Kobel's
Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 19 2026

Berlin’s Gallery Weekend is a testament to the resilience of the local art scene, notes Niklaas Maak in the FAZ (paywall): “What has disappeared, if anything, are the affordable rents for flats and studios, and the Senate is still doing too little to keep the art world—which the capital’s image campaigns are keen to promote—in the city. The good news is: despite working and living conditions that are now just as miserable as in New York, Berlin still has an exciting new generation of artists, curators, gallery owners and collectors […] What is happening in Berlin’s art world can be seen at this year’s Gallery Weekend, which is taking place for the 23rd time despite the global art market crisis.” He does, however, also see the critical issues, such as the exhibition policy of the Neue Nationalgalerie: “Why is Beeple so annoying? Firstly, because robot dogs with surveillance cameras and disembodied heads are the most boring metaphor for the consequences of digitalisation (‘they turn us into robots that digest images’). Secondly, because every Hito Steyerl work finds smarter images to convey this, and one would much rather see them on a large scale in the Nationalgalerie than Beeple’s one-liners. And as I said: there is plenty of good new art in Berlin, which could be shown.” But they aren’t, see Maurizio Cattelan instead of the avant-garde. The institutions are simply adapting to the level of property prices and playing at being a bit like New York. Or Miami. Perhaps the outlook for the Berlin art scene isn’t quite so rosy after all. The only freely accessible article in the Berliner Zeitung on Gallery Weekend is a fashion spread by Isabell Gielisch and Maxima Tribull featuring Rolex and Dior handbags.

Sometimes a critical outside perspective helps, though it doesn’t always fall on receptive ears. Kabhir Jhala writes in the Art Newspaper: “The model is successful, having been copied dozens of times from London to Warsaw, but is not without fault. For those only consulting the GWB map, they might question whether Berlin’s commercial art scene stopped growing after 2015. Of the galleries regularly taking part, just four—Noah Klink, Sweetwater, Schiefe Zähne and Molitor—were founded in the past decade. Unlike an art fair, galleries do not apply. Rather, they are invited to join through a selection committee, and the list of exhibitors stays “more or less the same year after year”, says GWB’s director Antonia Ruder. Accusations of elitism and obfuscation have previously been levelled at the selection process, but “space is a key issue”, says Ruder. “We have to ensure that someone could feasibly visit all the galleries over a weekend, and ensure a certain quality of exhibition.”

Michaela Nolte takes up the cudgels for art on paper – a cause championed by the Paper Positions fair – in the Tagesspiegel (paywall; currently 5 months for a total of 5 euros): “Not least, the dedicated fair organisers also have future collectors in mind. A comparatively low price level at Paper Positions offers guidance to emerging artists in particular. For when a professional gallery represents young artists and believes in their market potential, that is a good first sign. Prints by renowned artists also make for affordable entry-level art.” Monopol is also impressed by the event: “This year’s edition of Paper Positions demonstrates once again that it is quite capable of contrasts. It is the material that holds it all together. And perhaps that is precisely what makes the fair so stable after ten years: that it focuses on a seemingly small format – and finds enough space within it for rather large images.”

Art Monte Carlo has changed hands. Georgina Adam explains the new owner’s plans in the Art Newspaper: “With just 26 exhibitors, this is a small fair but with big ambitions: it was bought last year from Palexpo, owner of Art Geneva, by Informa Prestige. This is a newly-formed luxury offshoot of Informa, which organises numerous trade fairs in such fields as yachting and supercars. John Paton, executive chair, explains that its strategy is to increase its presence in the market: the company already owns Miami’s Untitled fair. “There are complementary audiences in these fields, with a clientele of wealthy collectors,” he says.”

Art dealers Lévy Gorvy Dayan are now also entering the field of exclusive private auctions, reports Daniel Cassady in Artnews: “Auction houses have relied on lower estimates to get works moving, and the results have been solid. Strong sell-through rates and a run of successful sales have drawn sellers back towards the auction circuit. Now, LGD Hammer wants to bring that pressure into a gallery setting. Instead of sending a work into a packed evening sale, the gallery will offer one painting at a set time to a smaller group of buyers. Dominique Lévy, a co-founder of the New York-based gallery, will serve as auctioneer, drawing on her years at Christie’s to run the sale. The first work up for auction is Willem de Kooning’s Milkmaid (1984), with an estimate of $10 million to $15 million.” An art dealer from Switzerland, who was invited to the auction, considers the work overpriced, noting it is “priced 50–100% above the retail price.”

Daniel Cassady describes the new business model of former Sotheby’s employee Kimberly Pirtle in Artnews: “Gabriel Advisory Group is her attempt to formalise a different approach. The firm operates across both the primary and secondary markets, advising collectors on acquisitions whilst also guiding philanthropic strategy and institutional engagement. For some clients, that means navigating auctions and gallery relationships. For others, it means shaping charitable giving strategies or working more closely with museums and foundations.”

Thanks to a donation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art can now pay interns and will continue to do so in the future, according to a press release. Lee Anne Miller explains the details for Artnews: “Jennifer Rubio, along with her husband, Stewart Butterfield, have pledged $23 million to the New York museum. Rubio is an entrepreneur who founded the ubiquitous travel brand Away, and Butterfield, who sits on the boards of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Dia Art Foundation, is a software executive who co-founded Flickr and Slack. The gift is earmarked for the Met’s internship programme and will be used to ensure that all undergraduate and graduate internships are fully paid positions. The pledge, said Met director Max Hollein in a statement, will support “a continuous pipeline for new voices and innovative ideas to enter the field.”“

Tobias Timm, writing in ZEIT, considers the appointment of Finance Senator Stefan Evers as Culture Senator to be unfortunate: “It is more like a declaration of bankruptcy, but in the truest sense of the word. The cultural institutions, some of which are already underfunded, will now be placed under the direct authority of the chief austerity commissioner himself. Evers – who is said to be culturally minded, but whom at least the author of these lines has not yet seen at premieres or vernissages in the city – also immediately announced that he would “press ahead with the reforms already begun”. In Berlin in recent years, ‘reforms’ have meant above all: harsh budget cuts. But who is to defend the culture budget from the cuts by the Finance Senator in the coming months until the general election in September? [...] It will be the perfect dialogue that Stefan Evers, as a holder of two offices, will conduct in future on all critical issues. And that is with himself.”

A fraudster who sold a cryptocurrency allegedly backed by art and gold has been sentenced to 23 years in prison in the US, reports Brian Boucher in Artnews: “For five years, between 2018 and 2023, Dunlap claimed to be running a cryptocurrency business that peddled a digital asset, ‘Meta-1 Coin’.” He told potential investors that the asset was backed by up to $1 billion in art and $44 billion in gold”. Art worth a billion dollars underpinning a completely unknown cryptocurrency? It’s possible, given this crazy art market and all these billionaires and so on... But $44 billion in gold – who would believe such a thing?

The insolvent London-based Stephen Friedman leaves behind a mountain of debt amounting to £7.8 million, as Anny Shaw has researched for the Art Newspaper: “The filings reveal that a total of £7.8m is owed to creditors, with Coutts & Company bank £3.1m out of pocket. As a secured creditor, the bank is expected to be repaid 65% of its debt. [...] Stephen Friedman, who could not be reached for comment, is the sole director of the gallery, owning 100% of the total share capital. Prior to its administration, the gallery employed 27 members of staff in the UK and a further five people in the US.”