Kobel's
Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 20 2026

“The Venice Biennale, the prestigious international art fair, opens this week”. Such a matter-of-fact, nonchalant tone as that used by Amy Kazmin in the Financial Times has probably never been seen in the press before. Behind the scenes, the Biennale has long been regarded as the world’s largest art fair. Yet gallery owners and dealers have never really been keen to acknowledge the event’s commercial nature. That has changed, believe Gareth Harris and Anny Shaw in the Art Newspaper (possibly behind a paywall): “Not so this year, with an unprecedented number of dealers, auction houses and private foundations openly pricing and selling works to the crowds of collectors descending on the city this week, some perhaps spurred on by Italy’s year-old 5% VAT rate on art imports—now Europe’s lowest. [...] Indeed, the biennale’s standing as a powerful, unofficial marketplace that drives the global contemporary art market dates back decades—but, just ten years ago, dealers were reluctant to go on record about the backing they provide for shows and new commissions in Venice, let alone the sales they make. That has patently changed this year. Forget the adage “see it in Venice, buy it at Art Basel”; it’s now a matter of “see it in Venice, buy it in Venice”. Art Basel won’t be pleased about that.

Furthermore, for the first time, more artists in the main exhibition hail from the US than from Europe, as Jo Lawson-Tancred has researched for Artnet (possibly paywall). Africa’s increased share comes exclusively at Europe’s expense. Moreover, living artists account for 90 per cent of the line-up, the majority of whom are female.

Harrison Jacobs attempts to identify Venice’s billionaire visitors for Artnews based on the superyachts moored there. He compares the (presumed) purchase prices with the estimates of works set to be auctioned at the upcoming New York auctions.

Meanwhile, Meta, with its platforms Facebook and Instagram, is once again proving itself to be a bastion of freedom of expression and artistic freedom, as well as nipple control, by deleting posts relating to Florentina Holzinger’s Biennale contribution. Her own accounts have been blocked on both platforms and are inaccessible. A post on the Austrian online magazine Artmagazine has also been blocked. On the accounts of German, British or US publications, the images and videos (as of Sunday afternoon) remain online. Meta has not responded promptly to enquiries via various channels.

The auction of publisher S.I. Newhouse’s collection in New York promises to be a blockbuster, writes Brian Boucher in Artnews: “Christie’s New York is offering 16 top-notch works by titans of the 20th and 21st centuries next month, all from the holdings of the late publishing magnate S. I. (aka Si) Newhouse, head of Condé Nast, who died in 2017. At a packed Rockefeller Center salesroom on 18 May, masterpieces by artists including Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol will come under the hammer. The lot is expected to fetch a collective total of around $450 million, an enormous sum in any market, but a truly titanic one at a precarious moment in the art market and the global economy.” In the FAZ of 9 May, Anne Reimers writes enthusiastically: “One hundred million dollars is still a fetishistic sum in the auction room. The fact that no fewer than three works of art with estimates in this price range are set to feature at the major modern and contemporary art auctions in New York this May marks a turning point at the top end of the market. This was already heralded last November at the New York autumn auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips, following two preceding years of declining sales. The successful sale of the top lots now up for sale is already assured, no matter what happens in the world, as they are backed by guarantees.”

Joe Lewis’s consignment, estimated at a minimum of £150 million, is set to become the most expensive collection ever auctioned in London, according to Anna Brady in the Art Newspaper (possibly behind a paywall): “The decision to sell the collection in London is no accident. For the past decade since Brexit, the London auction market has been perceived—sometimes justifiably, sometimes not—to be in decline, lagging behind New York and the rising stars of Paris and Hong Kong. The end-of-season summer auctions in London have had a particularly tough time: in 2024 Christie’s chose to eschew June Modern and contemporary auctions in the city altogether. But, as [Oliver] Barker points out, it is still the second-largest art market globally, behind New York, and Lewis’s decision to sell in London is a calculated vote of confidence.”

The Met Gala, originally (and incidentally still) intended as a charity event for the museum, has developed into a costume circus for oligarchs, according to Leonie Wessel at Monopol: “The omnipresence of Bezos and his ilk is a demonstration of power. Even Anna Wintour, whose ‘gatekeeping’ has been the subject of two entire films with ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, is playing along with the tech billionaires and bestowing upon them supposed cultural legitimacy. How long do you think this concept will last? The Met Gala was once intended to draw attention to talented designers and creative geniuses. If they no longer (want to) make it onto the guest list, how long will the event still be considered relevant, and a seat at the table desirable?”

In a celebratory article, Min Chen at Artnet promotes the auction of a very expensive painting by the company of former Christie’s employee Loïc Gouzer: “A landmark Banksy is hitting the auction block via Fair Warning, carrying one of the artist’s loftiest estimates yet. On 20 May, Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape (2012) will be sold in a rare live auction by the members-only online sales platform at Tiffany & Co.’s flagship store in New York. Consigned by a private collector, the work has never been seen in public before and is tagged with an ambitious $13 million–$18 million estimate. [...] Selling a work of such significance calls for the perfect setting—hence Fair Warning’s staging of a live auction. It’s a format that the app-based platform has only used twice before”. The article is not marked as advertising.

Christiane Fricke reports on the introduction of artists’ fees in North Rhine-Westphalia in WELTKUNST Insider (60 days free): “North Rhine-Westphalia is the first major federal state to take concrete steps to ensure artists are paid fairly. Since January, binding minimum fee thresholds have been in force across all disciplines in North Rhine-Westphalia. This regulation naturally also applies to museums and exhibition venues – as soon as the state contributes even a single cent towards funding an event. To ensure that institutions do not have to scale back their programmes due to the additional costs, the state’s Ministry of Culture and Science allocated an extra 3 million euros at the end of March for both the current and the coming year.”

A study has found that admission to German museums is relatively cheap by European standards: “A recent analysis by the University of Europe for Applied Sciences (UE), which compared admission prices at art museums in 16 German cities with those in 26 European capitals and major cities, shows that a visit to a museum is cheaper in German state capitals than in other European countries. Adults pay an average of 8.26 euros in admission here, whilst the average in European cities is 11.97 euros. [...] The highest average admission prices for adults at art museums are charged in Dresden (15.20 euros), Berlin (11.20 euros) and Düsseldorf (9.75 euros). These are followed by cities such as Hamburg and Hanover, with average admission prices of €9 and €8.80 respectively. Visiting museums is cheaper, however, in smaller towns: in Saarbrücken, adults pay an average of just €4.25, and in Erfurt €5.20. Admission to museums in Kiel is free.”

Benjamin Ansari profiles the museum director as a manager in the Handelsblatt (possibly behind a paywall): ““As director, I am also an entrepreneur,” says Felix Krämer, 55. “My job is that of a manager who has studied art history. I am responsible for developing the Kunstpalast brand.” Unusual words for a museum director – but for Krämer, they sum up his approach. “We think from the customer’s perspective,” he says. The Kunstpalast should be inviting, surprising and accessible to all age groups.”

The restitution law that France has just passed is a game-changer, according to Catherine Porter in the New York Times (possibly behind a paywall): “the new law offers a streamlined procedure with clear rules underpinned by scientific rigour. Only a government can make an official request for cultural objects that it can prove were taken from its territory illicitly. The objects cannot already be subject to an international agreement, nor can they be objects of war seized during hostilities by armed forces. Under the law, if more than one state requests an object, those states must resolve the issue before any further action is taken. And if the object was a gift to a public museum, the government must obtain the donor’s consent.”

The Frankfurt-based Galerie Bärbel Grässlin is currently warning of fraudulent offers made in its name.

His gallery has announced the death of Bruno Bischofberger at the age of 86 on Instagram. Alex Greenberger pays tribute to the gallery owner in Artnews: “Beyond the Artforum ads, Bischofberger also made a significant contribution to the trajectory of contemporary art, personally befriending artists such as Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel, and Andy Warhol and even transforming their practices along the way.”