SARA POOLEY
A recently discovered 500-year-old engraving may show Leonardo da Vinci playing a lira da braccio. If authenticated, the piece would mark only the third contemporary depiction of Leonardo to date. [Livescience]
Monica Ponce de Leon will be the new dean of Princeton University’s school of architecture. [Artforum]
The British Museum is lending 500 objects to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed National Museum (open in 2016) for five years. The items include: Assyrian reliefs and cuneiform tablets, Sasanian gold belt fittings, Phoenician jewellery, Fayum portraits, Indus antiquities, Greek and Roman jewels, Byzantine objects, Ming porcelain, Mughal miniatures, Japanese scrolls and European decorative art. [The Art Newspaper]
The Tate is getting an extra $9 million from the British government, a 17% grant increase. [Artforum]
The Art Loss Register, the largest and most powerful due diligence service used by the art world, has caused three different provenance disputes. [The Art Newspaper]
Boston’s mayor is worried more art is missing from the city’s public library. [Boston Herald]
Theaster Gates’ first public project in the UK will take the form of a “sound sanctuary” in a disused Bristol church. [The Art Newspaper]
Prada and Louis Vuitton have become art patrons, albeit boring ones. [The Guardian]
Retired Nigerian stockbroker Sammy Olagbaju will build a private museum in Lagos, for the purpose of displaying his collection of 1,500 modern and contemporary artworks. [The Art Newspaper]
Nicolas Party’s “Boys and Pastel” at Inverleith House. [Contemporary Art Daily]
Art flippers are targeting masterpieces now. [Bloomberg]