The weirdest art world moments of 2024

Remember January? We’d prefer not to. In London we were in the middle of the wettest 18 months on record. In the batshit bubble of the art world, the year began on an unsettling note as Lisa Schiff, former art advisor to the stars, filed for bankruptcy. It was soon revealed that she had been stealing from her clients’ accounts. The soupings will continue until morale improves: the Mona Lisa was splashed with soup by activists from French protest group Riposte Alimentaire (Food Counterattack), demanding the right to “healthy and sustainable food.” Meanwhile, the latest episode in the long-running Bouvier Affair started as Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev took Sotheby’s auction house to court, claiming it helped his former art advisor Yves Bouvier embezzle money by inflating the value of works (and inflating Bouvier’s commission). By the middle of January, events took a sinister turn when art dealer Brent Sikkema was found stabbed to death at his home in Rio de Janeiro. Suspect Alejandro Triana Prevez was soon arrested, who accused Sikkema’s ex-husband Daniel Carrera of ordering the murder. In March, Carrera was arrested in New York. It was soon discovered he had been cut out of Sikkema’s will in favour of another former lover. By April, Prevez’ defence lawyers had quit, claiming Prevez and Carrera were in contact, against orders. The trial continues in Rio de Janeiro. Rounding off the month, Carl Andre, the minimalist sculptor accused of killing his wife, Ana Mendieta, died at the age of 88. Remember, you can’t libel the dead!

In February, a German art technician committed a ‘reverse heist’ when he included one of his works in the ‘Glitch’  exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Showing stereotypical German humour, the situation was taken very very seriously. Now, compare that to the Italian junior culture minister Vittorio Sgarbi. When he was accused of laundering stolen art, he implicated his colleagues and threatened to expose his genitals on TV. Meanwhile in Britain, TERFs and monarchists united in impotent hatred when Teresa Margoles’ sculpture of trans people’s faces was selected for the Fourth Plinth: many falsely believed the plinth was reserved for a statue of Elizabeth II. Going abroad, Jeff Koons and Elon Musk teamed up to send sculptures to the moon; Donald Trump launched a sneaker line (who’s laughing now?); and Vladimir Putin inherited a $2B art collection of dubious quality. However, the real story of the month was Plaster breaking the news of who’s behind anonymous art account @whos____who.

By March, things could only get better. Sadly, things did not. On the 6th March, the art world stopped as Pigcasso, the porcine artist of our times, died age seven. She is survived by her owner. The New York Times’ chief art critic Roberta Smith retired after 38 years to spend more time with art. It wasn’t all bad news, some of it was schadenfreude: the NYT revealed the story behind the dramatic fall of art-world mogul Louise Blouin. Talking of overdue assessments, a serious scandal unfolded when it was revealed that Damien Hirst had been ‘backdating’ some of his major works: at least three of the artist’s famous formaldehyde animals and 1,000 paintings were made years after they were dated. There are no laws about dating artworks, but come on… Another artwork with an unusual background emerged when a nude originally commissioned by Jeffrey Epstein went up for auction. The auction house pointed out the provenance was impeccable, it’d been caught on body camera during the FBI raid of Epstein’s home. March also saw the start of what turned out to be one of the biggest stories of the year. It all started when the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania was sued for barring men from its ‘Ladies Lounge’ exhibit: first it was sued for not allowing men into the women only exhibition, in April it lost the case and the next month mounted the artworks in the loos, then in July it was discovered that all the artworks were fake, opening the possibility of fraud, finally, in October the Tasmanian Supreme Court overturned the original ruling. Was it worth it? More bad news came when the annual Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2024 found that in 2023 the art market shrank 4% because of interest rates, inflation and instability.

In April, fraudster Inigo Philbrick was released from prison, after serving only four of his seven years at a low-security prison in Pennsylvania. That month, Plaster spoke to his former friend and business partner Orlando Whitfield, to hear more about the man behind the myth. Kim Kardashian picked up some dupe Judds and annoyed the Donald Judd Foundation by claiming the unauthorised knockoffs were genuine. Later that month the Venice Biennale opened to controversy and criticism. Adriano Pedrosa tried to please everyone, and ended up pleasing almost no-one.

May saw major spring sales in New York, which many hoped would buoy the weak market. And with the worst possible timing, Christie’s website was taken down for over a week after a digital “security incident.” Christie’s held firm and refused to engage with the ransomers. It paid off, as the data released wasn’t very important. Still, a lawsuit was brought over the “preventable cyberattack.” This month, a wave of pro-Palestine protests took place across US university campuses. There were arrests at the Parsons School of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago, though many charges were later dropped. Protestors also gathered at the Hammer Museum Gala to demand the resignation of University of California chancellor Gene Block, who cracked down on protestors. Epcot, Florida hosted an exhibition of George W Bush’s paintings: a friendly reminder that there’s always hope for war criminals <3. They say that art is a window into the soul… bad news for King Charles III, Princess Catherine and Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart who all got done dirty by their respective portraitists. You don’t have to hand it to the royals, but at least they had the dignity to keep quiet. Rinehart spent a month whinging about her artwork to everyone who would listen.

June was not good news for anyone. Sotheby’s slashed its London staff and Christie’s soon followed suit. Did it help? Well, S&P downgraded Sotheby’s credit rating from B to B-. And analysis by ArtTactic showed auction sales for the first six months of the year were down 27% year on year. The report put this down to “sluggish economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty”. While sales reports from Basel were a mixture of bullish and bullshit. As Janelle Zara noted in her Substack: “An Art Basel director once told me that if dealers tell you they’re doing fine but they’ve heard their peers are not, it means they’re also not doing fine.” Then, Kehinde Wiley went from market star to persona non grata as several people reported sexual assaults. The only highlight of the month was the New Yorker’s unmissable longread on how Kanye West destroyed his Tadao Ando Malibu mansion. What happens when two unstoppable creative egos meet? Read on…

In July, a horny tourist divided Italians as she was photographed mounting and grinding on Giambologna’s bronze statue of Bacchus in Florence: former junior arts minister Vittorio Sgarbi (him again) called it “a loving exaltation” of true art however the city council said she’d be punished if caught. In a case of electile dysfunction, Keir Starmer upset everyone hoping for Cool Britannia 2 by predictably refusing to increase funding for the arts. At the British Museum, a Brazilian art student Ilê Sartuzi used sleight of hand to steal a historic coin, recording the act on camera for his MFA degree show. One of the stranger stories this month came to us from King’s Auctions, Los Angeles, when a court-ordered sale of (bad, bad, really, really bad) drawings supposedly by the disgraced singer Michael Jackson was announced. The estate denied authenticity, and the seller claimed bankruptcy, but was once again forced to go ahead.

In August, Banksy went on a bender, painting a menagerie of animals across London. Everyone had their own theory behind the series, but it turned out he was just having a laugh… we didn’t think much of it. The Rothko Chapel shut after being severely damaged when Hurricane Beryl, a category 1 storm, struck Houston, Texas on the 8th July. Conservators said that the ceiling, walls and three of the 14 murals were damaged. It later reopened on the 17th December following major conservation and renovation work. When God shuts one door he opens another: in this case it was Moco Museum on London’s Oxford Street. The ‘museum’ promised visitors “an unparalleled collection of art to reflect on modern society,” including work by Banksy, Keith Haring, KAWS and Marina Abramović. Of course, NFTs are involved.

September saw various protests across the art world. Builders discovered a hate mail time capsule hidden in a concrete column at London’s National Gallery. The letter, by donor John Sainsbury expressed his regret at signing off on the “unnecessary” columns and criticised the architect Robert Venturi. He got his wish, the columns are now demolished. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a confused protest at the Courtauld Gallery, protesting the sponsorship of the gallery by fashion house LVMH, because of the brand’s use of leather. In Amsterdam, Extinction Rebellion protestors set off smoke bombs inside the Rijksmuseum, saying that ING Bank is laundering its fossil fuel business through its sponsorship of the museum. Also this month, Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were jailed over their 2022 souping of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888) at London’s National Gallery. The judge sentenced them to two years just for wetting the picture frame. Hours later, the same painting was souped again in protest, with three JSO activists being arrested. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, celebration turned to chaos as a firework display by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang went wrong, firing debris into the audience and terrifying locals.

October: Frieze came and went without much of a fuss. The most exciting event was our release of the iconic MILF and DILF tees (recommended by Hettie Judah in the Guardian). Art gallery protests once again stole the headlines. In Manchester, two Just Stop Oil activists were acquitted for their art gallery action after the district judge said their actions were ‘proportionate’ to the climate crisis. Days later, the National Museum Directors’ Council published a statement demanding attacks stop because of the “enormous stress” placed on staff, despite the fact they’re often sympathetic to protestors. Shortly after, another protest took place in front of Picasso’s 1901 painting, Motherhood. Following this, the National Gallery took the step of banning all liquids. This month, the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art reopened after closing in June due to pro-Palestine protests, in a rare win for protestors, the university did agree to cut ties with its Israeli donors, Candida and Zak Gertler. The Evening Standard showed its commitment to journalism by running a review of Van Gogh at the National Gallery written by ‘AI Brian Sewell’. Is this just another case of AI ragebait? Or do the few remaining editors at the failing publication think they can get away with AI slop? The latest Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting found the wealthy spent 32% less on arts and luxuries in 2023, however, over the next 20 years, $84.4T (that’s T for trillions) will pass from older to younger generations. Are we seeing the bust before the boom?

November was not brat. On the 5th November, the art world failed spectacularly in its noble effort to prevent a Donald Trump presidency. At least we had fun with all those sculptures and fundraisers! In Germany, James Bridle was un-awarded an architecture prize because of his support for Palestine. The irony being that the prize is named after Nazi party member Erich Schelling. On 20th November, Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian sold for $6.2M – quite a lot of cash for a banana gaffer taped to a wall. This started nearly a month of arguments about art and its value, resulting in one fruit seller crying. The fact it was bought and later eaten by media-hungry crypto bro Justin Sun only added fuel to the fire. At the other end of the financial spectrum, a report by the Design and Artists Copyright Society found that UK artists’ average earnings dropped 40% to just £12,500 ($15,728), and 80% of those surveyed said even those earnings are “unstable” or “very unstable.”

December was a great month for discourse: Dean Kissick kicked off weeks of drama with an essay in Harper’s magazine arguing that the contemporary art world was running on the fumes of identity politics. The backlash was broad and strong, with Kissick called everything from a “white supremacist” to an old man yelling at clouds. 600 artists signed and delivered an open letter to the Tate calling on the gallery to cut ties with donors linked to Israel: those are the Zabludowicz Art Trust, Zabludowicz Art Projects and Outset Contemporary Art Fund, which are run by Anita and Poju Zabludowicz and Candida Gertler. The message must have hit home, as later that month Candida Gertler resigned from all voluntary positions in UK arts organisations. Gertler said that her resignation was a “principled protest against the alarming rise of antisemitism.” Jasleen Kaur won the Turner Prize for her show ‘Alter Altar’ at the Tramway, Glasgow. After the ceremony, she greeted pro-Palestine protestors outside the venue wearing a ‘Free Palestine’ scarf. In the US, a popular California sculpture park was revealed to be built on a radioactive landfill. The fact that many of the artworks were made from scavenged waste was only slightly concerning…

Bring on 2025, what could get worse?