Zona Maco in Mexico City via Instagram (click through to browse for yourself): Through the magic of the internet, you can visit Zona Maco in Mexico without getting on a plane. Blain Southern has Sean Scully works … Ben Brown Fine Arts has a Boetti tapestry work … Bortolami has Barbara Kasten at the booth … Sotheby’s explained Wolfgang Tillmans to eager fairgoers at David Zwirner‘s booth … One of Alex Israel‘s popular self portraits was on view … Paul Kremer Gallery has work by the Library Street Collective from Detroit … Gladstone Gallery has Damian Ortega‘s work … Nils Staerk Gallery showing Nils Erik Gjerdevik, Matthew Ronay + Superflex … Herve Bize Gallery has Jack Youngerman, Francois Morellet, Daniel Dezeuze … Galerie Pelaires has Jason Martin, Frank Nitsche and Roland Fischer … A Venezuelan instagram model put on some clothes and posed next to a Mel Bochner … Beers Gallery has Thrush Holmes works … There’s a Bernar Venet work on view … Gary Nader had a visit from the Boteros … There’s a Richard Prince Nurse painting at Gagosian Gallery … A great Carlos Cruz Diez on view
Pablo Escobar’s Art Collection: The Hollywood Reporter ran a story a few days ago from an anonymous source claiming that a Swede named Olof Gustafsson has been trying to sell art work purportedly from the collection of Pablo Escobar. The fantastic story is told from the perspective of a Dubai-based asset manager who says he received dozens, if not hundreds of works, that he was involved in trying to establish authenticity on. The article goes on to suggest there is a warehouse in the Colombian jungle with thousands of art works mouldering away.
One could easily get caught up in the fantastic nature of the story. But there is a more important subtext to the story which demonstrates just how difficult it really is to launder money in the art market. Throughout the story, the sellers are stymied by auction houses and art dealers who simply won’t touch the works. It may be that the works are obvious fakes. It may be that the lack of a provenance makes it impossible to bring the works back into circulation. One has to wonder at the central premise of the story, that anyone trying to sell Pablo Escobar’s art would tell you upfront that it was once owned by Pablo Escobar. …
Everybody Loves a Winner, That’s Why the Getty Is Raising Money: Jori Finkel has a very interest story in The Art Newspaper about the Getty museum’s decision to solicit donations. The museum has a $6.9m endowment and the story expresses concern that the Getty will draw philanthropic funds away from other Southern California arts institutions. But it turns out the initiative comes in response to demand from donors:
- “The collector Mihail Lari, a member of the board of overseers at the Hammer Museum, says he understands the Getty’s thinking. He was so impressed by its Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition in 2016 that he sought to write a cheque for the museum, but there was no clear way to do so.”
Now there is and Getty Trust president James Cuno says it was inevitable:
- “We regularly receive requests to join the Friends of the Getty, and we had to say that we don’t have a Friends of the Getty.” …
Anthony van Dyck’s Mistress Revealed: Bendor Grosvenor is an expert on the 17th Century painter Anthony van Dyck. He points to the temporarily free article from the Burlington Magazine that reveals the life of Margaret Lemon, van Dyck’s mistress whom we now know from historian Hilary Maddicott’s article that she committed suicide in 1642.