— YBA Show Canceled Over Ukraine Tensions: A show on the Young British Artists (YBAs) in Russia — anticipated as the highlight of the 2014 UK-Russia Year of Culture — has been canceled by the British Council due to the crisis in Ukraine. The council has stated that the Russian sponsor for the exhibition, the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, withdrew its support after not being able to raise adequate funding. The British and Russian organizers of the exhibition were unable to find an alternative venue, so the show has been postponed to 2016. [TAN]
— Nahmad Sued for Hiding Nazi Loot: Manhattan art dealer Helly Nahmad, who recently received jail time for operating an illegal gambling ring, is now being sued for hiding a $20 million painting believed stolen by Nazis during WWII. Phillippe Maestracci, the grandson of a Jewish art dealer who fled Paris during the war, is suing the Nahmad family for using the International Art Center corporation to avoid a federal lawsuit over Modigliani’s 1918 “Seated Man with a Cane.” The suit asks the Nahmads to disclose details about the company and the painting’s whereabouts. [NY Post]
— “Grand Bargain” Funding Aids DIA: The Michigan State Legislature has agreed to give $350 million over the next 20 years to keep the Detroit Institute of Arts’s (DIA) collection intact and aid the city’s pension funds. The “grand bargain” deal is a step forward for settling the city’s bankruptcy woes, and with the government’s funding the current total stands at $820 million. Annmarie Erickson, the DIA’s executive vice president and COO, said, “It’s very significant and we’re delighted that the senate decided to move the package forward.” She added, “This is the best outcome for the DIA and the pensioners and the city of Detroit in terms of moving the bankruptcy along.” [TAN]
— Collectors Join MOCA Lawsuit Against North Miami: Several collectors who have donated to the Museum of Cotemporary Art in North Miami have joined the lawsuit against the city to make clear that their works were gifts just for the nonprofit museum. [Miami Herald]
— Are Biennials Gentrifying the Art World? While visiting the eighth Berlin Biennale, Hyperallergic contributor Kimberly Bradley proposes that biennial culture may be gentrifying the art world, bringing together international works that all feel the same rather than highlighting any diverse global art trends. [Hyperallergic]
— The Problems with Sprawling Memorials: Catesby Leigh of the Wall Street Journal argues that memorials are becoming increasingly sprawling, physically and conceptually, and getting much bigger than needed. [WSJ]
— Following the Mellon Centre’s recent conference on connoisseurship, the Tate Britain’s Martin Myrone and art historian Bendor Grosvenor take opposite sides in the ongoing debate. [TAN, TAN]
— Bloomberg’s In The Loop segment gave an overview of the art theft market. [Bloomberg]
— John Lennon’s sketches and poems sold for $3 million at Sotheby’s New York. [Independent]
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