– Fernando Botero Flees Fire: The Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero, renowned for his bronze sculptures of rotund animals and human figures, managed to get out of his holiday home safely after a fire broke out, though the estate’s caretaker was not so lucky — he was injured in the blaze by a falling beam. “We received a call at 11:45 p.m. Three engines attended the fire. The painter and his friends are fine,” said fire safety official Elson Zuluaga. While the house on the estate was badly damaged, Botero’s studio escaped unscathed. [AFP]
– Art Meets Economics at Davos: During this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, two giants of the art world — Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat and Metropolitan Museum director Thomas P. Campbell — were on hand to offer the economists and politicians in attendance wildly divergent advice. Neshat, who received the Forum’s Crystal Award, advised Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani: “Take care of your artists, your intellectuals. And accept that art is no crime, that it is every artist’s responsibility to make art that is meaningful, that questions tyranny, that question injustice.” Campbell sounded a divergent note: “Discussion of the culture industry needs to be involved at a deeper socioeconomic level. We need to make our case with metrics, framed in a language that businessmen understand.” [TAN, NYT]
– Esmerian Collection Sets Record: The collection of Ralph O. Esmerian — the currently jailed, former chairman of the American Folk Art Museum — has sold at Sotheby’s for $13 million. Of that, $10.5 million will go to pay down Esmerian’s $140 million debt that was accrued after the jeweler was convicted of fraud in 2011. According to Sotheby’s, the sale brought the highest amount ever for an American folk art collection. [Bloomberg, TAN]
– Accused Johns Forger Pleads Guilty: Foundry owner Brian Ramnarine, who’s accused of forging and trying to sell a Jasper Johns work, has pled guilty to three counts of wire fraud. [NYT]
– Tacoma Museum Donates Robes: The Tacoma Art Museum is donating nine Chinese robes, which the institution controversially tried to deaccession last year, to the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation. [Tacoma News Tribune]
– New Mexico Proposes Auction Oversight: A bill proposed last week in the New Mexico state legislature would impose government oversight on auction houses. [New Mexican]
– In an episode of Tate and Le Méridien’s YouTube series Unlock Art, artist and “Girls” star Jemima Kirke offers a feminist take on art history while donning a Guerrilla Girls mask. [Telegraph]
– A 19th-century watercolor painting by Victorian artist Richard Dadd turned up in an 1885 scrapbook that a keen buyer acquired for £200 ($330) on eBay. [TAN]
– On March 29 the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles will host a gala celebrating its 35th anniversary, the L.A. opening of Mike Kelley’s retrospective, and the institution’s new director, Philippe Vergne. [Press release]
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