Stonehenge-Style Site Found in the Netherlands, Unusual Roman Amphora Discovered, and More: Morning Links for June 22, 2023

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The Headlines

THE DIGGERS. Archaeologists at work in the central Netherlands said that they have found a sanctuary that recalls Stonehenge, the Reuters reports. Built from wood and soil, the place dates back around 4,000 years, with elements positioned to align with the solstices. Good announcement timing: the summer solstice was yesterday. ● Over in central France, on the walls of a cave, scientists have identified engravings made by Neanderthals that are estimated to be more than 57,000 years old, the Guardian reports. That would make them the oldest-known engravings by the extinct species. ● And in southern Spain, researchers have found a fragment of an 1,800-year-old Roman jar carved with a quotation from Virgil’s Georgics, according to the Guardian. It is believed to be the only known Roman amphora adorned with a literary quote.

ALL’S FAIR. Ah, summer. Cocktails by the beach. BBQs in the backyard. Low-stakes group shows at the galleries. And few, if any, art fairs. Once September hits, of course, the fairs returns en masse, and yesterday, Independent New York revealed the 32 exhibitors taking part in its edition for 20th-century art, which is scheduled for September 7–10 at the Battery Maritime Building. Looking ahead to November: Today the Art Dealers Association of America announced the nearly 80 exhibitors it has on tap for the 35th-anniversary edition of its Art Show, which runs at Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory. In ARTnews, Maximilíano Durón has a rundown of its exhibitor list, which includes newcomers like Nicelle Beauchene, Eric Firestone, and Perrotin.

The Digest

The new Factory International arts center in Manchester, England, will be renamed Aviva Studios, after the Aviva insurance company provided £35 million (about $44.7 million) in funding to the over-budget project. Its original name had honored the legendary Factory Records. Aviva opens next month with a Yayoi Kusama show. [ArtReview]

The widely published art historian and critic April Kingsley, who was the assistant director of the storied Lower Manhattan co-op Park Place Gallery in the mid-1960s, died last week at the age of 82. [The Provincetown Independent]

Maika Pollack has been named director and chief curator of the Syracuse University Art Museum in that New York city. Pollack, a critic, curator, and art historian, is coming from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in Honolulu, where she leads the John Young Museum of Art and University Galleries. [Press Release/SU]

Artist, erstwhile art dealer, and former ARTnews columnistJoel Mesler guest-edited the latest issue of Cultured magazine, which features interviews with artists Eric Fischl, Mary Heilmann, Rashid Johnson, and more. [Cultured]

The market for Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art is heating up, specialists say. One example: A 1978 painting by Vietnamese artist Vu Cao Dam purchased the year after it was painted for $3,500 is being offered at an Australian auction house with a high estimate of AU$100,000 (about US$67,900). [Australian Financial Review]

The Kicker

PAPER CHASE. The VIP opening of the Liste art fair in Basel, Switzerland, had some special uninvited guests last week, Melanie Gerlisreports in her Financial Times column: Swiss customs officials, who were making sure that foreign exhibitors had their documents in order. Naturally, the director of the emerging-art-focused fair, Joanna Kamm, was not pleased. “It was an incredible thing to happen,” Kamm told Gerlis, and while she noted that the authorities always stop by at some point, this year, “it was in the first hour of the preview, there were about 15 people in bulletproof vests suddenly everywhere and of course it looked like something was wrong.” One wonders if collectors in more adventurous lines of business may have been nervous for a moment. [FT]