— Sotheby’s CEO Steps Down: William Ruprecht will leave his post at Sotheby’s after 14 years as CEO and 34 years with the company. Though the press release issued by Sotheby’s speaks of calm transition and mutual agreement, other sources report a fraught power struggle between Ruprecht and recently added board member Dan Loeb, who spoke out 13 months ago against Ruprecht’s leadership, calling the company “an old master painting in desperate need of restoration.” Apparently, since the decision was announced, Sotheby’s shares have already risen. [WSJ, NYT, FT]
— ArtPrize Heads to Dallas: After establishing itself as the country’s largest art award, with more than $500,000 distributed to artists and 400,000 visitors this past year, ArtPrize has announced its first expansion from Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a new edition planned for April 2016 in Dallas, Texas. The 19-day event will focus on artists from the southwest, giving a boost to local talent — not to mention that the 2014 ArtPrize generated a reported $22.2 million in economic impact for its host city. [ARTnews, NYO]
— Colonial Williamsburg Seeks $600 Million: Launched privately in 2009, the ambitious capital campaign is already halfway to its goal with over $300 million, and as of this Saturday, the effort is going public. The money raised will go in part toward expanding the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg — including the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum— adding 8,000 square feet of new gallery space at a cost of around $40 million. Other funds will bolster programming at the history museum and restore local historic sites. [NYT, WP]
— Did Shell Steal an Artist’s Idea? Kurt Perschke, whose “RedBall” project consists of placing large red spheres in cities worldwide, claims a Shell ad featuring a similar image ripped him off: “Even though it might seem that a ball would be a ball would be ball, [my] red ball is specific in the way it is constructed and built and these graphics that they have created are spot on.” [Guardian]
— A New Space for Artists of Color: “Generally, when you see minority representation of artists, they’re in shows all together, and those shows seem to be about their identity, specifically. So we want to get away from that. Even though we are showcasing artists of color, we want the subject matter to expand beyond just our reflection of how we are perceived in society,” said filmmaker Dawne Langford of Quota, his new pop-up gallery in Washington, DC. [WP]
— Classic Images Recreated: IKEA unveiled a series of Edward Hopper tributes featuring its furniture, while the Tate Gallery partnered with cube-based computer game Minecraft to create interactive 3D renditions of its works. [Independent, BBC]
— The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the new Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (now officially split from North Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art) announced their 2015–16 programming. [LAT, ARTnews]
— Canadian artist William Kurelek once traded a painting for an apple strudel — and now, that painting is poised to sell for $15,000-20,000 at auction. [Globe and Mail]
— Petzel Gallery signed Adam McEwen, while Lisson Gallery took on Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. [ARTnews, ARTnews]
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