Photographer Frederick Eberstadt Dies at 97, the Met Acquires Rare Group Portrait, and More: Morning Links for August 15, 2023

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

The Headlines

PHOTOGRAPHER FREDERICK EBERSTADT, who pursued a remarkably multifarious career over his many decades, died late last month at the age of 97, Alex Williams reports in the New York Times. After briefly working at his father’s storied investment bank, Eberstadt & Company, he spent time in television, then became an assistant to Richard Avedon after telling the famed photographer that he would enjoy that job if he got the chance to do it. Eberstadt documented vanguard cultural scenes in Downtown Manhattan in the 1960s, wrote about style, and later became a cognitive therapist. Writer Bob Colacello gave the Times a wonderful quote about Eberstadt and his wife of more than half a century, Isabel, saying that they “stood out among their Park Avenue social set. They were hipper, cooler, more open minded, curious and adventurous.”

FALLOUT. Last week, it was reported that the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) had rejected an advisory panel’s recommendation that the seasoned curator Defne Ayas organize the 2024 Istanbul Biennial and instead went with Iwona Blazwick, the former Whitechapel Gallery director. Esra Sarıgedik Öktem, the curator of Turkey’s pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale, which is presented by the IKSV, has resigned from that post in protest, Artforum reports. Öktem said on Instagram that “recent events involving my dear friend and colleague Defne Ayas, have distressed me very deeply and it also highlighted the need for a more transparent selection process and the lack of mutual communication.” The IKSV has maintained that it acted appropriately, and emphasized that the process called for it to make the final decision.

The Digest

The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a rare 19th-century group portrait that shows three white children and an enslaved Black child who was at one point painted out of the picture. The New Orleans Museum of Art sold the piece through Christie’s in 2005, but an eagle-eyed collector helped bring it to light. [The New York Times]

Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam allege that the Denver Art Museum holds eight antiquities that were illegally exported beyond their borders. Six were donated by the late Emma C. Bunker, a former DAM trustee who reportedly trafficked in contraband material. (She was never criminally charged.) DAM said that it has deaccessioned five pieces donated by Bunker and is working with the US to repatriate them. [The Denver Post]

For a third time since the cost-of-living crisis took hold in the United Kingdom, the National Gallery in London is allowing visitors to pay as little as £1 (about $1.27) for a special exhibition on Friday evenings. This time the arrangement is for a Frans Hals show that opens tomorrow. [The Guardian]

Media kingpin Rupert Murdoch is said to be dating molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, the mother of noted art collector and patron Dasha Zhukova. [Tatler]

A 19-year-old lifeguard on a beach south of Rome dug up an amphora from the 2nd century BCE after a bather spotted its neck. It will likely go on view in a museum in the city of Lazio. [ANSA]

ARTISTS (AND ARCHITECT) SPACE.Lucía Vidales is in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Tang Da Wu is in the South China Morning Post, and Peter Cook is in the Financial Times.

The Kicker

CASH AND CARRY. This week’s New Yorker has a charming letter to the editor that was written in response to Patrick Radden Keefe’s barnburner of a profile of the art dealer Larry Gagosian. Frankly, you may want to read the letter yourself, rather than have it summarized here. In any case, it comes from someone who visited Leo Castelli‘sgallery in 1964 and pulled out a $10 bill to buy an Andy Warhol print. Castelli was apparently shocked to see cash, but then Warhol chimed in. He said (spoiler alert!): “Take the money, Leo. That’s what it’s all about.” Thank you for sharing that, Rudy Franchi. [The New Yorker]