Art Fair Armed Heist
Plus: Tate's 2023 exhibitions announced
Hello. Happy July. I can’t think too much about us already being halfway through the year - and a quarter of the way through this decade - because it gives me heart palpitations.
I had heart palpitations of a different kind this week when I got the chance to have a behind-the-scenes tour of Leighton House Museum. The Museum in Kensington, west London, is the former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). It is currently closed for upgrade work as part of an £8m expansion which will provide a richer visitor experience, new spaces, restored historic interiors and improved facilities. It is shaping up nicely, and from what I saw, it will be big improvement for visitors. And really excitingly, I got to see up-close their new 11-metre-high mural, hand-painted by the Iranian artist Shahrzad Ghaffari. This new commission - titled Oneness - envelopes the curved walls of a new helical staircase and pays homage to the distinctive tiles from the Museum’s iconic Arab Hall. It’s wonderful. Longer-time readers may remember I interviewed Ghaffari for this newsletter when fundraising for the work was still ongoing. Nearly two years later, it was fantastic to see the finished work finally. Thankfully, Leighton House has just announced its reopening date: 15 October. I suggest you mark your diaries.
Now onto the news!
Maxwell
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This week’s news
A shocking and brazen armed heist took place at the TEFAF art fair in Maastricht on Tuesday morning. In a video posted of the incident, thieves - for some reason dressed like characters in Peaky Blinders - appear to threaten employees and nearby exhibitors with guns while using a mallet to smash the glass case and make off with fine jewels. Dutch police initially arrested two men over the incident, but they’ve been released without charge, which means the culprits are still out there. A horrible thought. Artnet News
Two eco-protesters glued themselves to a Van Gogh painting at the Courtauld Gallery this week, bafflingly claiming “galleries should close” to tackle the climate crisis. Thankfully the gluing was just to the frame, but it caused the gallery to be evacuated and closed for the day. One of the protesters said “artists and the art establishment are failing us by focusing on the wrong things” and that “we are either in resistance or we are complicit.” MyLondon
A facade of a house that was damaged in the 2020 Beirut port explosion has been reconstructed at the V&A and is now on public display. The facade was transported from Lebanon to the UK in pieces, after which it was erected into a lifesize reconstruction at the Museum by Beiruti craftsmen. Visitors are even invited to enter and touch the facade. dezeen
Tate have announced their 2023 exhibitions, and it’s a corker of a year. Top of my list will be the major retrospective of the always excellent Sarah Lucas which will open in September at Tate Britain. There’s also a joint survey of work by Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian at Tate Modern, while Tate Liverpool pairs JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana. You might want to consider membership to save a few bob tbh. The Art Newspaper
The two outfits worn by HM The Queen in her two balcony appearances during the Platinum Jubilee are to go on public display. The green and pale blue ensembles (which the Scottish Daily Express slightly breathlessly call “iconic” - I’m not sure outfits worn once three weeks ago can quite be described as such but hey ho) can be seen in a new exhibition celebrating the Jubilee at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. Scottish Daily Express
The River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames is to close for six months so that £1m of repairs can be carried out on a leaking roof. The Chair of Trustees said it was the “beginning of the next 25" of the museum’s life. BBC News
A huge work from one of my favourite contemporary artists, Richard Serra, has a new home. Literally. Serra’s 2017 “Four Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Measure” has gone on show at Glenstone, an outdoor museum of modern and contemporary art in Maryland, USA. The work is made up of four steel cylinders, each weighing 82 TONNES. To show them, a brand new (and rather stunning) concrete structure has been built within the Museum’s woodland. I absolutely love it. The Washington Post
From today, the Met Museum in New York becomes the most expensive museum in the city, and one of the priciest in the world, to visit. Adult admission has gone up $5 to $30. The charge only applies to non-NYC residents (who retain a pay-what-you-can option). Inflation is coming for us all. New York Post
And finally
What is the role of museums in civic life? For the new Museum of Making in Derby, it’s about the present and the future as much as the past. Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian offers this excellent look at the revitalised mission of the industrial museum.
This major new exhibition at National Museums Scotland - on body snatchers, coffins and dissection - is getting rave reviews. A visit is definitely in order.
All the content in this newsletter is provided to you for free. Why not buy me a digital coffee if you enjoyed it?