The Headlines
BIG DIGS. On November 30, Christie’s will bring a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil to auction in Hong Kong with a top estimate of $25 million, Bloomberg reports. The house said that it is the first time that a T. rex has hit the block in Asia. In a statement for the ages, James Hyslop of Christie’s said, per Newsweek , “From its surging, bloodthirsty stance, to its remarkable preservation, this is one of the most scientifically studied T. rex skeletons to come to auction.” The fossil is believed to be as much as 68 million years old; it was found beneath the earth in Montana. Meanwhile, workers digging a gas pipeline 50 miles north of Lima, Peru, have uncovered tombs that archaeologists believe are from pre-Inca cultures, dating back 600 to 800 years, Reuters reports. Along with human remains, the site features pottery that was buried with the people.
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FOREIGN RELATIONS. With Russia formally annexing four disputed regions of Ukraine—Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia—today, after referenda that have been widely derided as shams, the country will also be taking control of the museums in those areas, the Art Newspaper reports in a story with an overview of those institutions. In Greece, meanwhile, the United States officially returned a millennium-old Christian manuscript to the Eikosiphoinissa Monastery that was looted by Bulgarian forces in 1917 and that found its way to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., the Associated Press reports. A private ceremony was also held last month in New York to mark the transfer. Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America said that “a historical injustice has been redressed.”
The Digest
The Canadian photo-based conceptualist Ian Wallace, who is 80 next year, won the Audain Prize for the Visual Arts, which gives CA$100,000 (about US$72,900) annually to an artist in British Columbia. The honor was created by collector Michael Audain and his wife, Yoshiko Karasawa. [The Art Newspaper]
As economic turmoil continues, is the art industry heading toward a correction? Journalist Jane Morris asked asked a variety of art types to sound off. Marc Glimcher, the CEO of Pace Gallery, sounded an optimistic note. “What people have to realize is we are the tiniest branch of the arts economy: music, film and dance are huge, mature industries,” he said. “We have nothing but blue sky ahead of us in terms of our ability to impact millions of people.” [Apollo]
The Glasgow City Council in Scotland plans to sell the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and other municipal-owned buildings to an “arm’s length company” and then lease them back in an effort to raise more than £200 million ($222 million) to help cover a £500 million ($555 million) settlement over gender-discrimination pay claims. [The National and Insider.co.uk]
Journalist Jon Hurdle reported from the worker strike at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is remaining open. Around a dozen contractors and delivery people—including some who are unionized—had crossed the picket line, according to one striker. [The New York Times]
Artist-made jewelry is hot, Ruth La Ferla reports, with museums snapping up the work and auction houses putting it on the block. The record for a piece of jewelry at auction? That would be $2 million, for a silver necklace by Alexander Calder in 2013. [The New York Times]
The Detroit Institute of Arts is about to open a blowout Vincent van Gogh exhibition with 74 works, five of which are from the museum’s collection. Exactly 100 years ago, it paid a cool $4,200 for a self-portrait by the artist (the equivalent of about $75,000), becoming the first American institution to acquire his art. [Bloomberg]
The Kicker
ANDY IN THE OUTBACK. In March, the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide will open a major show on Andy Warhol and photography, and the Guardian has a story about the Pop artist’s intriguing (albeit limited) engagement with the country. He apparently painted a total of two Australians, and once asked Henry Gillespie, an Australian who was an editor for Interview , to procure “mugshots of criminals down under,” per the paper. When Warhol died in 1987, Gillespie was helping to plan a trip for him. “Australia held a fascination for him,” Gillespie said. “He liked the concept, which he couldn’t quite comprehend, of the great distances and the flatness, all the beautiful beaches and the beautiful people.” [The Guardian]
Source: artnews.com