Otto Naumann Joins Sotheby’s:  Otto Naumann sold the last of his dealer’s stock through Sotheby’s recently. Now he’s joining the firm as a Senior Vice President and Client Development Director in its Old Master Paintings Division. Here’s Sotheby’s take on his career:

• Dealing in fine art for over 30 years, Otto Naumann is regarded as one of the most respected figures in the international art scene.  A celebrated scholar, earning his master’s degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in Art History from Yale, Mr. Naumann is renowned for his exceptional eye for quality and for determining difficult attributions.  In 1981, he wrote the authoritative monograph on Frans van Mieris (1635 – 1681) and helped organize the 2005 exhibition on the artist at the Mauritshuis, The Hague and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.  Having made a name for himself specializing in Dutch and Flemish art, Mr. Naumann expanded the breadth of his trade in 2007 to include Italian, French, Spanish and British works as well as 19th century painting.  He continues to pursue his academic work, currently working on a book on Rembrandt’s sketches. …

The Met Museum in New York Continues to Grow Attendance: The New York Times has the Metropolitan Museum of New York’s 2018 attendance figures which are up more than 4% over the previous year:

• “Due in part to the blockbuster exhibition on Michelangelo’s drawings, and despite a new mandatory admission fee for non-New Yorkers effective in March, the Metropolitan Museum of Art set yet another attendance record for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, attracting more than 7.35 million visitors to its three locations — at Fifth Avenue, the Cloisters and the Met Breuer — compared to 7 million last year. […] Since the 2015-16 fiscal year, when Met attendance rose 6.35 percent over 2014-15, the rate of increase has slowed a bit each year. This year’s attendance was up 4.29 percent over the previous period.” …

Banksy Gets an Exhibition of Works That Are Not For Sale (Although They Might Be): The art market has a long tradition of works being exhibited that are not for sale but the owner might entertain an offer. The Financial Times touts Steve Lazarides Summer show of Banksy’s work at his London gallery. Lazarides has the inside track on Banksy’s market having been a close friend and dealer to the mystery street artist. Once an advocate for Banksy, Lazarides is not a claque for his collectors:

• “The London works have come from a dozen collectors, with many for sale, from £250,000 to £1.75m for the haunting “Guantanamo Bay” (2006) painting. Works that aren’t officially for sale are open to offers, according to Lazarides, but, he says, ‘it would take several million pounds to lever them out of people’s hands’.” …

The Hunt for Vivian Maier’s Heirs: This Chicago Tribune story from late last month about the long-running search for photographer Vivian Maier’s heirs. Maier, who worked as a nanny, died without exhibiting—or even printing much—of her work. Since the discovery of her negatives in two different caches, there has been a search for her heirs:

• “Now, after an exhaustive genealogical investigation, lawyers representing potential heirs have filed a lengthy report in Cook County Probate Court that for the first time puts the entire Maier family tree into focus. The 300-page filing made public this week identifies 10 cousins of Maier who were still living at the time of her death in 2009, possibly putting them in line under Illinois probate law to inherit a portion of an estate believed to be worth millions of dollars. A team of genealogists pored over Maier’s complicated lineage for more than three years, traveling to France, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and elsewhere to research old church records, baptisms, marriage certificates, census information, and birth and death records involving scores of family members.” …

Michael Govan Warns on LACMA Fundraising, Get to $600m by December or Expansion Is “Not Gonna Work:”The LA Times has an update on LACMA’s expansion which faces a major milestone this Fall when the project’s environmental impact report is due:

• “The Zumthor project is about six months behind schedule. The process, including building permits and entitlements, is taking longer than expected, Govan says. And the museum’s $650-million fundraising campaign, he adds, is “in pace with the project.” Which is to say: going slowly. LACMA’s latest fundraising total is about $550 million, Govan says. Can he meet a self-imposed goal of $600 million before the end of December, even as new challenges emerge?” …

Asher Edelman Gets a Few Things Off His Chest:When you are in the art finance business you run across a lot of characters pretending to be rich persons buying and selling art. Asher Edelman does a lot of art financing. He also writes a column for Avenue magazine. The current column tells some tales of art miscreants:

• “In 2016, Tolstoy seeks to refinance a work of art, claiming to have purchased it from Minskov two years earlier, and producing an invoice. He gets funds from a finance company and then, in 2017, Minskov claims co-ownership and places a lien on the work. The financier investigates and discovers that Minskov always co-owned the art and that the copy of the invoice given for financing had been tampered with, predated to 2014—by Minskov.” …

The National Gallery Gets a Gentileschi Self Portrait: The Evening Standard isn’t clear whether the Artemisia Gentileschi self portrait that the National Gallery in London just bought for £3.6m would be the 24th or 25th work by a woman artist out of the gallery’s 2300 paintings. Either way, trustee Hannah Rothschild is very happy:

• “The acquisition of this great painting by Artemisia Gentileschi realises a long-held dream of increasing the National Gallery’s collection of paintings by important women artists. Gentileschi was a pioneer, a master storyteller and one of the most progressive and expressive painters of the period. One of a handful of women who was able to shatter the confines of her time, she overcame extreme personal difficulties to succeed in the art of painting. This picture will help us transform how we collect, exhibit and tell the story of women artists throughout history.” …