The week in art news: $2 for a $20,000 Chagall, questions over crypto firm and $90M ‘basquiat’, Banksy flop era and more…

Did somebody say – forced meme? Ageing rapper Snoop Dogg in desperate bid to steal Olympic limelight with trip to Louvre. The talent behind Perfect (2004), Oh Sookie (2010) and Winning (2011) has been all over the Paris Olympics and last week dropped by The Louvre to make some “zany” #content for the NBC Olympics Instagram. If you wanna see Snoop say “I just found out I was Mona Lisa’s twin brother, Tony Lisa”, smash that link.

Too good to be true? $20,000 Marc Chagall for $2. University student Shannon Kim saw the artwork at an estate sale in Orange County, California. While the lithograph print resembles a modern reproduction, Kim noticed a Jan Mitchell Gallery label on the back suggesting it might be vintage Chagall. If you want to know why “Marc Chagall,” “lithograph,” and “California” have us questioning its authenticity, read Jacob Wilson’s new article on art forgery.

In the past two days, two new Banksys have been revealed in west London: a mountain goat standing on a thin wall and a pair of elephants in false windows. These days, new Banksys are ten a penny, the real shock in the Plaster offices was the shoddy quality of the work, particularly the poor can-handling on the elephants. It’s been clear for a while that Banksy’s work is going downhill, but with these latest animal artworks Plaster can officially announce that Banksy has jumped the shark.

Artnews reports that “an intermediary” working on behalf of US cryptocurrency company Co2Bit Technologies was planning to exhibit an unauthenticated Jean-Michel Basquiat painting at MoMA without the museum’s permission. In January, Co2Bit Technologies exhibited a disputed Kazimir Malevich painting at Paris’ Centre Pompidou, claiming it was genuine. It seems that they got around the museum’s restrictions against outside art by hanging the work during a private event. Promotional material put out by a PR firm suggested that the unauthenticated Basquiat, titled 200 Yen, was worth $90M.

First a giant hotdog, now a giant pigeon comes to New York. The aluminium avian is alighting on the city’s public park, the High Line. Iván Argote, the artist responsible for installing the garbage bird said he hopes to instil da big apple with “attraction, seduction and fear.” Pigeons are having a moment right now; JW Anderson first recognised the aesthetics of flying rats with his pigeon clutch, then the Museum of London changed their logo to a shitting pigeon.

…and now a giant duck! Last week, the World’s Largest Duck was put on show at Splish Splash Water Park, Long Island. The 61 ft-tall inflatable yellow rubber duck is at the centre of an intellectual property argument between its owner Craig Samborski, and Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, who’s known for his giant yellow rubber ducks. Artnet outlines the twists and turns that led to the artist and former client spitting feathers over the artwork.

David Zwirner cuts its digital team just three years after launching its online luxury marketplace Platform. A gallery spokesperson told Artnews, “We have significantly reorganised our digital team,” in other words, they laid off nearly ten developers and designers only days after they completed the migration of the gallery website to a new database and CMS. We can only hope, for the gallery’s sake, that they remembered to change the passwords after laying off the tech staff. If you have any more info, email us: info@plastermagazine.com

White Cube cuts 38 invigilators. The London gallery laid off the workers, many of whom were students and artists on zero hours contracts, in a move that some are calling “callous”. According to The Art Newspaper, the gallery will replace the invigilators with security guards. It reflects a wider shift in the industry from ‘visitor engagement’ to ‘visitor management’. Let’s see whether the gallery comes to regret the move.

French endurance performance artist Abraham Poincheval seals himself inside a floating bottle. The gallic madman and absolute legend has previously sealed himself for up to a week inside a stuffed bear and inside a rock. He’s also done the bottle bit before, but he decided to bring it back for the duration of the Paris Olympics (if it’s not broke, don’t fix it).

Russian artist released in prisoner swap. Sasha Skochilenko was arrested in St Petersburg in 2022 for protesting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Skochilenko had placed fake labels on supermarket goods detailing atrocities committed by Russian forces. She was one of 16 people of various nationalities exchanged for eight Russians in the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.

Shanghai to get its own Rodin Museum. The project was first announced back in 2019 but dropped off the radar until late July, when the South China Morning Post reported that the Centre d’Art Rodin would open in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area on 25th September. 50 of the French artist’s works will be on display, and the museum will focus on Rodin’s connection to Chinese art. The announcement comes after the closure of many museums and private galleries in the West Bund area of the city.

Constantin Brâncuși sculptures join UNESCO World Heritage List. The five sculptures, called the Heroes’ Way and located near the artist’s hometown of Hobița, Romania, were originally made in 1937-8 as memorials to Romanian soldiers killed in the First World War. The monumental works include Brâncuși’s Endless Column, Table of Silence, and Gate of the Kiss. Their inclusion in the list recognises the artwork’s “outstanding universal value.”