On this week’s art crime blotter: 14 members of a British museum-robbing ring were convicted, Christie’s sued collector Jose Mugrabi for failing to pay for a $37-million Basquiat he won at auction, and the NYPD seized a crate labeled “art” only to find it full of weed.
This week in art news: courtroom sketches from the Knoedler forgery trial went on public display, artists came out in support of Apple’s decision not to give the FBI access to users’ encrypted data, and a painter in France found a drawing in a bottle that was thrown into New York Harbor two and a half years ago.
On this week’s art crime blotter: people pillaged stones from the quarry where Stonehenge’s giant rocks were sourced, the certificate of authenticity of a Lee Ufan painting recently sold at auction was found to be fake, and a curator bit a fellow passenger on an airplane.
This week in art news: Ai Weiwei’s new refugee-themed artworks and actions drew sharp criticism, Spain ruled that an alleged accomplice in the Knoedler Gallery affair can be extradited to the US, and the Metropolitan Museum defended its widely ridiculed new logo.
On this week’s art crime blotter: a dog sculpture goes missing in Albuquerque, meth smugglers hide drugs in art supplies, and an artist sues Wu-Tang Clan and Martin Shkreli.
This week in art news: Facebook censored Evelyne Axell’s 1964 Pop art painting “Ice Cream,” a badger uncovered a trove of Bronze Age artifacts near Stonehenge, and Ann Freedman and the Knoedler Gallery settled a lawsuit brought by collectors who bought a fake Mark Rothko painting from the gallery.
On this week’s art crime blotter: an art dealer was accused of flogging forgeries, Airbnb renters stole their hosts’ Banksy print, and Egyptian authorities arrested three men for selling chunks of the Giza pyramids to tourists.
This week in art news: Utah moved closer to designating “Spiral Jetty” its official state artwork, the Queens Museum announced it will give legendary punk group the Ramones a retrospective, and a mouse died at the Museum of English Rural Life after crawling into a historic mousetrap.
On this week’s art crime blotter: a disgraced antiquities dealer’s stash of loot was discovered, a fake Picasso was seized by Turkish police, and a stolen portrait of R2-D2 was returned.
This week in art news: Jeremy Deller and Fraser Muggeridge raised a smiley face flag over London, the Knoedler forgery trial began with testimony from art world heavy-hitters, and the dissident Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky was sent to a psychiatric hospital.