— Kapoor Sculpture Vandalized With Anti-Semitism: For the second time, Anish Kapoor’s Versailles sculpture, “Dirty Corner” (the one he characterized as the “vagina of the queen taking power”), has been vandalized — this time, with anti-Semitic slurs, an act France’s culture minister Fleur Pellerin called “ignominious.” Fabrice Bousteau, editor-in-chief of Beaux Arts magazine, commented on the event’s similarities to the vandalism of Daniel Buren’s columns in the 1980s: “There is a minor faction of the French population that is fascist about culture and especially about what it considers to be degenerate art,” he said. “Most French people are respectful of contemporary art, but these people see it as an expression of France’s degeneration.” Kapoor, meanwhile, may well leave the inscriptions in place: “I think I have made the decision to leave, or I am in the middle of making the decision once I can extricate myself sufficiently from it, to leave the graffiti as part of the work,” the artist said in a radio interview. “It is vile, so to turn what I hoped always was an act of affirmation as a work of art into something else, into a kind of lament to a state of intolerance.” [Independent, Guardian, NYT, WP, BBC, TAN]
— Taubman’s DIA Loans Head to Auction: Following the $800 million “Grand Bargain” that saved the Detroit Institute of Arts collection from being dispersed, seven of the museum’s Baroque paintings will head to auction in November and one in January as part of the much-touted collection of A. Alfred Taubman. The works were all loans to the DIA from Taubman, the shopping-mall tycoon who died in April, and was a DIA board member and former chair of Sotheby’s. Estimated at more than $500 million, the Sotheby’s sale proceeds will go to settle the estate taxes and fund his private foundation. “It’s a great loss that Taubman didn’t leave some of his collection to the museum — at least, the pictures he loaned the DIA,” said R. Ward Bissell, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, specializing in Italian Baroque. “It’s certainly unfortunate and unexpected.” [Detroit News, NYT]
— Frank Stella Gets a Whitney Retrospective: A Frank Stella retrospective will inaugurate the Whitney’s new space in Chelsea. “It’s an accident,” Stella said, when asked about his show. “I’m old. I’m not controversial anymore.” Whitney director Adam Weinberg will curate the show, which opens on October 30. The two have known each other since Weinberg’s days directing the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy Andover, the prep school where the artist remains an active alumnus. “We have a very good relationship,” Weinberg said. “He pushes me, and I try to push him back.” [NYT]
— Iranian Cartoonist Faces More Jail Time: Atena Farghadani, the Iranian cartoonist who was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison for drawing a cartoon of parliament members with animal heads, may now have her sentence extended because she shook hands with her lawyer, thereby provoking “charges of an ‘illegitimate sexual relationship short of adultery’ and ‘indecent conduct,’” according to a statement by Amnesty International. [TAN]
— Houellebecq Admits (Probable) Islamophobia:“A provocateur is someone who goes too far just to get on people’s nerves. A good provocateur knows who he’s going to shock. I’m absolutely incapable of predicting that. It’s always a surprise every time,” said Michel Houellebecq in this lengthy interview, in which he also concedes that he is “probably, yes,” Islamophobic. [Guardian]
— The Downside of Hi-tech Museum Displays:“The time and psychic energy I spent coping with today’s glitchy gizmos could have been more rewardingly devoted to quiet contemplation of the objects themselves,” writes Lee Rosenbaum in this piece about museums’ sometimes awkward first forays into gadget-happy presentations meant to foster audience engagement. [WSJ]
— Holland Cotter looks ahead to the fall season, where “moral force trumps market forces.” [NYT]
— Peter Fischer, director of the Paul Klee Center in Bern, Switzerland, will step down in February 2016. The departure coincides with the Center’s partnership with the Kunstmuseum Bern. [Artnet, Artfourm]
— Serpentine Gallery co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist has won the 2015 International Folkwang Prize, which cashes in for around $28,000. [Artforum, Artnet]
