Briefing
85 Joan Miró works to stay in Portugal following public outcry; Barbican to host the UK's first large-scale show of Jean-Michel Basquiat
85 Joan Miró works to stay in Portugal following public outcry; Barbican to host the UK's first large-scale show of Jean-Michel Basquiat
- The Portuguese government has decided to keep 85 works by Spanish artist Joan Miró in the country, after attempts to send them to auction in 2014 led to public outcry. The paintings, valued at an estimated €35m (GBP£30.1 m), came under state ownership in 2008 when the government nationalized the failed bank BNP. The paintings will be on display at the city’s Serralves museum until 28 January.
- In September 2017, the Barbican Centre in London will stage the first large-scale show in the UK of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The exhibition, titled ‘Boom for Real’, will bring together more than 100 works, including painting, collage, Xerox, performance, graffiti, and music.
- Italian journalist Claudio Gatti has claimed that Elena Ferrante – the pen name for an Italian novelist whose true identity has always remained a closely guarded secret – is actually the Rome-based translator, Anita Raja. The revelation of the secretive author’s identity has provoked an angry response from many fans, who claim the outing is an unnecessary abuse of the writer's privacy.
- Team Gallery is set to open a second Los Angeles branch, two years after opening their first west coast space, Team Bungalow. The new gallery, which will be known as Team Satellite, will be located in Venice Beach at 310 Venice Way, where it will take up residence in a 1,000-square-foot renovated post office.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is being sued by the estate of a German Jewish businessman over Pablo Picasso's The Actor (1904-5). According to The New York Times, the estate claims that the institution ‘does not hold good title’ to the work, because the businessman was forced to sell it at a reduced price after fleeing the Nazis. The former owner, Paul Leffmann, was forced to sell his home and businesses in Cologne, Germany, before fleeing to Italy with his wife in 1937.
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