Restituted Schiele Works Head to Auction, India Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple, Orlando Museum Lawsuit Proceeds, and More: Morning Links for January 22, 2024

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TEMPLE ATOP CONTENTIONS. Today India’s PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a controversial Hindu temple to Ram, a Hindu deity, in the city of Ayodhya, replacing a three-domed, 16^th-century mosque torn down by mobs in 1992. The incident ignited riots at the time, leading to the death of some 2,000 people. The inauguration is seen as political calculation on the part of Modi, to informally launch his campaign for this spring’s general election. Some opposition leaders boycotted the proceedings, while individual Muslims residing in the city, who are part of India’s largest minority, told the BBC they feared for their safety. About 80 percent of India’s population is Hindu.

SCHIELES FOR SALE. Two Egon Schiele works restituted to the family of Austrian Holocaust victim, Fritz Grünbaum, will go to auction. The paintings on paper were returned to Grünbaum’s legal heirs on January 19, in a restitution ceremony at the Manhattan DA’s office, and have been consigned to Christie’s auction house. Portrait of a Man (1917) and Girl With Black Hair (1911) had been in the collections of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Ohio’s Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, respectively. Grünbaum was a Jewish cabaret performer, murdered in the Dachau concentration camp in 1941 after his art collection was seized by Nazi officials.

The Digest

A US Air Force cyber analyst named Devin Alan Rhoden was arrested for allegedly plotting to hype the value of NFTs. He is accused of implementing the so-called “rug-pull” scheme, or falsely promoting NFTs to investors, before quickly putting an end to the whole endeavor, or “killing the project,” after having cashed in some $80,000 believed to be linked to their investments. [The Art Newspaper]

The role of dealer Yves Bouvier is dissected in the ongoing Accent Delight International v. Sotheby’s trial, despite him not being included in the proceedings. ARTnews Senior Reporter Daniel Cassady sheds light on how opaque art deals can lead to the astronomical prices, and the current lawsuit, brought by Russian billionaire Dimitry Ryboloviev. Meanwhile, Rybolovlev, who nevertheless made hefty profits by reselling at least some of the contentious artwork acquired through his relationship with Bouvier, appears to be looking to sell his stake in the AS Monaco Football Club. [ARTnews and Bloomberg]

At the annual FOG art fair in San Francisco, dealers blame the art market at large for dips in sales, not the tech milieu, undergoing a recent economic squeeze. [Cultured Mag]

The Orlando museum has narrowed its focus in their Basquiat lawsuit, to focus on its former director Aaron De Groft, due to financial troubles. [ARTnews]

The Jack Shainman Gallery opens in the historic NYC clock tower, a stunning Italian Renaissance Revival building in Civic Center, south of Tribeca. [Hyperallergic]