1. Most Expensive Female Artists At Auction

Artnet News has compiled their annual list of the most expensive female artists at auction, based on data from the last decade.

Georgia O’Keeffe maintains her place at the top this year, thanks to the sale of her Jimson Weed/ White Flower No. 1 (1932) in 2014, which, at a price-tag of $44.4 million, is the most expensive painting by a female artist ever sold. Louise Bourgeois, Joan Mitchell, Berthe Morisot, and Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova follow Kahlo on the list. Notably, coming in at number 6, Agnes Martin debuts on the list due to the $10.7 million sale of her painting Orange Grove (1965) earlier this month, which broke the artist’s personal price record at auction. Cady Noland, Tamara de Lempicka and Camille Claudel fill out the list along withFrida Kahlo, who did not appear on the list last year but is included after the $8 million sale of her Dos Desnudos en el Bosque (1939) earlier this spring. Not on the list? Fan favorite Yayoi Kusama whose $7 million sale of her White No. 28 was bumped from the list by higher auctions this year.

2. Impressive Contemporary Art Collection to be Shown Outside Iran for First Time

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) is known to have an impressive, extensive collection of Western artworks, yet the works have never traveled out of Iran. Until now.

The Berlin National Gallery has reached an agreement with TMoCA and will display some of the cornerstone works from the collection from December 2016 until February 2017. The collection — acquired by Farah Diba Pahlavi, the wife of the last Iranian shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — includes works from such artists as Claude Monet, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, René Magritte and Chuck Close. Only two years after the museum to house the collection was completed, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 brought an end to the shah’s rule and the Westernization of the country. Since then TMoCA has carefully displayed some individual works while the bulk of the astounding collection remains in storage. While some Germans have criticized the exhibition as an expensive, political move to open up trade between the countries, it will definitely offer an opportunity to glimpse an incredible collection of largely unseen artwork.

3. Ace Gallery Removes Founder Amid Bankruptcy Investigation

Ace Gallery, one of Los Angeles’ oldest and largest galleries, has officially severed ties with its founder Douglas Chrismas, after he was found to have diverted almost $17 million of the gallery’s funds into mysterious accounts.

The move comes after the gallery declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and, in a resulting investigation, a court-appointed accountant discovered that Chrismas had directed $16,910,139 toward such entities as Ace Gallery New York Corporation and Ace Museum. The forensic accountant, Sam Leslie, knew that something was amiss given that Chrismas closed the gallery’s New York branch over a decade ago and that the Ace Museum has had a unreliable and spotty exhibition history. Furthermore, the day before Leslie took over the gallery operations, Chrismas instructed assistants to move more than 60 works of art from the gallery into private storage. Although Chrismas told Leslie that he personally owned the works, he did not declare the works when he filed for bankruptcy in 2004. It is unclear at this time if the apparent misconduct will result in criminal charges; but in the meantime, Leslie will continue to run the gallery during regular hours and with existing staff.

4. Artistic Partnership Between Paris, Cairo Museums

Paris’ Louvre and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo have entered into a cooperative partnership, intertwining their collections, resources and staff members.

Louvre director, Jean-Luc Martinez, signed the deal with the Egyptian minister of antiquities, Khaled El-Enany. It will allow for the institutions to put on joint exhibitions, collaborate on conservation and aid in staff training; for example, several members of the Cairo staff are to visit the Louvre to work with the museum’s Islamic department curators, sharing information on archiving works and collection care. The collaboration gives both more prominence to the Islamic pieces already in the Louvre’s collection as well as a chance for foreign display of the Cairo museum’s collection, as the museum has remained closed since early 2014, when a car bomb damaged the building.

5. Seven Suspects Arrested for Stealing Francis Bacon Pieces

Spanish authorities have arrested seven individuals in connection to the burglary of five Francis Bacon paintings from a home in Madrid last July.

The taken works, with a combined value of €25 million ($28 million), belonged to José Capelo Blanco, who was a close friend of Bacon’s. The authorities tracked down the suspects thanks to a tip from an unnamed British company that specializes in tracking stolen artworks; the company had been contacted by an individual to check if one of the stolen pieces was, in fact, on any list of stolen pieces, and the company grew suspicious. The authorities were then able to link the robbers to a Madrid-based art dealer as well. While the artworks themselves have not yet been located, with suspects in custody the police may be able to find the works soon.

1. Frieze New York Wrap Up

Despite gloomy weather, New York’s Frieze fair enjoyed a sizable turnout as well as significant sales this past weekend.

Pace Gallery sold off five sculptural works from Fred Wilson (including one to an Asian art museum), Hauser & Wirth moved two glass sculptures by Roni Horn at $975,000 each, 303 Gallery sold almost all works on view, including pieces from Dout Aitken, Alicija Kwade and Hans-Peter Feldmann, while Lisson Galleryreported having sold out half their booth on preview day alone, including works from Lawrence Weiner, Pedro Reyes, Ryan Gander, Haroon Mirza, andStanley Whitney. Erwin Wurm’s pieces also proved popular at the Lehmman Maupin booth as the gallery sold seven of his works throughout the fair just as Walton Ford’s pieces were in high demand at Paul Kasmin Gallery’s booth, which sold out its solo show of the artist.

2. Van Gogh Museum Launches Private Advisory Service

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is now letting visitors bring the museum into their own homes, offering professional services to private collectors, corporations and other institutions.

Through the new program, museum employees will provide advice and support to clients regarding conservation, preservation, installation and the development of educational programs. The venture could cover up to 5% of the museum’s annual operating budget (which costs a total of €45 million) and provide a source of revenue that is immune to fluctuations in both museum visitation and government funding. Some critics worry that the museum involving itself in the private sphere could lead to a conflict of interest Adriaan Dönszelmann, the managing director of the Van Gogh Museum, dismissed this issue, saying that while it would work with private clients it would refrain from influencing the public art market

3. A First Look at San Francisco’s New Museum

Artnet news’ Ben Davis gave readers a first look at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) this week, a month before it opens its expanded and refurbished facilities to the public.

The renovations, which cost more than $300 million, have dramatically expanded the space curators have access to: “Curators now have seven floors to work with, yielding up vast rambling corridors of art, clearly organized pathways that are still full of potential detours and surprises.” These new spaces will allow SFMOMA to open a staggering 19 new exhibitions at once, in honor of the museum’s opening. While the museum blends the bohemian past and technological future of the city well, it also owes a great deal of inspiration to Doris and Donald Fisher, the art collecting couple whose donation inspired the renovations; 270 of the pieces donated by the Fishers will be on display throughout three floors of the museum.

4. Manifesta Biennial To Travel to Marseille

Manifesta — the roving biennial of European contemporary art — has announced that it will hold its 13th edition in Marseille, France in 2020.

The mayor of Marseille is said to have already allocated €627,000 ($715,000) toward acquiring the rights to host the biennial and, as host, the city will have to spend an additional €2.4 million ($2.74 million — a third of the biennial’s total budget) toward developing the event over the next four years. Hosting the fair will only be latest effort from Marseille to develop itself into a destination for art and culture (including the construction of a new museum). However, the French city also aligns well with the experimental fair’s mission to “keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.” The fair will hold its 11th edition next month in Zurich, followed by its 2018 edition in Palermo, Italy.

5. Tate to Face Tribunal Over BP Donations

Although Tate severed financial ties with oil company BP in March, the British museum group may now face an information tribunal, forcing them to disclose BP’s specific contributions.

The action was brought against Tate by arts group Platform and information rights group Request Initiative. The Tate — whose chair of trustees is former BP CEO John Browne — has previously disclosed that BP annually donated between £150,000 and £330,000 ($216,000 and $475,000) from 1990–2006. However, the museum declined to divulge the amounts received since 2006. Platform’s Anna Galkina said “As Tate’s deal with BP ends, the oil company can no longer use Tate’s spectacular displays to distract the public from its [environmentally] destructive business. The public still has a right to know how much BP paid Tate for this transfer of public trust.”