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When Helene Plotkin purchased a painting of a seated woman at a White Plains thrift store sixty years ago, she bought it because she liked it. A former art student, she admired its colors and brushwork, and the price was right: she remembers it costing under $100. Now, thanks to Ms. Plotkin’s eye, her son’s curiosity, and a little help from the Google chatbot Gemini, her family is more than $250,000 richer.   Verified by specialists as an original canvas by noted Scottish artist F.C.B. Cadell (1883–1937), the work sold to a private buyer at auction June 4 for $189,200 pounds with fees. Though Plotkin, now 88, always treasured the painting—which depicts a stylish woman in a dark dress and 1920s-style turban in a modernist interior—she never had it appraised. “I never, never thought about it at all,” Plotkin said in a recent telephone interview with the New York Times , “other than I loved the painting.” The story of how the work came to be identified began...

Ukrainian drones damaged a historic museum in annexed Crimea amid a recent escalation in strikes on Russian-controlled territory in the Black Sea peninsula. The 19th-century museum is located in Sevastopol, Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014. Sevastopol’s Russian-appointed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, reported the damage on Telegram early Wednesday. According to Razvozhayev, the museum’s 19th-century panorama painting by Franz Roubaud, titled the Siege of Sevastopol , was damaged. However, “pieces” of the original canvas remained unharmed. “This building is not just a museum,” he said. “It is a symbol of resilience, which has repeatedly taken the blows of the enemy.”  Russia’s Emergency Ministry, the Sevastopol Rescue Service, and other emergency responders were reportedly dispatched to the site, where they extinguished the fire. The museum is dedicated to the 1853–56 Crimean War, the notoriously brutal conflict between the Russian ...

Good Day! Pace CEO Marc Glimcher announces plan to downsize its London branch. Influential South-East Asian dealer and curator Valentine Francis Willie has died at 71. Experts in Italy accidentally mistook a three for an eight, and misdated an important, 14th-century  Madonna and Child  painting, now up for auction. The Headlines IT’S ME, NOT YOU . Uncertainty still reigns a week after  Pace  gallery announced  it was cutting roughly 50 jobs and 50 artists. Layoffs have hit nearly every department and are “an ongoing process,” a gallery spokesperson told  ARTnews , and which artists are being dropped remains unclear. On Wednesday, the  Financial Times  reported that Pace is also looking to downsize its 8,600-square-foot London space into something “less corporate.” CEO  Marc Glimcher  would not confirm rumors of further London layoffs, but he praised the “tight teams” model at the gallery’s oth...

Editor’s Note:  This story originally appeared in  On Balance ,  the ARTnews  newsletter about the art market and beyond.  Sign up here   to receive it every Wednesday. Last Thursday, in a basement at No. 9 Cork Street in Mayfair, mega-dealer Thaddaeus Ropac was on hand to launch the 2026 edition of London Gallery Weekend (LGW). The occasion was a panel discussion with Pale Horse Gallery cofounder Emma Hodgson and Kate MacGarry, who runs an eponymous space in Shoreditch. The on-the-nose title: “How is London’s contemporary commercial gallery scene thriving in times of flux?” The flux is real. Over the weekend, news that Pace Gallery—which operates eight locations worldwide—had cut 50 staff members and dropped 50 artists was ringing in everyone’s ears. Today, the Financial Times reported that the mega-gallery is also planning to downsize its London operation. A decade on from the Brexit vote, and two years since the Labour Party retook power u...

The two teams met in dry, still conditions at St Pat’s Silverstream on Wednesday in their annual midweek traditional for the Ken Gray Cup. Wellington College led 15-14 at halftime and went on to win 26-17, sealing their win with two late penalties after dominating possession and territory throughout much of the second half despite...

The 16th Gwangju Biennial, opening this fall in South Korea (Sept 5-Nov. 15, 2026), has announced the names of the 40-some artists and groups who will be included in the exhibition. The list was first published by e-flux . The Biennial’s curator, “fast-rising” Singaporean artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen , was announced in April 2025. Ho represented Singapore at the 2011 Venice Biennale, and organized the Asian Art Biennial in 2019. The title of Ho’s show, “You Must Change Your Life,” is drawn from the last line of Rainer Maria Rilke sonnet “Archaic Torso of Apollo.” The show focus on the continuous practice of change and transformation. The inaugural edition of the Gwangju Biennial opened in 1995, and it has become one of the most well-known biennials in Asia. Previous curators have included big names on the international exhibition circuit, among them Okwui Enwezor (2008), Hou Hanru (2002), and Harald Szeemann (2012). For the 16th edition, Ho is worki...