Category Archives: Art and design

Auction of £120m of jewels to go ahead despite Jewish groups’ concerns

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Critics say collection derives from fortune made by buying businesses from Jews who were forced to sell in Nazi Germany

Christie’s, the famed British auction house, has said it will go ahead with an auction of £120m of jewels on Wednesday despite calls from Jewish groups to stop the sale over concerns the collection belonged to a German billionaire who made a fortune buying businesses from Jews who were forced to sell in Nazi Germany.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group, have demanded that Christie’s halt the auction of the jewellery collection of the Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten.

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Protester who defaced Frederick McCubbin painting fights counter-terrorism charge

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Joana Partyk declined to give full access to her electronic devices after they were seized by police in a raid in February

An artist who defaced one of Australia’s most famous paintings during a gas company protest will fight a counter-terrorism charge over access to her electronic devices, labelling it “state-sanctioned overreach”.

Joana Veronika Partyka, 37, pleaded not guilty on Monday in the Perth magistrates court to one count of failing to obey a data access order after she declined to cooperate with authorities.

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English wine centre in Kent hopes for planning approval within days

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Kentish Wine Vault aims to transform industry and produce English rival to prosecco

A landmark centre for English wine designed by Norman Foster, which supporters say will produce an affordable rival to prosecco, could be given planning approval within days.

Gary Smith, the chief executive of MDCV UK, the winemaker behind the £30m Kentish Wine Vault project, said he was hopeful about his plans to transform the country’s wine sector by producing 5m bottles of English wine a year at the new location, after months of doubt.

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Falklands war art installation given ‘fitting place’ in Portsmouth

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Standing With Giants, created for 40th anniversary, commemorates troops and islanders who died

Lifesize silhouetted figures representing the 255 British military personnel and three civilians who lost their lives in the Falklands war have been installed on the parade ground and ramparts at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth.

The art installation, Standing With Giants, was created to mark the 40th anniversary of the conflict and its arrival in the Hampshire port is regarded as particularly poignant as so many of the British ships left and returned there.

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UK imposes sanctions on art collector accused of financing Hezbollah

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Nazem Ahmad, who has owned works by Picasso and Warhol, suspected of laundering money for militant group

A high-profile art collector has been put on a Treasury sanctions list and charged in the US over claims that he uses his collection, which has included masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Antony Gormley and Andy Warhol, to launder money for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer who once posed in his Beirut penthouse for a glossy magazine and featured in a piece about the “world’s most beautiful homes and the fascinating people who live in them”, has been targeted in the UK under new counter-terrorism powers.

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Masterpieces and margaritas: National Portrait Gallery to open new bar as part of revamp

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London gallery will be latest institution to offer after-hours events when it reopens in June after a £35m refurbishment

If gazing at paintings in the hushed surroundings of an art gallery isn’t your thing, perhaps cocktails, live DJ sets and quirky fashion shows are. In which case, head straight to that art gallery.

This week the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in central London announced that when it reopens in June after a £35m refurbishment, a new bar will serve cocktails and small plates long after its display areas have closed.

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Man admits to Basquiat forgery scheme which saw fakes displayed in museum

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Michael Barzman sold paintings created in ‘maximum of 30 minutes’ by accomplice, justice department says

To the admiring patrons of a special exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art, they were among Jean-Michel Basquiat’s finest works, the angst of the troubled 1980s neo-expressionist rebel shining through the vivid colors of the compositions before them.

But what the paying public was really viewing were fakes, hastily slapped on offcuts of cardboard in 30 minutes or less by an unscrupulous auctioneer and an accomplice cashing in on the late artist’s famous name.

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Newcastle’s Side Gallery to close after funding cuts and energy bills rise

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Photography space that inspired Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall launches fundraising campaign with aim of reopening in 2024

A small and much-loved photography gallery that has punched well above its size for more than 45 years will close this weekend because of funding cuts and cost-of-living pressures.

The Side Gallery, near the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, was opened in 1977 by a collective championing positive images of working-class life.

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‘Most amusing’: Gilbert and George welcome the public to their own gallery

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Artists open centre in area of east London where they have lived and worked for decades

Every creative person yearns for a room of their own. But for the stars of Britain’s contemporary art world, it seems that now only a venue of their own will do. Last weekend it was Tracey Emin in Margate; on Saturday morning it was the turn of the veteran duo Gilbert and George.

“It is very exciting to see so many people,” said George Passmore, 81, after the gates swung wide at 10am to let in an orderly queue of first visitors. “Most amusing,” added his lifelong collaborator – and, since 2008, civil partner – Gilbert Prousch, 79. “They will all keep coming along, we hope.”

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Michel Houellebecq sex film to be released despite attempt to stop it

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Amsterdam court dismisses French author’s complaint against film that shows him having sex with young women

A Dutch art collective can release an experimental erotic film showing the French novelist Michel Houellebecq having sex with young women in spite of the author’s attempt to stop its circulation, an Amsterdam court has ruled.

Amsterdam’s district court on Tuesday afternoon dismissed a legal complaint by Houellebecq and his wife, Qianyun Lysis, that had aimed to curb the distribution of the film KIRAC 27 by Keeping It Real Art Critics, as well as a trailer that was uploaded on the art collective’s website last month but has since been taken down.

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Hong Kong department store removes artwork with hidden ‘political content’

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Patrick Amadon, whose work flashed up names from pro-democracy protests, says it had to be taken down ‘to be a completed piece’

A Hong Kong department store took down a digital artwork that contained hidden references to jailed free-speech defenders, in an incident the artist says is evidence of the erosion of free speech by Chinese authorities.

Patrick Amadon’s No Rioters was put on display on a billboard at the huge Sogo Causeway Bay store as the city was promoting itself as a cultural hub following years of pandemic travel restrictions. Art Basel Hong Kong, a prominent art fair in Asia, began this week, alongside other art events.

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Imaginary Friends: Barcelona art show aims to connect with our inner child

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Exhibition evoking childhood experiences brings together installations by nine artists

Nine leading contemporary artists have come together to create an interactive exhibition in Barcelona for kids – and anyone in touch with their inner child.

“Before the pandemic we had the idea of mounting an exhibition of contemporary art for people of all ages, something that children could relate to but also so that older people could relive the experience of being a child and participate as if they were children,” said Martina Millà, who jointly curated the show at the Fundació Joan Miró with Patrick Ronse, the artistic director of the Be-Part contemporary art platform in Belgium.

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Ai Weiwei’s Lego re-imagining of Monet’s water lilies to go on show in London

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Exclusive: 15-metre-long work made up of 650,000 Lego bricks to form part of artist’s biggest UK show in eight years

Claude Monet’s monumental triptych, Water Lilies 1914 -26, which depicts nature’s tranquil beauty as part of the French impressionist’s world-famous series, will take on new meaning in a giant recreation by artist and activist Ai Weiwei in his new London exhibition.

Monet’s brushstrokes in his water and reflection landscapes are replaced by about 650,000 studs of Lego bricks, in 22 vivid colours, in the 15-metre-long work at the centre of Weiwei’s biggest UK show in eight years, opening next month.

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New Banksy mural on derelict farmhouse in Kent is demolished

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Morning is Broken appeared on a wall of a building on Blacksole Farm, Herne Bay, since destroyed

Banksy’s latest work, on the side of a derelict farmhouse in the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent, has been demolished.

The mural, titled Morning is Broken, depicted a silhouetted young boy next to a cat in a window, opening corrugated iron curtains.

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No plans to return Parthenon marbles to Greece, says Rishi Sunak

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PM says British Museum collection is funded by taxpayers and protected by law

Rishi Sunak has vowed to protect the Parthenon marbles from being returned to Greece, saying they remain a “huge asset” to the UK.

The prime minister stuck by commitments made by his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson to safeguard the treasures at the British Museum in London.

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Artists in UK public sector making far below minimum wage, survey finds

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Exclusive: report describes culture of low fees and exploitation as research finds median hourly rate of £2.60 an hour

Artists working in the public sector are struggling to stay afloat amid a culture of low fees, unpaid labour and systemic exploitation, research shows.

A survey of people engaged by everything from flagship galleries to smaller projects found an overall median hourly rate of £2.60 an hour, dramatically below the UK minimum wage of £9.50.

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One’s old china: set of plates fit for the Queen comes up for auction

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The unique service, commissioned by a French king and used only once by the British monarch in 1967, could fetch up to £442,000

A unique set of porcelain dessert dishes and plates commissioned by France’s King Louis-Philippe I, and believed to have been used only once, for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, is to be auctioned in Paris.

The 98 pieces, embossed in gold and each painted with a picture of a different animal, were found in a dining room cupboard in the Chateau de Sassy in Normandy. They are expecteed to fetch nearly half a million pounds.

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Architect Rafael Viñoly, designer of Walkie Talkie building, dies aged 78

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Uruguayan-born Viñoly’s sometimes controversial work included more than 600 structures around world

Rafael Viñoly, the Uruguayan-born and New York-based architect known for designing landmark buildings around the world, has died aged 78.

Viñoly’s death on Thursday was announced by his son, Roman, on the website of the family firm, Rafael Viñoly Architects.

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Boris Johnson recites Oompa-Loompas song in defence of Roald Dahl’s books

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Ex-PM criticises sensitivity edit of author’s works – and also rejects sending Parthenon marbles to Greece

Boris Johnson has criticised a publisher’s rewriting of some language in Roald Dahl’s stories by reciting a song by the Oompa-Loompas.

The former prime minister expressed his “irritation at wokeness and political correctness” after Puffin made extensive changes to the author’s work to remove language it deemed offensive.

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Victorian architecture’s lost giant to regain rightful recognition

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The designer of the glasshouses at Kew Gardens fell out of favour – but supporters of a new museum hope to change all that

One major name is missing from the line-up of great British architects that students learn have shaped the way that Britain looks. And it is a name with quite a ring to it: Decimus Burton.

Now members of the Decimus Burton Society believe they are about to put that right by establishing this Victorian classical revivalist’s place alongside better known titans such as Christopher Wren, John Nash and Edwin Lutyens. A new museum celebrating his achievements is on the drawing board and awaits approval this spring.

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