Private sales reportedly proliferate in China: “…earlier this year Christie’s took one of its star lots, a large Chinese archaic bronze vessel believed to be around 3,000 years old, off the auction block to sell directly to a group of businessmen from the mainland for an amount understood to be up to $30m (nearly double its pre-auction estimate).” [The Art Newspaper]
“As Detroit prepares to defend its plan next week to exit bankruptcy, city leaders have received an unusual offer: Why not mortgage all the Van Goghs, Picassos and other works in the Detroit Institute of Arts? . . . The city’s response: silence.” [The New York Times]
“Works offered by Lucian Freud estate in lieu of £16m ($26.5 million) in tax will eventually be dispersed among galleries around U.K.” [The Guardian]
“Three paintings by an unnamed artist from the 15th century were taken from Milan’s Sforza Castle over the weekend, La Republica reports.” [La Republica via Artnet]
Detroit gets a very democratic biennial: “Next month, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (MOCAD) is due to unveil a biennial featuring work by an unconventional cast of characters, including a lawyer, an English professor, an engineer—and even a radio host by the name of Fearless Fred.” [The Art Newspaper]
“Salman leaping up the river.” [@StudioOlafurEliasson/Twitter]
The Cleveland Museum of Arts names a performing arts director. [Artforum]