Kobel's
Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 32 2026

The exemption for art under US customs regulations comes too late for some, writes Daniel Grant in the Art Newspaper (may be behind a paywall): “The confusion over whether art, antiques and other collectables would be subject to the US President’s various import tariffs – based on emergency laws that Trump used as the basis for his tariff regime from early 2025 onwards – has thrown the trade in these items into disarray. “The previous tariffs made life difficult for importers and the shipping industry, which is essential to our business,” says Clinton Howell, an English antiques dealer in San Francisco. “I don’t source from Europe. I buy all my English antique furniture within the US, as there is plenty of it there.”

After a year’s hiatus, the ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America) Art Fair (formerly the Art Show) is returning to the Armory, reports Artforum. Artforum and Artenws, both part of the Penske Media Group, are jointly organising the first Art Week NYC in November, which will be followed by the fair’s relaunch.

Naima Morelli’s latest article on the Destination Art Fair, published in the Observer, is not the first to focus on the Can Art Fair in Ibiza. To bear witness to the magnificence of this fair, she features Nazy Nazhand, whom she introduces as a collector. However, according to her own statement, Nazhand works full-time as an art adviser, as does Morelli’s “Observer” colleague Elisa Carollo (PDF) herself. It is also confusing, though, with the many hats that some people in the art scene wear.

In The Art-Journal, Harriet Lloyd-Smith describes chronic overwork, a lack of recognition and poor pay as fundamental constants of the cultural sector: “Many times in my career, I’ve been told not to take things so personally. Apart from the fact that this comment is irritating and gendered, it fails to recognise the nature of the job. My work, like that of many people in the art world, is based on who I am – my imagination, my opinions, my relationships, my courage, my taste. These aren’t extras we bring to the table just for fun or to take a bit of a risk. They are prerequisites for the role – the raw materials that make us good at our job. The greatest professional risk is becoming the job itself. Work spills over into social life, social life into friendships, and people who look like friends turn out to be colleagues. If you’re never really off duty, you don’t have time to recover – or to notice the damage until it’s already been done.”

Basically, it’s hardly surprising that the art world is full of toxic people. Nevertheless, Paddy Johnson asks the question in Hyperallergic (free registration): “Caution is what matters most when it comes to professional protection. Vetting your collaborators, putting agreements in writing and accepting that no one can keep track of everything. By definition, toxic behaviour comes as a surprise. After all, if you’d expected it, you wouldn’t have got involved with that person in the first place. You need trust to function in the art world. At the same time, it’s sometimes hard to tell who your real friends are, because almost every relationship is based on a certain exchange. Most of my friendships would disappear without art.”

Felicitas Rhan reports in the FAZ (paywall) from Switzerland on a successful auction season: “The past first half of the year was in fact one of the best in the company’s history, according to the long-established auction house Koller in Zurich. It recorded nine lots sold for over one million Swiss francs and a sell-through rate of 90 per cent.

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer in Basel can also look back on a successful half-year. At the spring auction of Swiss art, two of the top lots – winter landscapes by Cuno Amiet – remained unsold. However, the third top lot, a portrait of a girl by Albert Anker, reached the lower estimate of 500,000 Swiss francs. Félix Vallotton’s “View of the Alyscamps in the Morning Sun” also met its lower estimate, selling for 250,000 Swiss francs.”

Ursula Scheer introduces the 24hdrop model in an interview with its operator, Christoph Oberlechner, in the FAZ (paywall). One work of art is offered on the platform each week. Following a 10 per cent deposit, the right to purchase the work at the “gallery price” is raffled off. However, Lechner works directly with the artists: “I’m more of an additional offering on the art market and, at best, bring new collectors into the mix, who then also buy from other galleries. From the very beginning, my main priority has been to make the art-buying process more enjoyable again and to collaborate with fantastic artists.” The author explains the model purely on the basis of the app, though it also works via the website. In fact, the selection of just under 100 works to date is very contemporary and, thanks to the element of chance combined with the creator’s undoubted knowledge of the art scene, could encourage people to buy art and, later, to start collecting. However, the groundwork is done by the galleries, which come away empty-handed here.

The theft of the Celtic Torques de Vix from the museum in Châtillon-sur-Seine – reported, amongst others, by Maximilíano Durón in Artnews – has led to questionable knee-jerk reactions in France, laments Stefan Trinks in the FAZ (paywall): “In response to the spate of thefts, the French government has announced that it will provide better protection for ‘at-risk’ – that is, valuable – art treasures in future. Accordingly, ‘particularly sensitive exhibits’ are to be temporarily removed from exhibitions and stored in secure locations – until they are better ‘protected against possible attacks’, according to one of the many points now announced in the action plan. […] Just imagine if the Bodemuseum in Berlin had simply been cleared out following the theft of its 100-kilo gold coin, or the Green Vault in Dresden after the diamond heist there. Stripping the exhibition rooms of their exhibits cannot be the vision of the Louvre as a universal museum – that’s what Versailles is for.”

Devorah Lauter reports in Artnews on Bernard Arnault’s displeasure at a six-part series about his family clan in Le Monde (paywall): “Broadly speaking, this fifth of six articles, dedicated to art, describes how the 77-year-old Arnault and the luxury conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), which he heads, have benefited from substantial tax breaks over the years thanks to large, high-profile expenditure on art and culture. As ARTnews has previously reported, these include, amongst other things, the establishment of the influential Fondation Louis Vuitton (FLV), his private museum in Paris, as well as the funding of art acquisitions on behalf of French public museums, to name but a few examples. According to Le Monde, these initiatives were driven by a calculated desire to demonstrate his power, capitalise on marketing opportunities and claim tax deductions.”

Athena Art Finance is one of the best-known brands in the art lending sector. Its former managing director, Rebecca Fine, has now founded a new company, Metis, which aims to make the business more efficient using data from the Winston Art Group and Artory, reports Elisa Carollo in the Observer: “During Athena Art Finance’s time under Yieldstreet, Fine’s team launched eleven of these art lending funds as well as an art equity fund. Whilst the art equity fund and the works it contains remain with a sub-advisor at Yieldstreet, the art lending investment vehicles are managed by Athena, as the company will no longer be issuing new loans. Fine is firmly convinced that her priority at Metis will remain the same as it was at Athena: to offer a uniquely personalised, concierge-style lending service that respects both the value of a collection and the owner’s passion for it, with a focus on preserving the collection and the collector’s long-term goals […] Collectors may use the loan proceeds for many different purposes, but Metis will not comment on how they are used. This is another difference from Fine’s work at Yieldstreet. Nevertheless, many collectors wish to use this liquidity to buy more art, particularly in the current market, where they see genuine opportunities. “They believe there was a pricing discrepancy and that the market was weak until recently, so many see this as a buying opportunity.” You can recognise the PR in the art market by the fact that the financial interests are sprinkled over with a layer of ‘passion’ glitter.

The new second-home tax in New York is likely to affect some art collectors and dealers, writes Katya Kazakina at Artnet: “Some, such as mega-dealer David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher of Pace Gallery, artist Julian Schnabel, art adviser Allan Schwartzman and collector Mitchell Rales, are named specifically. Others, including billionaires Steve Cohen, Leon Black and Len Blavatnik, are linked to limited liability companies. The villa belonging to mega-dealer Larry Gagosian on East 75th Street is owned by Sugar Shack LLC and, according to the DOF, has a city-assessed value of 63.3 million dollars.”

APA reports on the inglorious end of Silvio Berlusconi’s rather embarrassing art collection: “The collection comprises around 25,000 paintings and sculptures and is currently housed in a 4,500-square-metre warehouse not far from Berlusconi’s residence in Arcore, near Milan. The warehouse is now due to be demolished to make way for a supermarket.”

Christiane Fricke discusses the still astonishingly low prices for works by the artist Rune Mields, who died in June, in the Handelsblatt of 31 July: “Time and again, however, her early tube paintings were offered for sale, particularly at Lempertz, where they fetched prices between 1,700 and 5,200 euros. At Van Ham a year ago, an early tube painting from 1971/72, measuring 1.80 metres in height, fetched 13,200 euros including the buyer’s premium. Prices on the primary market are higher, but remain at a comparatively moderate level. Here, at Mields’ own request, the ‘factor 60’ has been used to date: the height and width are added together and multiplied by 60, plus VAT. For a painting in her typical dimensions of 2 by 1.45 metres, this would amount to 20,700 euros net. According to [her gallerist Judith] Andreae, there would be a further surcharge for special works. It is to be hoped that enough works will come onto the market to allow for an appropriate revaluation of this significant position”.

Editor-in-chief ‘at large’ Julia Michalska has announced her departure from The Art Newspaper on her private Instagram account. Her colleague Anna Brady, who has been working as a freelancer for two years, will join the London Art Fair’s Advisory Group as ‘Art Market Editor-at-Large – The Art Newspaper’, as can be seen on her own Instagram account and the fair’s website.