— Sotheby’s Offers Loeb Board Seat: Turns out Sotheby’s has been in talks with activist investor Daniel Loeb over the past few months and the auction house has offered him a seat on its board of directors. Loeb, unsurprisingly, isn’t satisfied with Sotheby’s offer and said he wants three directors of his choosing appointed to the board. “I’ve told them I would be willing to work with them if they put us on the board,” Loeb said. “My hope is that we put our differences behind us and work constructively with this board and with the CEO.” [Bloomberg]
— Artists Back Ai Wei Wei Vase Smasher: A group of artists in Miami are staging a news conference and donating works to an auction to raise funds in support of Ai Wei Wei vase-breaking artist Maximo Caminero. Caminero, who smashed the vase at the Pérez Art Museum Miami on February 16, faces up to five years in prison. “We do not support the act, but we support the intention,” said Danilo Gonzalez, a painter and sculptor who is organizing the conference. [NYT]
— Christie’s Launches HK Gallery: Today in Hong Kong, Christie’s opened the James Christie Room, its first gallery space in Asia. Among the offerings on view are works by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Andy Warhol, and Zeng Fanzhi. “People are thinking about acquiring works of art, whether they want to buy them purely as indulgence and something they want to enjoy, or they think of it as part of a balanced asset portfolio,” said Jonathan Stone, Christie’s chairman and international head of Asian art, referring to the market in Asia. [Forbes, Press Release]
— Looted Antiquity Found in Queens: New York authorities plan to seize an ancient Roman sarcophagus lid from a warehouse in Queens that Italian authorities claim was looted. [NYT]
— Stolen Paintings Found in Miami: At least 11 paintings stolen from Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts have turned up in Miami, according to Miami art dealer Ramon Cernuda. [Miami Herald]
— SF Galleries Evicted: The George Krevsky Gallery, Rena Bransten Gallery, and Patricia Sweetow Gallery, all occupants of San Francisco’s famed 77 Geary Street gallery complex, have received eviction notices to make space for an Internet services company. [SF Gate]
— A six-foot James Ensor drawing is set to go on view at the Getty in June for the first time in 50 years. [NYT]
— Longtime Boston MFA director Malcolm Rogers has announced plans to retire, but the museum also just appointed two new department heads. [Boston, Boston Globe]
— China’s first art fair devoted to photography, Photo Shanghai, will open in Shanghai in September. [Art Daily]
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