, which reference
1930s New Deal-era graphics, highlight historic monuments, such as
the Victory Memorial in Pelham Bay Park in the
Bronx. (Hyperallergic)

Jeff Koons’s Tulips Arrive in Paris – The controversial
sculpture by the American artist is being installed behind
the Petit Palais in Paris. The idea for the work, called
Bouquet of Tulips, was offered to France by Jeff
Koons in 2016 as a gift. Meant to be a symbol of friendship, and to
pay respect to the victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris,
the sculpture was met with its fair share of
controversy before a final deal to install it outside the
city’s Museum of Fine Arts was settled. (Getty)