The week in art news: Kehinde Wiley accused of assault, Christie’s website back online, the painting Australia’s richest woman doesn’t want you to see, and more…

Kehinde Wiley accused of sexual assault. In a post on Instagram, artist Joseph Awuah-Darko claimed that at a dinner in June 2021, Wiley “inappropriately groped” him and then commited a “much more severe and violent” assault later that night. Wiley posted his own response saying, “someone I had a brief, consensual relationship with is now making false, disturbing, and defamatory accusations about our time together.”

Christie’s website back online after 10-day outage that rattled nerves ahead of the spring sales. The app and website were “proactively” taken down on the 9th May because of “technology security issues.” In a statement emailed on the 19th May CEO Guillaume Cerutti apologised for the inconvenience and noted the “successful” New York and Geneva sales. There’s still no statement on what that unspecified issue was, and whether it affects customer data.

King Charles III reveals first royal portrait. The King’s red Welsh Guard’s uniform and bold red background had some critics comparing it to bloody tampons, butchers’ aprons and even suggesting the painting is secretly hiding Satanic imagery. The artist, Jonathan Yeo, probably seemed like a safe pair of hands, given his celebrity subjects. Then again, he once made a pornographic collage portrait of George W Bush. Is this all a joke? You decide. Yeo’s portrait is on show at Philip Mould & Company.

What do you do when you hate a pic of yourself? If you’re Australia’s richest woman, you ring up the gallery and demand it’s taken down. Not happy with inheriting the family’s mining firm (also the largest private company in the country), Gina Rinehart wants her “unflattering” portrait removed from the National Gallery of Australia. Rinehart’s portrait, along with those of other notable public figures, was painted by Aboriginal artist Vincent Namatjira. So far, the gallery has declined to remove the work.

Gigaweek update: in total, the New York spring sales managed to take in $1.4B, much lower than 2023’s $2.8B but well within expectations. The takeaway is that the art market remains stable, which isn’t as bad as freefall.

Phillips, the smallest of the big three auction houses, was the winner of the season. The house actually managed to improve on last year’s equivalent sale, from $70M to $86.3M after fees. Over half of that was down to a single work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, ‘Untitled (ELMAR)’ (1982) sold for $46.5M, the most expensive work across all the sales. This was followed by another Basquiat at $7M, two Donald Judds at $5.9M and $2.7M and a Helen Frankenthaler at $3.6M. However, nerves were rattled when Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme au chapeau (1962), which was expected to reach between $12M and $18M, was withdrawn at the last moment.

Christie’s sales pulled through, despite the difficulty of consigning works due to the ongoing ‘security incident’, the withdrawal of the headline Brice Marden work ahead of the sale, and concerns that the Rosa de la Cruz collection was a little outdated. Highlights included Ana Mendieta’s Untitled (Serie mujer de arena / Sandwoman Series) for $450,000 without fees. Felix Gonzales-Torres’ Untitled (America #3) sold for $13.6m with fees and Andy Warhol’s Flowers (1964) which sold for $35.5 million. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s The Italian Version of Popeye has no Pork in his Diet, sold for $27.5m ($32m with fees), falling below its $30M low estimate.

Sotheby’s sales totalled $235M, down from $303.1M in 2023. The major sale was Claude Monet’s Meules à Giverny for $38.4M. The major flop was Pablo Picasso’s Femme au chapeau (1939) which failed to sell. Other notable lots included Leonora Carrington’s Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945), sold for a record-breaking $28.5M, double its low estimate, and Francis Bacon’s Portrait of George Dyer Crouching went for $27.7M, below its $30M estimate.

Meanwhile, Hilde Lynn Helphenstein AKA Jerry Gogosian caused drama when she mocked the name of Sotheby’s auctioneer Ashkan Baghestani. Helphenstein was hosting a livestream of Sotheby’s ‘Now’ auction when she heard Ashkan’s name. “Asking for a friend. Who would name your child ‘ash can’?” Helphenstein laughed. Baghestani hit back on his Instagram stories, “I’m Ashkan, do you feel good about yourself posting xenophobia, intensive and hate speech on your social media account?” Helphenstein later apologised for the insult.

Loewe Craft Prize 2024 winner announced. Mexican artist Andrés Anza was nominated for his ceramic creation, titled I only know what I have seen. The announcement praised the work’s “intricately fashioned ceramic protrusions meticulously arranged into five puzzle-like segments” and said, “the sculpture exudes architectural precision and intentionality.” Special mentions were also given to Miki Asai, Emmanuel Boos, and Heechan Kim. The works of all 30 shortlisted artists are on display at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo until the 9th June.

South African artist Lebohang Kganye has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2024. Kganye was awarded the $38,000 prize for her 2023 show ‘Haufi nyana? I’ve come to take you home’ (Too Close? I’ve come to take you home) at Foam, Amsterdam. The prize shortlist also included VALIE EXPORT, Gauri Gill & Rajesh Vangad, and Hrair Sarkissian.

Frieze, Deutsche Bank, and Ikon Gallery have joined up for the 2024 Emerging Curator’s Fellowship. The programme was launched in 2020 to “amplify diverse voices in the art world” by supporting emerging Black and people of colour (POC) curators through 12-month, full-time, paid fellowships within leading arts organisations.