Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 10 2024

Maximilíano Durón selects the ten best stands at Frieze LA for Artnews, while Francesca Aton looks at the most prominent celebrities and Karen K. Ho summarises the sales reports from the exhibiting galleries. It is to be hoped that the fair is not as superficial as this coverage of it. The Art Newspaper is a media partner of the fair and offers an entire dossier. Tim Schneider analyses the development of the fair: "Now in its fifth edition, Frieze Los Angeles is no longer the hot, fresh newcomer to the art fair scene that it was in the immediate pre-pandemic era. It is no longer even the youngest Frieze fair; the brand's event in Seoul currently owns that honour by virtue of its launch in 2022. This is, to be sure, a situation that both Frieze and Endeavor, its entertainment-conglomerate parent company, are happy to think through. It did not take much effort to find doomsayers when the companies announced in early 2018 that they would stage a major international fair in Los Angeles the following February. That the event has not only survived but become essential to homegrown and international dealers alike a half-decade later means that, on one level, the gamble has already paid off." Eileen Kinsella, on the other hand, describes the sellers for Artnet as "fast and furious".

Palestine is the central theme of Art Dubai, reports Kabir Jhala in The Art Newspaper: "Such buzz has not necessarily translated into rapid sales at the fair, however, with many gallerists remarking that business so far has been slow, although not without promise. [...] Most dealers approached by The Art Newspaper whose programmes focus heavily on Palestine said that sales have increased in the past few months as collectors look for ways to support artists most affected by the crisis." Rebecca Anne Proctor at Artnet gives a slightly different impression: "Long considered something of a regional fair, heavy on art from the Middle East and North Africa, Art Dubai wiped away such stereotypes at this year's edition, with a diverse array of 120 exhibitors in its modern, contemporary and digital art sections; 65 percent of them come from the Global South. 'We've been trying to build our own identity and tried not to be a copy of what already exists,' Pablo del Val, the fair's artistic director, said. 'Dubai is a multinational community filled with micro societies. That is what we aim to reflect."

I spoke to Arcomadrid's director Maribel Lopez for the Handelsblatt about the strategic positioning of Arco Madrid in the trade fair calendar.

The old boss is the new boss, but only temporarily. The list in Basel is looking for new management, according to a press release: "The management of the trade fair is currently being reorganised and a co-direction is being implemented. In October 2023, Reto Nussbaum took over the commercial management (exhibition management). Peter Bläuer, the co-founder and long-standing director of the trade fair, will take over as artistic director for Messe 2024 on an interim basis. Joanna Kamm is leaving the list after a long illness and will be taking a new direction. We would like to thank her warmly for her valued commitment and work for Liste and wish her all the best. The Artistic Director position for Liste Art Fair Basel will be advertised shortly." Daniel Cassady has written a news on this for Artnews.

The Artsy Art Fair Report 2024 is available for download (PDF). The Artnet Intelligence Report (PDF), which can also be downloaded free of charge, attempts to make predictions for the current year.

Three galleries from Berlin, New York and Pristina will initially be exhibiting together in Räum ein Wien for six months. Maximilian Lehner visited the first exhibition for Parnass, Werner Remm was there for Artmagazine.

Galerie Perrotin (Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai) has joined the ranks of ebay dealers. The Perrotin Store currently has almost 100 items for sale at prices ranging from just under 20 to 6000 euros.

The FAZ of 2 March is devoted entirely to auction reports; freely available online are the presentation of a rediscovered painting by Carl Gustav Carus at the Schmidt auction house in Dresden and a preview of a charity costume auction in London by Ursula Scheer and an outlook on the offer in London by Anne Reimers.

The heirs of Monique and Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller have consigned part of their collection of non-European art to Christies. Susanne Schreiber characterises the collection and the offer in the Handelsblatt: "The passionate Swiss collector couple not only bought art from Africa and Oceania themselves. They were also able to draw on exquisite works from these regions, which Monique's father Josef Müller had acquired from the best dealers from the 1930s onwards. Today, the private museum at 10 Rue Jean-Calvin in Geneva has over 7,000 artefacts from numerous parts of the world. And continues to be a sought-after lender, as the website shows. The museum's founders both passed away several years ago, the museum director has since retired, and the third generation is collecting itself - but in other areas. She knows that a museum can only enjoy the favour of numerous visitors if it continues to develop."

Following the seizure of artworks belonging to a Hezbollah financier, the British National Crime Agency has issued an Amber Alert, a 15-page paper (PDF), which aims to sensitise and educate other authorities, companies and art market players on how to deal with money laundering issues. Tariq Tahir reports in detail for The National and Karen K. Ho for Artnews.

In the battle between Essen and Düsseldorf to be the most important centre for photography, Essen has now made its move by founding a "Centre for Photography". Damian Zimmermann analyses the coup for Monopol: "The competition (some also saw it as an open declaration of war) between the cities of Essen and Düsseldorf for the seat of the new Federal Institute of Photography is still in the bones not only of all those involved, but also of many observers. To cut a long story short: First, the Bundestag's budget committee allocated 41.5 million euros for a photography institute in Düsseldorf, then an expert opinion and a feasibility study recommended Essen as the location for a federal institute with a different concept and in autumn 2022, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth awarded the contract to Düsseldorf again after all. Now, one and a half years later, the project is still not a visible step further because the site originally planned for the planned institution is unsuitable and the state capital has not yet presented a new one." Christiane Fricke explains in the Handelsblatt: "What the Ruhr metropolis is planning is far from a challenge to the Düsseldorf Federal Institute. Essen is merely building on an old idea and creating facts."

The exhibition "Art and Forgery" at the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg provides a visual lesson on the subject of art forgery. Marie-Dominique Wetzel reports for SWR in a radio programme and Philipp Behrens on television.

In France, two other figures from the art market twilight are battling it out in court, an auction house boss and a former ambassador, according to a report by Daniel Cassady for Artnews: "The lawsuit was initially filed in France by the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, against Seward in the Judicial Court of Paris, alleges Rodica Seward, president and chief executive of Tajan and an art collector. The suit claims that Rodica failed to fulfil her obligations under a handshake agreement to select and sell artworks on his behalf, with the two sharing the profits of the sales. According to legal documents filed in 2022, Seward was entrusted in 2010 with procuring artworks for resale, all of which Stapleton paid for. She never sold the works, the suit claims, and subsequently refused to return them or disclose their location." Why is it so difficult to find even a shred of sympathy for any of the parties involved in such stories?

The mills of German justice grind slowly. After ten years, a not-so-skilful gang of fences is on trial, reports dpa: "In June 2014, one of the defendants allegedly contacted the then curator of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (MK&G) and offered to buy the golden drinking horn, the golden cup and the golden belt parts. The defendants allegedly claimed that the supposedly Scythian artefacts had only been found in a Black Sea state in 2014. The defendants allegedly demanded one million euros in cash for the golden drinking cup and as much as 1.5 million euros for the drinking horn. [...] Finally, the two main defendants are also said to have offered the curator an ancient bronze torso from Roman times for sale by email - for a comparatively modest 75,000 euros. They claimed that it came from excavations near Xanten, although it most likely came from looted excavations in Burdur (Turkey). The curator accepted the bogus offers and informed the police. The drinking horn, the drinking cup and the belt parts were later seized during house searches.”