Art Industry News: A Furious Former Cooper Hewitt Board Member Is Cutting a $5 Million Gift to the Museum Out of Her Will + 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 Monday, March
2.

NEED-TO-READ

The Museum of the Chinese in America’s Destroyed Archives
Building Will Be Rebuilt – The
irreparably damaged building that housed the archives of
the Museum of the
Chinese in America in New York will be torn down and
rebuilt, the city government says. Around 80 percent of the museum’s archive
remains stranded in the Chinatown building more than a month after
a devastating fire broke out on January 24. The museum, which
“is dedicated to preserving and presenting the history,
heritage, culture and diverse experiences of people of Chinese
descent” in the US, according to its website, has raised $440,000 to salvage its records. But
according to the institution’s president, the full cost will likely
be around $1 million. (Hyperallergic)

A Cooper Hewitt Donor Cancels a $5 Million Gift –
Former Cooper Hewitt board
member Judy Francis Zankel
is cutting the New York design museum out of her will after the
Smithsonian, which oversees the institution, forced out its
director, Caroline Baumann, for allegedly receiving improper gifts.
Zankel, who has pulled a promised donation of $5 million, called
the institution’s treatment of Baumann “unconscionable and
disgraceful.” The former director has denied acting unethically,
and called the investigation that led to her firing “discriminatory.” Six other board members have resigned along
with Zankel in support of Baumann. (New York
Times)

Frank Gehry’s LUMA Tower Is Nearing Completion –
Finishing touches are being made to
the architect’s aluminum-clad LUMA tower in Arles, France.
Commissioned by Swiss collector Maya Hofftman for her LUMA
foundation, the twirling, shimmering structure is the heart of the
foundation’s Parc des
Ateliers cultural complex. Frank Gehry’s team is working with
architect Annabelle Selldorf on the controversial tower, which
looms over a town made famous by Van Gogh and Gauguin. The entire
complex is due to be completed in
2021. (Design
Boom)

The UK Government Blocks Mary Beard as a British Museum
Trustee – The government blocked the British Museum’s
plans last year to add academic and
broadcaster Mary Beard to its board of trustees because of her
“pro-European views.” The news, which is only being reported now,
has been called an “absolute scandal” by former museum
trustee John Tusa, who wonders whether other Remainers will now be
blocked from similar posts. (Guardian)

ART MARKET

Police Clear a Billionaire Accused of Engaging in a
Dodgy Banksy Deal  – South
African police have dropped charges against Martin Levick, who
was charged with fraudulently taking $3.5 million from a collector to buy
a Banksy screen print,
and using the money to pay off a debt. A representative
for Levick says he has been “exonerated,” but according to
South African authorities, the charges were cleared because the
transaction took place outside the
country. (The Art
Newspaper)

A Beatles Guitar Is Being Valued at £400,000 –
A prototype
fretless guitar once
owned by John Lennon and George Harrison has been valued at up to
£400,000 ($511,408) after its owner took it to the BBC’s Antiques
Roadshow. (BBC)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Egypt Is Moving Ancient
Monuments to Tourist Sites – British Egyptologist Tom
Hardwick surveys the Egyptian government’s recent efforts to move
ancient artifacts,
including obelisks, from far-off sites like Tanir to Cairo in an
attempt to create tourist hubs. Critics of the policy say monuments
could be damaged in the process, but the government says Egypt
should have agency over its cultural heritage. “Querulous archaeologists and
Egyptologists are about to be reminded that history may be written
by historians, but it is made—and moved—by armies,” writes the
author. (Apollo)

An Art Complex Planned
for Madrid Has Been Cancelled – The Italian art collector
Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is nixing plans to open a second
home for her art foundation in Madrid’s Matadero complex
because the building, a former slaughterhouse to be retrofitted
by architects David
Adjaye and Arturo Franco, is not up to snuff. “The fundamental
reasons are to do with the existing structural problems of the
building itself, [which] cannot be solved,” she
said. (Artforum)

William Keyse Rudolph
Joins the Nelson-Atkins Museum – The Kansas City
institution has named a new deputy director of curatorial affairs.
William Keyse Rudolph joins the Nelson-Atkins Museum from the San
Antonio Museum of Art, where he served various posts during his
seven years, including his current position as the co-interim
director. (Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Rembrandt’s Precocious
Works Go on Show – “Young
Rembrandt” at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (on view until June 7)
looks at the early phases of the artist’s storied career and draws
attention to his learning process as he refined his
mastery. Some paintings in the show have no sense of perspective,
while others feature stiff characters. (Guardian)

The Public Can Finally
See Canaletto’s Painting of Westminster Abbey – For
the first time since 1792, Westminster Abbey With a
Procession of the Knights of the Bath, Canaletto’s take on the
famed building in the British capital, will be on view in the
abbey. The 1749 picture is the earliest known artwork to depict the
abbey’s west towers, which were completed just four years
earlier. (Guardian)

The post Art Industry News: A Furious Former Cooper Hewitt
Board Member Is Cutting a $5 Million Gift to the Museum Out of Her
Will + Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.