Posts

Sotheby’s Hedreen Auction Proceeds Will Repay Loan, Not Fund University Museum: Report

A $300 million art donation to Seattle University has been revealed to be more complex than originally reported. On Monday, Sotheby’s will begin selling approximately 50 works from the collection amassed by Seattle real estate developer and philanthropist Richard “Dick” Hedreen, previously billed as the “largest art gift ever” to a US university. Hedreen said in September that the sale did not mean the promised gift was falling through. Rather, he suggested, the proceeds would help furnish Seattle University’s new art museum, where the collection was eventually expected to hang. Records newly reported on by The Seattle Times , however, tell a different story: The works are being sold not to fund the museum, but to pay off a debt secured against the collection — a debt Hedreen says stands between him and fulfilling his pledge to the university. What was originally framed as a donation, in reality, was a pledge: Hedreen, whose firm R.C. Hedreen Co. o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Manhattan Landlord Sues Kehinde Wiley, Claiming He Owes $36,000 in Unpaid Rent

Artist Kehinde Wiley returned to the New York art scene last week with his first show in the city since he was accused of sexual assault in 2024. Now the famed artist and Obama portraitist faces a legal dispute of a different kind: real estate. In a complaint filed in New York County Supreme Court, 115 West 11th Street LLC accuses Wiley of failing to pay rent on his apartment in its building since October 1. According to court documents filed November 6, the rent is $18,000 a month, and the landlord is seeking $36,000 in total. Per the documents, Wiley has lived in the building since September 2023 and signed a lease renewal in July 2025, which was later extended through the end of September. The landlord contends that Wiley did not vacate the apartment when the lease ended and has continued to live there without paying the agreed $18,000 a month. Wiley has not yet responded to the complaint. A summons, also filed November 6, requires the artist...
Post a Comment
Read more

The ADAA Fair Is Back, and Sometimes Smaller Really Is Better

Image
Art fairs should do two things: let visitors see art, ideally stuff they haven’t seen before, and help dealers sell that art to people who want to buy it. Simple enough. And yet, somewhere along the way, fairs became so enormous that seeing everything on offer began to feel like an endurance sport. That’s one reason the newly rechristened Art Dealers Association of America Fair, which opened Thursday night at the Park Avenue Armory, was such a pleasure. With just 63 exhibitors, it’s small enough to navigate without a map, manageable enough to spend time actually looking at the art, and varied enough to reward a little wandering. These may sound like modest achievements, but anyone who’s spent six hours trudging through a convention center will appreciate them. The setting helps. The Park Avenue Armory still has plenty of its old New York charm, something that’s increasingly hard to come by in an art fair. Organizers have also ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Newark Museum Is Latest Art Institution to Transfer Ownership of David Drake Vessel

The latest institution to transfer its ownership of a David Drake vessel in its collection is New Jersey’s Newark Museum of Art, which said on Thursday that the artist’s descendants were given possession of an 1852 jug. Other museums have undertaken a similar measure, from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts . But the Newark Museum said in its release that, unlike past ownership transfers, this one was initiated by the institution, which reached out to Drake’s descendants, rather than the other way around. Drake is now widely recognized for the stoneware jugs he produced during the 19th century in Edgefield, South Carolina. He was born into enslavement and achieved freedom sometime after the Civil War. The jugs, which memorably figured in a 2022 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, sometimes bore written messages whose meaning has often been debated. One vessel by him topped ARTnews ’s list of the best artworks...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘Secret’ Location of a Vandalized and Rescued Banksy Revealed

A Banksy mural with a checkered past has been located by sleuths at the British Broadcasting Service (BBC). The semi-anonymous artist painted the piece in 2018 on Scott Street Bridge in Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire, England. The BBC has discovered that it is being kept in storage in Norfolk, more than 120 miles away, and that its future is unknown. The mural shows a young boy, apparently dressed for battle in a helmet and raising wooden sword with a pencil attacked to its tip. He cries out “draw the raised bridge!” as he seems to sit on a graffiti writer’s tag. The joke being that the work adorned a bridge set to be razed: It’s been closed to traffic since 1994 due to its poor condition, frozen in a raised position. Banksy also plays with the notion of the pen being mightier than the sword, attaching an actual writing implement to a mock weapon. While Banksy does not typically explain his works, some saw a commentary on Brexit; the referendum...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hurricanes Schools 7s tournaments this weekend

The boys and girls Hurricanes Youth Council 7s tournaments are being played at Feilding High School on Saturday and Sunday. The boys tournament is on Saturday and the girls is on Sunday. There are five schools lining up on Saturday and another three on Sunday – a far cry from a decade ago when three...
Post a Comment
Read more

Samoan Opera Singers Headline at Rotorua’s Opera in the Pā

Image
Samson Setu leads a talented line-up of opera singers at Rotorua’s Opera in the Pā. The world of opera will descend upon Rotorua this month with Samoan opera singers leading this year’s Opera in the Pā. Bass-baritone Samson Setu alongside baritone Joshua Futi, soprano Grace McCarthy-Sinclair, and tenor Chris Mcrae will showcase and celebrate operatic talent, culture and the next generation of Aotearoa voices. Setu, who is now based at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Belgium, will headline Opera in the Pā, bringing his powerful voice and growing international reputation to Tangatarua Marae at Toi Ohomai. The concert will also mark a special homecoming for Grace McCarthy-Sinclair, whose love of performance was shaped by her upbringing in Rotorua and her Māori and Samoan heritage. The headliners will perform alongside a choir of local school students, continuing Opera in the Pā’s longstanding commitment to celebrating rangatahi and creating pathways for emerging perfo...
Post a Comment
Read more