The week in art news: Perrotin takes London, National Portrait Gallery “nepotism”, Trump squashes museum diversity initiatives, and more…

Plus, comeback for Sotheby’s, drama for Christie’s and a decapitated sculpture found in Greek bin

Photograph of a gallery interior in the National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery, London, 2019. © RB Photo via Flickr

We’ll always have Paris London! Emmanuel Perrotin to launch first London gallery. The French dealer and gallerist is set to inaugurate his new location with works from French photographer and street artist JR. The gallery will be based inside the five-star Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair and will open on 14th March. JR’s show will feature an ongoing project from 2022 and debut a new collection. The works explore topics of war, climate change and social instability, centring around families caught up in global conflicts in Ukraine, Rwanda and Colombia. The 350 sq m gallery will be located in what is currently the Claridge’s Art Space, currently home to a rotating exhibition programme.

The Brooklyn Museum faces backlash from artists over apparent refusal to show solidarity with Palestine. A group of artists from ‘The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition’ have had their requests denied by the museum administrators to add keffiyehs – the Arab headscarves known as symbols of Palestinian solidarity – to their artwork, which the artists’ demanded after the institution failed to take a “clear public moral stance” by denouncing Israel’s attacks on Gaza in a formal statement, Hyperallergic reports. The group has also asked the museum to call for a ceasefire, commit to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), and provide proof that it has ended its partnership with the Bank of New York Mellon, which has investments in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

Inside job? National Portrait Gallery accused of nepotism over major donor’s exhibition. NPG has been scrutinised for putting on a photography exhibition by Zoë Law, a large donor to its £40M makeover in 2023. Law’s work was shown in the NPG’s November exhibition ‘Legends’, which featured portraits she had taken over the last decade, including those starring Sienna Miller, Kim Cattrall and Orlando Bloom. The makeup artist turned photographer was married to Andrew Law, the Caxton hedge fund manager, and their family trust is listed as a key donor toward the gallery’s £41.3M refurbishment. Artnews reports that the gallery’s donations policy, which is public, “outlines that they are legally obligated to avoid conflicts of interest in its financial plans under the UK Bribery Act of 2010.” Several cultural figures have publicly criticised the gallery, expressing surprise at how “pedestrian” the work is, calling the exhibition “difficult to defend” and “obviously unethical”, the Guardian reports.

From the ashes: Sotheby’s records $6B in total sales in 2024. CEO Charles Stewart announced last week that the auction house reached $6B of consolidated sales against what he called “a clearly challenging market backdrop.” It’s tough out there for the rich! The figure marks the highest in the industry for sales last year. 2024 was a hard year for Sotheby’s, with a global economic environment wrought by geopolitical conflicts, the US presidential election and high interest rates. Their solution was to fire dozens of employees and reverse buyers’ fees less than a year after overhauling them. Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe told Artnet that he hopes much of the drama that gripped the house last year is firmly in the rearview mirror. Stewart also told the publication that he remained optimistic about 2025, as the company has roughly $800M of sales earmarked for the first few months of the year, which would make it the most successful quarter in the house’s 281-year history.

Meanwhile, drama shifts to Christie’s. Financier and collector Jacob ‘Jacqui’ Safra is suing the auction house, alleging that they were in the wrong for declaring him in default on a $63M advance agreement to sell his collection, which includes Albert Einstein letters and Old Master works. Safra claims that Christie’s “improperly sold” the Einstein letters and “betrayed his trust”, according to Artnet. Christie’s has denied the claims and plans to go ahead with selling another 25 lots next month.

Trump orders National Gallery of Art to end diversity programmes. Following an executive order by the new POTUS, Washington’s NGA will have to end its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The order was signed shortly after Trump’s inauguration and described DEI initiatives as “illegal and immoral.” A spokesperson for the museum told the New York Times that “The National Gallery of Art has closed its office of belonging and inclusion and removed related language from our website”. The gallery has removed the phrase “diversity, equity, access and inclusion” from its online mission statement, replacing it with the words “welcoming and accessible.” As the language in the executive orders is so broad, exactly what will happen under them remains unclear, but we wonder how other museums and galleries will respond.

Heads up! Decapitated sculpture discovered in the trash in Greece. Police are investigating how a headless sculpture dating to the Hellenistic Greek period has been found resting by some bins in Thessaloniki. A 32-year-old man found the sculpture wrapped in a plastic bag and brought it to the Thermaikos Crime Investigation and Prosecution Department’s attention. The statue is confirmed to be genuine and is headed to a laboratory for further examination. The robed figure is also armless and stands just 31 inches high, according to the AP.

Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum to design 2025 Serpentine Pavilion. Tabassum and her firm, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), have been selected to design this year’s summer pavilion, titled A Capsule in Time. Inspired by the history and architecture of shamiana tents and awnings of South Asia, the 24th pavilion will be made of four wooden capsules, a translucent façade and a “kinetic element where one of the capsule forms is able to move and connect, transforming the pavilion into a new space”. The pavilion will be unveiled to the public at Serpentine South on 6th June 2025.

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