Art Industry News: A New $150 Million Fraud Claim Raises the Stakes in the Nasty Battle Over Robert Indiana’s Legacy + 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, April
29.

NEED-TO-READ

Royal Academy Cancels Two High-Profile Exhibitions –
The coronavirus pandemic is forcing
museums to play a round of musical chairs with their exhibition
schedules. London’s Royal Academy has pulled the plug on its highly
anticipated Angelica Kauffman and Paul Cézanne shows, which were
scheduled for June and July. Both shows were on view elsewhere when
the coronavirus forced them to close, and the revised schedule
means it might be possible to extend their run. The RA will instead
extend its current Léon Spilliaert exhibition, which will
subsequently delay the exhibition’s scheduled presentation at the
Musée d’Orsay in June. (The Art Newspaper)

Foundations Launch Relief Grants for Art Workers –
The Willem de Kooning Foundation,
the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the Teiger Foundation, and the
Cy Twombly Foundation have created an emergency grant program
offering $1.25 million to arts workers in the New York tristate
area. The fund, administered by the New York Foundation for the
Arts, will offer arts workers who have sustained financial hardship
due to the outbreak individual grants of up to $2,000. The first
application cycle runs May 5–6, and there will be two more rounds
on May 19–20 and June 2–3. (ARTnews)

A New Fraud Claim Targets Robert
Indiana’s LOVE – The pandemic has
not tamed an ongoing legal fight
over Robert Indiana’s legacy. Michael McKenzie, the founder of
the New York-based publishing firm American Image Art, recently
filed new claims against the Morgan Art Foundation, accusing the
organization of “one of the most massive art frauds in history.”
McKenzie claims that Indiana’s most famous
work, LOVE, has been in the public domain since its
creation and that the Morgan wrongly affixed copyright to the
series with “a total retail value believed to be well above $100
million.” An additional one million items “representing at least
$50 million in retail sales” are also alleged to have been
fraudulently licensed, according to McKenzie. Lawyers for the
Morgan describe the new filing as “legally incoherent” and an
attempt to distract from the serious claims Morgan filed against
McKenzie over the sale of works they allege were falsely attributed
to Indiana. (The Art
Newspaper)

Rencontres d’Arles Is Cancelled – The
photography festival, which has been held annually for 50 years,
has officially called off its 2020 edition, due to open in Arles in
June. After considering “every possibility to adjust to an
unprecedented situation and keep the festival going while
maintaining social distancing,” organizers said in a statement that
they realized it would be impossible. The exhibition will pay
participating artists and curators any agreed-upon fees for this
edition and resume in 2021. (Press release)

ART MARKET

Is the Art Market Headed for a Great Depression? –
The art industry should brace for
market conditions worse than those in the wake of the 2008
financial crisis, according to one report. While collectors haven’t
deserted the market en masse yet, many buyers are expecting
discounts of as much as 40 percent in exchange for their support.
It’s possible that the art market’s recovery over the past ten
years will be wiped clean. (TAN)

Bonhams Releases Revised Auction Calendar – As auction
houses begin to develop plans for live auctions in the
social-distancing era, Bonhams
has announced its global sales schedule for May and June. The sales
will be a mixture of online-only and live events, but the latter
will be held behind closed doors with only the auctioneer in the
room and entirely remote bidding. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

FotoFocus Puts Its 2020
Budget Toward Grants – The nonprofit arts
organization behind America’s largest photography biennial has
called off the fifth edition of the month-long event in order to
repurpose its $800,000 budget to give financial relief to local
arts institutions. The event was scheduled to run in October.
(Artforum)

Deborah Cullen-Morales
Joins the Mellon Foundation – The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation in New York City has appointed the former El Museo
del Barrio director and short-lived director of the
Bronx Museum as a program officer for arts and cultural
heritage. She takes up her new post, which involves helping shape
the direction of the organization’s visual arts grants, on May 1.
(Artforum)

YouTube Is Launching a
Digital Film Festival – Tribeca, Cannes,
Sundance, and the Toronto Film Festival are among the major film
festivals collaborating on the upcoming “We Are One: A Global Film
Festival” via YouTube. The event is scheduled to run from May 29
through June 7. (Hyperallergic)

Artist Yves Corbassière
Has Died – The Paris-based abstract painter, who was close
to the American Action Painting movement, has died at the age of
94. He was renowned for sending works into space with NASA,
like his famous piece Charlie in Infinity from 1984.
(Franceinfo)

FOR ART’S SAKE

How Frida Kahlo Coped With Confinement – Looking for role
models in quarantine, some artists have turned for inspiration to
the story of Frida Kahlo, who
was confined to her bed for much of her life and transformed her
home into a sanctuary and menagerie that helped fuel her powerful
artwork. “Being contained not just in her house but in a bed for so
long meant her art was almost like a metaphysical resistance,” said
author Jessie Burton. (Guardian)

Wendy Williams Gives John Oliver a Michael Lee Painting
– Television hosts John
Oliver and Wendy Williams have engaged in charming banter on their
respective shows while homebound. Now, Williams has raised the bar
by gifting Oliver a painting of her eating a lamb chop. (This must
make more sense if you’ve seen the shows.) The painting, by the
show’s art director Michael Lee, also features a plate of one of
her favorite food combinations, Doritos and caviar, which the TV
host urged Oliver to sample on his show. (Hollywood Life)

On Revisiting “Gallery
Girls” – The 2012 series was quickly cancelled, but eight
years on, it somehow serves up deep nostalgia for what the
pre-social distancing, pre-Instagram art world used to be (not that
long ago!). As it gets re-aired on Bravo, the
Observer considers the trials and tribulations of
Chantal Chadwick, Claudia Martinez Reardon, Lara Hodulick, and the
others. (Observer)

Travis Scott Unveils
KAWS Album Cover – “The Scotts,” a
top-charting new track by Kid Cudi and Travis Scott, has harnessed
some cover art from none other than KAWS. It is the third and final
cover edition the artist made in collaboration with Scott; copies
of the other two swiftly sold out. (Complex)

The post Art Industry News: A New $150 Million Fraud Claim
Raises the Stakes in the Nasty Battle Over Robert Indiana’s Legacy
+ Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.