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The Headlines
AUCTION ACTION, PART 1.Big news out of New York: 29 of the 81 pieces that have been on loan to theMuseum of Modern Artfrom theWilliam S. Paley Foundationfor more than three decadeswill be auctioned this fallatSotheby’s, with the proceeds going to the museum,Kelly Crowreports in theWall Street Journal. All told, the lots are expected to total between $70 million and $100 million. A 1963Francis Bacontriptych may cover half that low estimate; it is pegged to go for more than $35 million. MoMA said that it will use the funds to expand its digital offerings, and possibly buy digital art. It is also considering a plan to offer degrees in partnership with a university, theJournalreports. In an interview with the paper, MoMA’s director,Glenn Lowry, said, “We’re just beginning to dream.” Paley, theCBSfounder and MoMA chairman who died in 1990, amassed a formidable collection that also includedPablo Picasso’sBoy Leading a Horse(1905–06). That one,now on view on MoMA’s fifth floor, is among those not being sold.
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AUCTION ACTION, PART 2.A folio from the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh, an illuminated manuscript commissioned byShah Tahmasp of Persiain the 1500s,will be offeredatSotheby’snext month with a top estimate of £6 million (about $6.91 million), theGuardianreports. And a collector who paid $2,000 for a faded print of an 1894Alfred Stieglitzphotograph at a Connecticut auction house hasdiscovered another copy,perfectly preserved,hiding behind it,Artnet Newsreports. Love it when that happens!
The Digest
JEAN-LUC GODARD, 1930–2022.The legendary French filmmaker died yesterday at 91, by assisted suicide, and tributes and appraisals have come fromRichard Brodyin theNew Yorker(“No one did more to make movies the art of youth”),Owen GleibermaninVariety(“the filmmaker who changed everything”),Stephanie ZacharekinTime(“one of the greatest of all time”), and many others.
Workers at theDia Art Foundationvoted to form a union by a vote of 101 to six. The employees will be joiningLocal 2110of theUnited Auto Workers, which also represents staffers at theWhitney Museum, MoMA, and others cultural institutions.[The Art Newspaper]
In an effort to safe energy, Paris will now turn off the lights of theEiffel Towerat 11:45 p.m. instead of 1 a.m., reducing its power consumption by an estimated four percent.[Reuters]
Archaeologists working on a cattle ranch in the Valle de Santo Domingo in Mexico this summer have been unearthing remnants what is believed to have been an important center—and perhaps the capital—of theSak Tz’idynasty, a Maya civilization that was active between the years 250 and 900.[The New York Times]
NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER.The forthcomingNational Aboriginal Art Galleryin Alice Springs maychange its nameto something more “appropriate and inclusive,” according to a government official,ABC News(the Australian one) reports. Names are currently being workshopped. And theAdelaide Symphony Orchestra’s managing director,Vincent Ciccarello, is headed to theArt Gallery of South Australia, where he will take upa newly created positionfocused on philanthropy,InDailyreports.
DesignerKate Driver’s home in the Venice section of Los Angeles sports art byDenise Kuoferschmidt,Stephen D’Onofrio,Deb Lawrence,and many more. And the “house drink,” you are wondering? Grapefruit margaritas.[Architectural Digest]
The Kicker
SEED MONEY.Next month, MoMA will open a show aboutJust Above Midtown, the storied New York gallery that was a hothouse for vanguard Black artists during its run from 1974 to 1986. TheNew York Times looked at its legacy, and its founder,Linda Goode Bryant, recalled that artistRomare Beardenadvised her that she would need $50,000 to get started. “I said, ‘I don’t have $50,000, I don’t know anyone who could give me $50,000,” Goode Bryant told the paper. “So no, we’re going to do this with the resources we have.’ And those resources were basically my credit cards.”[NYT]
