Art Industry News: Experts Fear the Masterminds of Dresden’s Historic Museum Heist Plan to Destroy Their Treasures + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know on this Wednesday, November
27.

NEED-TO-READ

Ministry Admits Steve Bannon
Monastery Snafu – There was
an uproar when it
emerged that a right-wing religious group linked to the US
political strategist Steve Bannon was setting up a training school
in a 13th-century monastery west of Rome. As the battle over the
monastery’s future heads to court, Italy’s ministry of culture has spoken for the
first time about why it entrusted the building to Bannon, who it is
now trying to evict. They blame “extreme” staff shortages,
suggesting the government failed to fully review the application
submitted on behalf of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute. Benjamin
Harnwell, the institute’s founder, dismisses the ministry’s
explanation and says the ministry had plenty of time to assess the
application. Harnwell remains determined to set up
a “school for gladiators” who will
spread Bannon’s political and religious views. (TAN)

Hong Kong Art Museum Reopens Amid
Unrest – The Hong Kong
Museum of Art is due to reopen on November 30 after a four-year,
$114 million revamp amid the ongoing
pro-democracy protests.
The government-run institution is close to the Polytechnic University, the site of a
week-long standoff between protesting students and the police.
Other violent clashes between pro-democracy activists and the
authorities have taken place nearby. The museum’s reopening show includes a major
loan exhibition from the Tate in London. (The Art Newspaper)

Berlin Museum Chief Fears Stolen Objects Could Be Destroyed
– The head of the Berlin State
Museums has called for the creation of a security task force in
Germany following the audacious
diamond heist at Dresden’s Green Vault. Hermann Parzinger says that thieves targeting
jewels and precious objects is “a very specific new threat” to
museums. Notably, he says, the break-ins are “not about stealing a
Munch, a Picasso, or any other famous work of art.” Instead,
thieves are targeting objects with a high material value. (Cattelan’s golden
toilet, anyone?) Parzinger fears that the missing pieces from
the Green Vault could be broken up, with the criminals destroying
the historic treasures to sell the gems piecemeal. (Monopol)

Dulwich Picture Gallery
Reopens After Thwarted Rembrandt Theft – The Dulwich
Picture Gallery in London has reopened after an attempted theft of
two Rembrandts was foiled by police on November 13. The exhibition,
“Rembrandt’s Light,” is still up, but the works that the thief
attempted to rob have been returned to their lenders.
(BBC)

ART MARKET

Mary Mary Gallery Founder Joins
Alison Jacques – Hannah
Robinson, who shuttered her Glasgow gallery Mary Mary this summer,
has joined Alison Jacques Gallery of London as a director.
(Baer
Faxt) 

Victoria Miro Now Represents María
Berrío – The New York-based,
Bogota-born artist has joined Victoria Miro gallery. She will have a
solo show in the gallery’s London space in June 2020. The artist
will continue working with Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles.
(ARTnews)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Jewish Museum Berlin
Names New Director – Hetty Berg, the museum manager and
chief curator of the Jewish Cultural District in Amsterdam, will
take over Berlin’s Jewish Museum on April 1. She
succeeds Peter Schäfer, who resigned after making controversial remarks about
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Monopol)

Dallas Museum Creates
Works on Paper Department – Following a gift of 58 works
from the estate of DMA trustee and former curator William B. Jordan
and his husband Robert Dean Brownlee, the Dallas Museum of Art is
set to open a new department dedicated to works on paper. The
institution will also create a new curatorial role for the
department. (Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

An Art Museum in Estonia Is Forced to Close – The
Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) will cease public-facing
activities on November 30 after a building audit determined the
venue was unsafe for visitors. The 13-year-old institution in a
former factory building hopes it can reopen in the new year after
repairs and negotiations, and that the closure will not become
permanent. (Press release)

German Museum Acquires
Restituted Painting – Public and private sponsors
banded together to buy a painting by German-Dutch painter Heinrich
Campendonk for the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum in Düren, Germany. The
work was restituted to the heirs of Jewish collector Alfred
Hess, whose family was forced to hand over objects from their
collection before they fled Nazi Germany. (TAN)

Vik Muniz Visits
Brazil’s Gutted Museum – The Brazilian artist and
photographer has shared a picture of himself on social media
standing inside the fire-ravaged National
Museum of Brazil in Rio with his camera in hand. Muniz is
well-known for documenting waste and turning it into art. Suffice
to say that we’re intrigued to see what this turns into. (Instagram)

The post Art Industry News: Experts Fear the Masterminds of
Dresden’s Historic Museum Heist Plan to Destroy Their Treasures +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.