Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 13 2025

Christiane Meixner from the Tagesspiegel newspaper sees room for improvement at the Spark Art Fair in Vienna: ‘Not everything is consistently at this level and some absences of important galleries from Austria are due to the parallel event Stage in Bregenz. [...] The new team at Spark since last year, Walter Seidl and Jan Gustav Fiedler, have made the cut, but can still sharpen the programme in a few corners. In the Vienna-Bregenz remote duel, Patricia Grzonka at Monopol sees the Spark in the lead: ‘Many of the major Viennese galleries are taking part again this year – including Lombardi-Kargl, Hilger, Krobath and the Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder. Some of the mid-range galleries are missing, however, not least because they are represented at the concurrent Stage Bregenz. Ultimately, the competition speaks for Vienna as a centre for art – a city where the range of high-profile institutional exhibitions is already of above-average density.’ Nicole Scheyerer reports for the FAZ. I was in Vienna for the Handelsblatt and Artmagazine.

At the same time, Stage Bregenz is trying a different approach at the Festspielhaus there, as Justine Konradt observes for Monopol: ‘The white bunk of Galerie [Crone] is located, like most here, on the large workshop stage, which then has a more classical trade fair character after all. It is important to also show local positions at an Austrian trade fair, says the gallery. This conviction seems to be shared by some here, and so Austrian artists in particular catch the eye.’ Edith Schlocker finds the concept and range on offer at Artmagazine convincing: ‘Most of the gallery owners try to tempt the audience to buy art by showing young, still affordable positions. Knowing how difficult even that is in times like these. For those who have well-filled wallets and are expected at the STAGE, however, there are also established positions at some of the fair stands [...] But the ‘heart’ of the fair is the show staged by Slovenian curator Hana Ostan-Ozbolt-Haas on the main stage of the Festspielhaus. The works of seven female artists – mainly from Eastern Europe – play grand opera there.’

The new Artnet Intelligence Report is available to download (PDF): ‘In her cover story, Artnet News senior reporter Katya Kazakina explores a generational turning point, with younger buyers now driving demand. Luxury, pop culture, and digital engagement are shaping their collecting habits, forcing the industry to rethink exclusivity and adapt to new values. Meanwhile, online art sales are surging in volume, reflecting an enduring change in how collectors interact with the market.’

At Hyperallergic, criminologist Emiline Smtih and archaeologist Summer Austin discuss in detail how they believe Tefaf and the art trade in general are insufficiently dealing with provenance: ‘The removal of problematic provenance, the persistence of vague ownership, and the ongoing reluctance by some dealers to disclose full histories all point to an industry still grappling with its past. Change is happening — albeit at a pace dictated more by broader market forces rather than moral reckoning.’

Graham Bowley and Tom Mashberg describe the efforts of New York's Metropolitan Museum in its provenance research in the New York Times: ‘To illustrate its new seriousness in this regard, the museum now posts two inventories on its website — one for antiquities it has restituted and the other, on a separate page, for artworks that are no longer part of the collection after it was determined they were likely looted during World War II. In addition, the Met has expanded the team of analysts dedicated to provenance research from six to 11. One new initiative the researchers have undertaken is to focus on items in the collection with histories that include some contact with tainted dealers.’

The planned changes in how looted art is handled are making the dispute over the Guelph Treasure even more complicated, explains Catherine Hickley in the New York Times: ‘And now, there is a new claim, by the heir of a consortium member, Alice Koch, whose interests had not been considered before. The claim comes as Germany considers a major change in settling restitution disputes. The government has announced it will dismantle its advisory commission on Nazi-looted art and replace it with a binding arbitration tribunal, but the timing of this switch is not yet clear.’

Tax breaks for art purchases are within reach in Austria, reports Olga Kronsteiner in Der Standard: ‘It is not yet clear when the team of the responsible minister and Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler (SPÖ) will deal with this – also because the government's need to save is currently a priority. In any case, Babler recently announced in general terms that he does not want to ‘blindly save into the crisis, but to invest our way out of it’. In this respect, the trade and the producing artists hope that the ‘creation of incentives for art purchases, for example through tax deductibility’, according to the government programme, will not only be examined but also implemented: in order to cushion the consequences of the current recession and to provide a perspective that the domestic market place needs more than ever.

Free admission significantly reduces the museums' costs per visitor, as a study by Remuseum in the USA has found, the results of which Helen Stoilas summarises in The Art Newspaper: ‘One way museums might overcome these “dis-economies of scale” is by offering free admission, which the Remuseum report finds attracts more visitors without increasing costs to the museum. For most museums, the cost per visitor was lower at institutions that offered free admission compared to those that charged entry fees. For example, at museums in smaller cities with lower budgets, the cost per visitor for those with free admission was $55 versus $77 at those that charged a fee. At institutions in larger cities with bigger budgets, the cost was $99 per visitor with free admission versus $128 for those with an entrance fee.’ Unfortunately, this thesis, which is now supported by facts, is also under suspicion of socialism in this country.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is putting cultural policy on a patriotic course, reports Isa Farfan for Hyperallergic: ‘After ordering the effective dismantlement of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) last week, President Donald Trump has sworn in a new director for the agency who has pledged to “restore focus on patriotism”.’ This is no longer a leisurely drift towards fascism. It will be interesting to see when the first members of the opposition are locked away.

The British authorities are taking the application of money laundering regulations seriously, reports Riah Pryor in The Art Newspaper (possible paywall): ‘Almost 50 UK art businesses were included in a list of Art Market Participants (AMPs) that have failed to comply with money laundering regulations, which was released by the tax authority HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last week. Among those listed are the galleries Opera and Carl Kostyál, as well as a fundraising campaign organised by White Cube. The fines outlined were issued between 1 January 2024 and 30 September 2024, with AMP penalties averaging above £3,000 and reaching as high as £13,000, all for failing to apply for registration by the June 2021 deadline.’

The New York Times' Sarah Maslin Nir reports on former art consultant Lisa Schiff's two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.