Italian Police Smash Art Forgery Ring, Mark Rothko’s ‘Ukrainian Flag’ Painting Hammers for $32.5 M., Social Media Accounts Are Targeting Paris While Promoting Azerbaijan, and More: Morning Links for November 12, 2024

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The Headlines

BUSTED ART FORGERY NETWORK. Italian authorities have uncovered a pan-European, multi-million-dollar art forgery network, reports Tessa Solomon for ARTnews. A total of 38 suspects from Italy, Spain, France, and Belgium are under investigation so far, for conspiracy to create and sell fake works attributed to Banksy, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol, among others, according to a statement by chief prosecutor of Pisa, Teresa Angela Camelio. Police began their probe by following a fishy provenance trail through auction houses in Italy, which eventually led to the seizure of some 2,100 forgeries in workshops across Europe, including Venice and Tuscany, with artworks estimated to be worth some $215 million. Experts from the Banksy archive helped with the investigation and hailed the findings as “the biggest act of protection of Banksy’s work” to date. 

DAK’ART DIALOGUE. The Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art, aka Dak’Art, has opened in Senegal after a six-month delay, and the Associated Press offers its initial take: “a whirlwind of color and art … in stark contrast to the serious topic of slavery,” particularly seen in the artworks of seven participating African American artists. The US is this year’s guest of honor among 58 creators from 33 countries invited to the exhibition, which is one of the most important on the continent. This edition’s theme, “The Wake,” is meant to evoke thoughts on exhumation, mourning, and uprooting, while linking the past to our present and future, according to the event’s artistic director, Salimata Diop. The cultural event also plays a diplomatic role. As guest of honor, and amid global tensions, the US’ role is “a display of the importance of art as a tool for dialogue between peoples, the promotion of peace, mutual understanding, but most importantly as a tool for economic and social development,” said Senegal’s minister of youth, sports, and culture, Khady Diène Gaye.

The Digest

Strange, seemingly fake social media accounts have been targeting arts organizations including Art Basel Paris, with criticism of the French capital and its cultural events, using the same, repetitive accusations of uncleanliness and insecurity, while promoting Azerbaijan’s “vibrant culture.” France and Azerbaijan are in a diplomatic spat over Armenia. The messages, which have been traced back to UK accounts, appear to be part of an attempt to sell Azerbaijan’s cultural appeal ahead of the COP29 climate summit that opened yesterday, which French President Emmanuel Macron has declined to attend. [Artnet News]

A 1954 Mark Rothko painting, Untitled (Yellow and Blue), that went viral in 2022 because of its similarity to the Ukrainian flag, sold yesterday in Hong Kong for 30 percent less than its previous 2015 auction, at its low estimate of US$32.5 million. [South China Morning Post]

American artist Joan Jonas has won the Nam June Paik Prize, worth about $35,700, for her work in sculpture, installation, performance, and video art. Jonas is known for using early digital technology in performance works, and represented the US at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. [ArtAsiaPacific]

Russian art teacher Daniil Klyuka was sentenced to 28 years in jail for what he says were irreverent doodles of moustaches and horns on the photos of pro-Kremlin officials in a newspaper. Masked government agents searched his home and arrested him on accusations he sent about $1,380 in cryptocurrency to a Ukrainian brigade — charges he denies. [RFI and AFP]

The Kicker

POMPIDOU RISING. Laurent Le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, opens up to the Brooklyn Rail about the modern art museum’s many hats and projects, in a conversation with Jennifer Stockman, president emeritus of the Guggenheim Museum and Joachim Pissarro, director of the Hunter College Galleries and art history professor at Hunter College, New York. For one, Le Bon asserts that the planned opening of a satellite Pompidou in New Jersey “is not dead,” contrary to reports. He also defends the concept of multiple museum satellites and lending artworks around the world as a more sustainable approach, because it doesn’t require tourists to travel to Paris to see the collection. “Our carbon footprint is smaller than the Louvre’s because we have mostly people [visiting] from around the region. It’s very interesting because it’s more efficient to make loans to the Pompidou in Shanghai than to have people come from Shanghai to Paris,” he said. He uses similar logic to placate public frustration with the museum’s anticipated closing for renovations in 2025. “To all the people who thought that closing the Centre Pompidou in Paris would be a nightmare. Of course, it’s a difficult time. But one must consider the facts … Every year we lend between 6,000 and 10,000 works. So the reality is that the Centre Pompidou already resides outside.”