Art Newspaper

A new work that draws upon the history and heritage of the Houses of Parliament opens to the public today (until 1 September; tickets must be booked in advance) only days after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

The Ethics of Dust, a 50-metre-long translucent latex cast of an internal east wall inside Westminster Hall is by the Spanish artist, architect and conservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos. The work or skinwhich enshrines grime and soot from over the centuries hangs from the ceiling of the 1,000-year-old hall.

The site-specific piece was commissioned and produced by the non-profit art commissioning body Artangel. It acts as a historical and artistic record of the seat of democracy, which was shaken by the Leave campaign prevailing 52% to 48% on 23 June.

This huge skin bears the marks of history.  [Prime Minister] David Cameron came to the House of Commons on 27 June to give his statement on Brexit just as the installation was being completed, and we are all consumed by the events of the moment, says James Lingwood, the co-director of Artangel.

But The Ethics of Dust is concerned with a grander and longer history of this building at the heart of democracy.  It contains within it centuries of pollution. The dirt is transformed into something radiant, it reminds me of a huge tapestry, glowing with history, he says.

You can see the streaks of the water marks and the outline of sculptures that were once placed against the wall, the artist says. What interests me is when a work of art ends and the space begins.

The work, which is backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, has involved collaborating with Parliaments restoration and stone cleaning project team over five years. The ambitious project is part of Otero-Pailos ongoing series, which considers conservation and cultural responses to pollution.

Last year, Otero-Pailos made a cast of a cast from Trajans Column in Londons Victoria and Albert Museum and in 2009, created a latex reproduction of an interior wall in the 14th-century Doges Palace in Venice.

The London Zoo is selling off four paintings by the Swiss-born animal painter Jacques-Laurent Agasse, who moved to England in 1800. Despite their importance, the pictures had remained unknown to art historians. They are due to be sold at Christies in London, where they should fetch around 500,000.

The paintings were commissioned in the 1820s by Edward Cross, a dealer in exotic animals and owner of a menagerie open to the public. For a time his menagerie was located on Trafalgar Square, but was moved to allow the building of the National Gallery in 1829. The Agasse pictures later passed down Crosss family and were bequeathed to the Zoological Society of London in 1950 by Mrs F.E. Emerson. The society runs the London Zoo in Regents Park and is also involved in research and conservation.

Although the bequest was noted in the societys 1950 annual report, since then the paintings have not been published by the society or even recorded in the Agasse literature (they did not figure in Tates 1989 exhibition on the artist). The pictures were hung in private areas of the societys offices and since 2013 they have been in store.

The trustees of the Zoological Society of London have now decided to sell the Agasse paintings. There are no legal impediments connected with the bequest and the Charity Commission has been informed. A Lion and a Lioness in a Rocky Valley (est 200,000-300,000) and Two Bengal Tigers in a Savannah Landscape with a Man in a Tree (est 200,000-300,000) are to be sold on 30 June. Giraffes with Impala in a Landscape (est 40,000-60,000) and Elk in a River Landscape (est 40,000-60,000) are to be sold on 8 July.


A spokeswoman for the society says: To continue to store and insure these paintings is adding a regular annual cost and the society feels it can do more good with funds from the sale. The proceeds would help continue work for wildlife, helping to conserve and protect some of the worlds most endangered animals, such as the Sumatran tiger.

The snaking line of art-worlders waiting in the rain to be cleared by House of Commons security to view Artangels latest commissionThe Ethics of Dust by Jorge Otero-Pailos in Westminster Hallwere treated to a more direct engagement with contemporary history as several thousand London Remain marchers poured past from what was supposed to be a cancelled rally in Trafalgar Square. The stream of protestors, who included a posse of Royal College of Art students distinguished by their rather well-executed banners, received an enthusiastic response to their anti-Brexit chanting from the trapped queue. Among these were the artists Richard Wentworth and Simon Patterson, the Tate Modern director Frances Morris and Jenni Lomax, the director of Camden Arts Centre.

Once inside the venerable space of Westminster Hall and bathed in the honey glow of Otero-Pailoss suspended back-lit latex castwhich contains the grime of several centuriesmany felt a stronger desire to be outside with the animated, youthful throng contemplating the tumultuous events of the here and now, rather than the dust of ages. But all agreed that it was also apposite that we were gathered together in the most ancient part of our parliaments buildings, which itself had been built under the reign of a European, William Rufus the son of William the Conqueror, in 1097. For, as the protesters were chanting outside, we are European family.

For those sitting in the saleroom of Sothebys last night, the turmoil on the financial markets following the UKs decision to leave the European Union (EU) seemed a distant memory.

Records tumbled for Keith Haring and Jenny Saville, whose monumental body pile painting, Shift, last seen at the Royal Academy Sensation exhibition in 1997, was bought by Liu Yiqians Long Museum for 6m (6.6m with fees; est 1.5m-2m). The Chinese billionaire beat four other bidders including the US mega dealer Larry Gagosian to win the canvas, which will be exhibited in Shanghai in a show of international female artists called She.

Its good to see that some British exports are still desirable, Sothebys auctioneer Oliver Barker said before banging the gavel to hearty applause.

The far-reaching implications for British exports are still unknown, but some dealers said Brexit could benefit the art market in the short term as investors seek refuge in art as an asset class and savvy collectors search for a bargain with the pound so devalued. Its such an international market. If you are looking at something in terms of sterling it is a lot less expensive than it was three days ago, said the London dealer Harry Blain. Discounts have been estimated at around 10%.

The results for Sothebys contemporary evening sale were reassuring. The auction house made 43.9m (52.2m with fees; est 35.4m-50m). The sell-through rate was a strong 87%. But the trimmed sale on 29 June represented a 60% drop in value from last year.

Other success stories on the night included Jean Debuffet and Adrian Ghenie, whose baboon and moth painting, The Hunted (2010), sold to a private Asian collector on the phone for 1.6m (1.7m with fees, almost three times its high estimate of 600,000).

Alex Branczik, Sothebys head of contemporary art Europe, conceded that the uncertainty of the EU referendum had made it harder to consign works, but the results show that the passion for art collecting continues to over-ride broader concerns about the economy.

The results were indeed a boost for Britain. Its set to be the wettest June on record, the England team is out of the Euros and we have left the EU. But this sale was very encouraging, Blain said.

Nazy Vassegh, the chief executive of Masterpiece London, says she has sought to recalibrate the UK capitals unashamedly lavish, cross-disciplinary fair since her appointment in 2013.

While the fair maintains its premise of mixing older art with new, a previous emphasis on luxury goodsunpopular with some who, ironically, felt it cheapened the tonehas been scaled back. Vassegh says that a focus on the three pillars of art, antiques and design will give the fair a stronger identity. With stricter selection criteria for exhibitors now in place, visitors wont find modern pens at the seventh edition, which opens to the public tomorrow (30 June).

The organisers have also taken steps to bolster the fairs requisite educational programme, which will be led by a talk on British decorative arts by curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The changes have done no harm to the attendance figures. The fair drew a record 40,000 visitors last year, in part due to the word spreading, Vassegh says. Were still only six years old.

As with most young fairs, there is some flux in the list of 150 exhibitors, with 23 new names appearing this year. These include the Dutch gallery Axel Vervoordt, which offers a stylish mix of Modern art and design with antiquities, as well as Tornabuoni Art and Cortesi Gallery, two of the recent wave of Italian post-war and contemporary art galleries in London.

It is crucial to strike the right balance of disciplines that curators and collectors want to buy and that the culturally inclined public want to see, Vassegh says. Modern and contemporary design is one area that will grow in prominence at this years fair. Another newcomer, the Stockholm-based design gallery Modernity, has chosen to attend Masterpiece as its first non-specialist fair.

For Jonathan Green, the director of Richard Green gallery in London, Masterpiece is a good-looking fair, improving slowly but surely. Whether participation results in hard sales is a matter of debateor rumourbut last year the gallery sold around ten paintings. We take a huge stand and put our best foot forward with the works that we take, Green says. With that level of investment, we expect to do a few million pounds worth of business. You get out what you put in.

Masterpiece London, Royal Hospital Chelsea, South Grounds, London, 30 June-6 July

Steve Martin the curator and art enthusiast occasionally gave way to Steve Martin the comic and film star at the media preview of The Idea Of North: the Paintings of Lawren Harris at Torontos Art Gallery of Ontario on Tuesday, 28 June. The show spans the long career of the Canadian artist, whose work ranged from cityscapes to landscapes to abstraction. It opens to the public on Canada Day, 1 July.

A stripped-down version of the comprehensive survey was on view last year the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and at Bostons Museum of Fine Arts. In Boston they came in throngs, in LA they came in thongs, Martin joked in a freewheeling conversation during the preview with Andrew Hunter, the AGOs curator of Canadian art, who co-organised the show with Martin and the Hammer's Cynthia Burlingham.

My first encounter with Harris was in a book. I mistook him for Rockwell Kent. I thought Thats the best Kent Ive ever seen, Martin recalled. Kent was a contemporary of Harriss and also travelled to far-flung places; his piece Icebergs, Greenland is included in the Toronto show. When told that the artist he was so impressed by was Lawren Harris, who is best known for his association with The Group of Seven, Martin said: Whos that? I thought Id discovered this guy, only to learn he was already famous in Canada.

Martins late exposure to Harris prompted a discussion of whether there are artists that Canadians might be missing out on. Have you heard of Vincent van Gogh? he asked the audience. As an avid museum-goer and art collector, Martin also shared his thoughts on what distinguishes good art from bad: A bad painting, you look at it and go, What? A good painting, you look at it and go, Wow.

Martin was also asked what advice he had for young artists, having been an aspiring writer and comedian before making it big in television and film. Do everything that is offered, he said. Take every opportunity to show your work. He added a note of self-awareness, however: Though its easy to say never give up, sometimes you have to give up and start again.

The biggest laugh followed a question as to why Harris, who passed away aged 85 in 1970, always seemed to be in good spirits, even saying of death: Theres a certain amount of fun in it. As usual, Martin had a ready reply Harris was rich, he said, adding more thoughtfully, When you have a mission in life, it makes you happy.

The destruction of the Temple of Nabu in the Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq by the Islamic State (Isil) has been condemned by Unesco and a leading UK archaeologist. As part of its propaganda campaign, the jihadist group issued video footage earlier this month that appeared to show part of the ancient archaeological site being blown up.
 
The United Nations training and research agency, Unitar, released satellite images taken on 3 June confirming the damage to the temple, which was built in the ninth century. Compared to imagery collected 12 January [2016], we observe extensive damage to the main entrance of what is known as Nabu Temple, the agency said.
 
The gate and the walls of the temple, dedicated to the Babylonian god of wisdom, were built centuries later. In general, it seems that they [Isil] do not have the knowledge to distinguish between modern reconstructions of buildings and the ancient remains. They display a formidable ignorance. But when explosives and bulldozers are used, some serious damage can be done, says Colin Renfrew, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge and member of the House of Lords.

Extremists cannot silence history and their attempt to erase the memory of this region can only fail. The deliberate destruction of heritage is a war crime and must be punished as such, says Irina Bokova, the director-general of Unesco, in a statement.

The Isil video taken from several angles shows explosives being detonated behind and under the [entrance] arch, the archaeologist Christopher Jones writes on his blog. A series of mermen sculptures flanking the arch were seriously damaged.

He adds: As can be seen in after shots, the arch collapsed but the majority of the structure is still standing In a move surely calculated to provoke a media reaction, the video concluded with an Isis member stating that the group intends to go to Egypt and blow up the pyramids and the sphinx. The video footage also shows a bulldozer demolishing the seventh-century Mashki Gate in Nineveh, which is also located in the north of the country near the city of Mosul.

Red Bull Studios in New York presents We All Love Your LifeLondon-based artist George Henry Longlys first solo presentation in the US (until 31 July) comprising a dizzying two-storey installation of living environments inspired by Henry S. F. Coopers 1976 book A House in Space about daily life at NASAs first space station, Skylab (Longly cannily pegs the astronauts, observed on round-the-clock video feed, as the first reality TV stars). On 21 July, Longly and his fellow artists Prem Sahib and Eddie Peake are due to set up their DJ booth on the lower level of the show for the US debut of their gay pop-up rave Anal House Meltdown, an all-night affair that might call for some Red Bull.

Mona Hatoum: Tate Modern (until 21 August)

The first UK survey of Mona Hatoum confirms her very particular ability to inject an emotionally charged, politically conscious and often creepily physical subjectivity into the language of minimalism. Unfortunately, this can sometimes rely on one-hit first impressions and too obvious a use of reference and metaphor.

At its best her work translates the often excruciating ordeal of her early performances into multifarious sculptural forms. Hatoum has spent hours repeatedly slipping and falling over in a cube of clay, or walking barefoot through the streets of Brixton, dragging ankle-tied DMs. Nowhere is the trauma more evident than in her terrific 1994 Corps tranger, which crushes the viewer around the inside edges of a cylindrical cubicle while playing at their feet a magnified endoscopic film of the artists anatomyinternal, external, intimate yet also utterly alien. Here, in this most personal yet also anonymous self-portrait, it is unclear who is the foreign body, the artist or the interloping viewer. It is worth a visit to this show for his piece alone.

Hatoum was born in Beirut to a Palestinian family and has lived in England since war broke out in Lebanon in 1975. Her other works, both personal and political, often seem to employ more obvious and familiar tactics to make their point and create an impact. A common household grater becomes an unheimlich perforated barrier when blown up to a monumental scale and titled Grater Divide just to hammer the message home. There is also little left to the imagination in the seat of a chair that sprouts a triangle of (real) pubic hair in a laboured tribute to Ren Magritte. Similarly, the contours of countries across an entire globe are rendered in a fiery outline of red neon, just to remind usin case we didn't already knowthat today the whole world is a hot spot. 

Wolfgang Tillmans, Maureen Paley (until 31 July)

I visited this show in happier, albeit uncertain, times when many of these images were framed within the context of Tillmanss passionate pro-Remain campaign. Now, after the bleakest of black Fridays, it is impossible not to see his imageswhether of glowingly lit interiors viewed from outside, fragile plants on the cusp of decay or even human blood flowing in tubes outside of the bodyin an elegiac and metaphoric light.

The knowingly playful title of The State Were In has a more ominous reading now. Its a large black and white print of the swelling, rippling open waters of the Atlantic, where apparently man-made timelines and borders converge.

From the very beginning, much of Tillmans work has been about the permeability of boundaries: public and private, fine art and commercial photography, abstract and figurative, formal and informal (in all senses). This open-ended generosity, spliced with a very particular discipline, seems all the more important to cherish right now. Another titlethat of an installation of display cases filled with blank office paper called I refuse to be your enemy 2also seems especially pertinent this week.  

Susie Hamilton: in Atoms, Paul Stolper Gallery (until 9 July)

Susie Hamiltons subject matter is wide and various. She does apes, cowboys, bush babies, bodies lolling on beaches, figures in Moroccan souks, a night-time petrol station. But throughout, the power of paint is harnessed with a powerful mix of looseness and precision.

This 20-year survey finds Hamilton unceasingly patrolling the boundaries of abstraction in order to say more with less. It also confirms her abiding love of both the sublime and the ridiculous, often conflating both in the same work. Her painterly skill ensures that a fleshy, huge-bosomed sunbather is reminiscent of Rubens rather than Beryl Cook; while a howling gibbon painted in 2003 is a dead ringer for Donald Trump.

Few painters have the ability or the inclination to make the light in their paintings assume so many roles: from positive to malign, symbolic and formal, atmospheric and psychological. In these vivid, liquid, suggestive works, order and flux are suspended in a delicate and dynamic balance, and everything and anything seems possible.

Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, South London Gallery, (until 4 September)

South London, has one of largest Latin American communities in Europe. An ambitious collaboration with the Guggenheim brings to this Rio on the Thames a wide and multigenerational range of approaches and aesthetics from more than 40 artists, with some work extending back to the 1970s but most made during the last decade.

Often inviting audience participation, the expansive but also tightly organised line-up teases out several other key themes, including how artists from South and Central America have played with and off Modernism and the strategies of Conceptualism. It also looks at the many ways in which art has beenand still isused as a form of dissent and a means to explore and air post-colonial and socio-political issues. Javier Tellezs 2005 film of a human cannonballcomplete with passportbeing fired across the contested Mexican/US border seems especially timely in the current climate on both sides of the Atlantic.

As well as offering the first public view of South London Gallerys newand to be refurbishedexhibition space in the former Peckham Road Fire Station, Under the Same Sun extends out of the gallery space and into the local neighbourhood. Dont miss Federico Herreros transformation of a childrens playground into a vividly coloured asphalt floor mural that is both beautiful and functional.

Making and Unmaking: an Exhibition Curated by Duro Olowu, Camden Arts Centre (until 18 September)

Duro Olowu is the first designer to participate in Camden Arts Centres annual series of artist-curated exhibitions. He brings to its galleries the same exuberant but highly considered eclecticism that makes his clothes popular with a clientele spanning Michelle Obama and Beyonc, and his art and object-filled shop such a stimulating joy to visit.

For this is a designer as interested in ideas as he is in aesthetics. Olowu has always been obsessed with the meaning and purpose of clothes from the Baroque to Yoruba to haute couture. Although fabric and textiles form the ostensible starting point for this wonderfully rich and diverse show, it is about a great deal more. Along with an evident revelling in form, colour and sheer gorgeousness, issues surrounding portraiture, gender, race and sexuality also run through this parade of photographs, ceramics, paintings, jewellery and sculpture.

Theres also an abiding concern with the artists process. That can be the Surrealist self-portraitist Claude Cahun donning many disquieting disguises in which to photograph herself, or the rigorous woven tapestries of Bauhaus pioneer Anni Albers. Or it can even be the contemporary painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakyes striking but fictitious reclining men created, in her words, by a sort of making and unmaking of the work. It is this phrase that Olowu has aptly adopted for the title of an exhibition that also refuses any neat boundaries or categorisation.

On a night of uncertainty that saw the UK stripped of its triple-A credit rating following its decision to leave the European Union (EU) and Englands football team crash out of the Euros, Phillips mustered a decent sale of 20th-century and contemporary art.

No works were withdrawn prior to the 31-lot auction and there were, at times, flurries of bidding in the saleroom, despite the first four rows being conspicuously empty.

However, the 9.8m total (11.9m with fees) fell short of the 10.21m to 14.96m pre-sale estimate and represented a 34.6% drop from last year when there were 50 lots on the block. The sell-through rate was a lacklustre 68%. Six lots were guaranteedan acrylic by Sam Francis (est 300,000-500,000) was the only one backed by Phillips and failed to sell. The other five all found homes.

Ed Dolman, the chairman and chief executive of Phillips, said the auction house saw strong bidding from the US and Asia where they could be making savings of 10% to 15% owing to the fall in sterling. Although consignments seemed thin on the ground, Dolman said the real challenge in the run up to the sale lay not with the amount of material offered, but with pricing and managing consigners expectations.  

Only two works broke the one million mark. Onea stormy seascape by Anselm Kiefersold for 2m (2.4m with fees, est 400,000-600,000). Reflecting the turbulence in financial markets, the result is a record for the artist in pounds but not dollars.

The Kiefer painting also caught the eye of Jaden Smith, the son of US actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, who made his auction debut on 27 June although did not bid on anything. I had a great time, I like to collect, but Im also here because I make art, 17-year-old Smith said.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, Dolman said he hoped the prevailing fair wind would continue at Sothebys on 28 June and Christies on 29 June. We hope that the art market will remain extremely strong despite the changes ahead with the EU.

A global outlook, an understanding of buyer psychology, the ability to stay relevant and the retention of experienced specialists: these are the prerequisites of the modern auctioneer, according to Jussi Pylkknen, the global president of Christies, reflecting on the firms 250-year anniversary, which falls this July.

You have to forecast and grow bravely, otherwise you fall behind the curve, he says, after revealing the auction houses decision to open an exhibition space in Beijing in October.

For Pylkknen, the sands shifted in 1987, when a Japanese buyer bought Van Goghs Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers for 24.5m and art became the ultimate trophy asset.

When James Christie opened his auction house in Pall Mall, London, in 1766, he spoke to the audience from the rostrum, believing in the theatre of an auction thats so important today, Pylkknen says.

An understanding of psychology is crucial, so Christies will continue its gimmicky but undeniably effective curated sales alongside curated weeks of multicategory auctions for the time-starved, international cross-collector. Strictly defined period sales are a thing of the past, Pylkknen says.

The main challenges for Christies are generic. Staying relevant, making sure the contemporary side of the business is in good order and reaching out to the younger audience of 35 and under we used to send a catalogue to a few hundred people; now, a video on YouTube can be viewed by hundreds of thousands, Pylkknen says.

For all the novelty, and in the wake of several high-profile departures from the auction houses long-time rival Sothebys, Pylkknen stresses his commitment to retaining a consistent team of specialists with more than 20 years experience. Theres no shortcut to knowledge and experience.

A very British celebration
Global rather than national tastes may dictate today, but Christies is launching its 250th anniversary celebrations in a very British way, with a loan exhibition called Defining British Art (17 June to 15 July) and an accompanying (curated) sale (30 June), back where it all began, in the St Jamess district of London.

The UK is at the heart of what we do, says Orlando Rock, the firms UK chairman. The sale, which spans 400 years of British art, includes around 25 works by artists ranging from Joshua Reynolds to Lucian Freud that are quintessentially of that artist and period but also resonate with later work, Rock says.

It is not, he adds, a patriotic statement. Its not just indigenous art but about the fusion of ideas, the history of migr artists, from Van Dyck and Holbein to Auerbach. British art has always been a very international taste.

Hidden gems
As with all such cross-period sales, specialists at Christies hope to encourage buyers to reconsider overshadowed artists or periods by tempting them with the gloss of more fashionable markets.

The companion exhibition mixes fine art with decorative art and furniture, all once sold through Christies and borrowed from UK private collections (logistically, overseas and institutional loans were not feasible).

Although Gainsboroughs 1778 portrait of James Christie (now in the Getty in Los Angeles) was impossible to bring in, Christies has a portrait of Henry VIII from the circle of Hans Holbein the Younger (sold at the firm in 1788), Landseers The Monarch of the Glen (1851), Rossettis Proserpine (1877) and L.S. Lowrys Fun Fair at Daisy Nook (1953).

Id love to have an iconic Hirst from the late 1980s or early 1990s, Rock says. But wed have to get the right one.

When the sands shifted at Christies



1779

To Russia with love
James Christie negotiates the private sale of around 200 works from the enormous collection of Britains first prime minister, Robert Walpole, to Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, for 40,500.







1987
Modernity eclipses the Old Masters
Van Goghs Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (1888) is sold to a Japanese insurance magnate for 24.5m (hammer price), tripling the record sum for a work of art sold at auction. It is the first time that a Modern work has held the world record.







1998
The first contemporary sale
Christies rents a warehouse in East London for the first dedicated contemporary art auction for works made in the past 30 years.  Works sold included Felix Gonzales-Torress green sweets (1991)  for 106,000  (with premium, est 55,000-65,000).

A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which the players (as individuals or in teams) attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.

Thousands of artworks looted by the Nazis from Jewish families and recovered by the Monuments Men after the Second World War were later sold instead of being returned to their original owners, new research shows.

Entrusted with returning about 10,600 artworks to the original owners after the Monuments Men left Germany, Bavarias State Paintings Collections instead gave away or sold property looted from Jews to Germansincluding to some prominent Nazis, the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe (Clae) has revealed. Claims by the heirs of the original Jewish owners and requests for information are still frequently stonewalled, says Anne Webber of Clae.

Clae uncovered this history, first reported by the Sddeutsche Zeitung, while investigating a painting of a Dutch square by Jan van der Heyden, currently in the possession of the cathedral in Xanten, a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia. It once belonged to the Jewish Kraus family, who fled Vienna in 1938. Their possessions were seized and sold to benefit the Nazi regime.

Dutch Square was purchased by Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitlers personal photographer, whose daughter Henriette married Baldur von Schirach, the Reich Youth Leader. After the war, Hoffmanns collection was seized by the Allies, along with those of other prominent Nazis, and entered the custody of the Monuments Men. The Monuments Men passed responsibility for restituting the thousands of artworks still in their care to the Bavarian state when they left Germany.

But instead of restituting them to the original Jewish owners, the Bavarian State Paintings Collections returned them to the Nazis who had immorally acquired them, or sold them to other buyers. Henriette von Schirach bought back Dutch Square, along with dozens more artworks, furniture and carpets. Other members of the family successfully reclaimed artworks from Hoffmanns collection. Emmy Gring, the wife of Reichsmarschall Hermann Gring, also filed claims, though the Bavarian State Paintings Collections denies researchers access to the archives that would reveal whether she was successful, Webber says.

"It is particularly striking that the Hoffmann family was getting virtually everything back that it claimed with minimal proof of ownership and this went on for almost two decades, Webber says. The burden of proof was much higher for claims from Jewish familiesfrom the victims of these Nazi leaders."

Von Schirach sold Dutch Square a few months after recovering it. It was purchased by the Xanten cathedral community, which has so far rejected a claim by the grandson of the Kraus couple, despite watertight proof of his familys ownership.

The family feels that every possible German institution has been denying them justice, Webber says.

Update: The Bavarian State Paintings Collections rejected accusations that it has hindered restitution of Nazi-looted art, saying it is committed to finding fair and just solutions with the heirs of those who were robbed, in accordance with the international Washington Principles. In a statement issued on 28 June, the museum authority said it will continue to strive to be as transparent as possible in its investigation of art seized from leading Nazis and said it has already published a report on the Gring collection, including information on property returned to family members. The State Paintings Collections rejected the accusation it denies the heirs of Jewish collectors access to its archives, saying researchers are permitted entry on request and after making an appointment.

Chicagos dreams for a museum built by George Lucas now belong to a galaxy far, far away. The Star Wars creator announced on 24 June that he is abandoning plans to establish a museum in the Windy City to house his memorabilia and art collection, which includes paintings by Norman Rockwell. Lucas is now looking for a site in California.

The film-makers decision comes after a two-year legal fight to win approval for the Chicago museum, dubbed the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Friends of the Parks, a local non-profit, first filed their legal case against Chicago officials in 2014, arguing that public land should not be used for the proposed museum.

The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, originally planned to give Lucas a 17-acre lakeside plot near the Chicago Bears football stadium. The mayor shifted his focus to another site to avoid protracted legal wrangling, but Friends of the Park reportedly said it would challenge both sites. Lucas had pledged more than $740m towards the project.

In a last-ditch attempt to save the museum in May, lawyers representing Chicago City and the Chicago Park District filed a petition for a writ ordering the dismissal of the legal case brought against them by Friends of the Parks. The lawsuit was still ongoing when Lucas made the decision to withdraw his plans from Chicago.

No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot, Lucas said. The actions initiated by Friends of the Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.

In a joint statement, Juanita Irizarry, the executive director of Friends of the Parks, and Lauren Moltz, the chairman of the board said: It is unfortunate that the Lucas Museum has made the decision to leave Chicago rather than locate the museum on one of the several alternative sites that are not on Chicagos lakefront. That would have been the true win-win.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has now published Islamic Arms and Armor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by David Alexander, with contributions from Stuart Pyhrr, the former curator, and Will Kwiatkowski, the Oriental languages and epigraphy scholar. While it would be hard to find two better qualified scholars to assist in the preparation of such a catalogue, the book is for the most part written by David Alexander, described rather modestly by the museums director, Thomas Campbell, as being recognised as one of the leading specialists in the study of Islamic arms. In fact his knowledge in this field is second to none and a new book by him is a pleasure to all who are interested in this subject.

From a collection which exceeds 2,000 Islamic arms, split between the Arms and Armor Department and the Islamic Department, Alexander has selected 126 objects to discuss. These are almost all splendid, top-quality examples of their type, with a tendency to opulence that reflects the fact that the best technology and jewellers arts were employed to grace the personal arms of Near and Middle Eastern rulers and their courtiers. The museum has been adding to its arms and armour holdings for about 125 years and now has some 14,000 items. A number of notable curators with expertise in European arms at the museum such as Bashford Dean, Steven Grancsay, Helmut Nickel and Stuart Pyhrr have presided over the department, and today it has one of the greatest collections in the world. Bashford Dean was extremely interested in Japanese arms, but otherwise non-European/American arms were considered to be of lesser importance though major Islamic arms were acquired, often as a part of European collections: for example 11 superb 15th- and 16th-century helmets, mostly Ottoman, part of the Duc de Dino collection, purchased in 1904.

The museum is deeply indebted to the bequest in 1935 by the collector George Cameron Stone of more than 3,000 Near Eastern and Asian arms, the core of its Islamic and Asian arms and armour holdings. The Stone Bequest includes many important pieces but Stone was particularly interested in typology. For this reason, his collection is very varied in quality as he himself acknowledged by giving the museum full discretion on which items were to be exhibited and which stored. Given the historic, worldwide lack of research relating to Islamic arms, the true significance of what the gift contained has remained unknown and largely unpublished. This is partially remedied today because of the 126 pieces discussed in this book, 63 are from the Stone collection, which here receive proper scholarly publication for the first time. Of course, the selection reflects the authors preferences. Indonesia has a larger Muslim population than any other country with more than 200 million, but there is no Indonesian kris in this selection (though Islamic Spain at the other end of the Muslim world is represented by a unique Nasrid helmet).

Historically, Britain had the leading arms and armour scholars, but this was dissipated through poor museum management and today the Met leads in this field. It also has a budget that other museums can only envy. Given these advantages one might well ask why the museum has chosen to publish only 126 objects in its first book on Islamic arms rather than the full catalogue. Furthermore, though the museum has acquired notable piecesit has just spent $2.3m on the Qaitbay armour (Sultan of Egypt, reigned 1468-96) at Rock Island Auction Companyits performance in this area is badly shown up by the activities of private collectors such as Sheikh Al Ard, Sheikh Nassar al Sabah and David Khalili, who over the same period have built large, world-class collections.

The finest collections of Islamic arms in the world are the historic ones such as the Asker Mze and Topkapi Sarayi in Istanbul, or the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. American and European museums have failed to respond to the great growth in popular interest in this field, interest that can only grow as the Arabs, Turks, Persians and Muslims from the subcontinent and Southeast Asia become more appreciative of Islamic art, presently a rather elite interest in those regions. The construction of great museums in the Gulf will undoubtedly have an effect on future generations. One does not have to be an Arab or an Orientalist to enjoy objects such as the great Ottoman-period yatagan (knife or short sabre) of around 1525-30, or a bejewelled Mughal dagger, or the late 18th-century guns once owned by Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysoreall of which appear to be lifted straight out of miniature paintings and are as perfect as if they were just made.

David Alexander has produced a fine work of scholarship that is required reading and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has published a beautifully illustrated book (though scholars would find a concordance giving museum reference numbers a useful addition to future publications). Both are to be congratulated, but it is time the whole of the Mets collection was available online and for the publication of the entire collection in a scholarly catalogue, the essential tasks of a great museum.

Robert Elgood is an authority on arms of the Near and Middle East and the author of Arms and Armour at the Jaipur Court (2015). His catalogue of the armour in the Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, is in publication

Islamic Arms and Armor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

David G. Alexander with contributions by Stuart W. Pyhrr and Will Kwiatkowski

Yale University Press in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 348pp, $85 (hb)

Antiquities dealers in Germany are fighting to head off a new law they fear could deal a death blow to a trade already in terminal decline.

The cultural property protection law is due to go through the upper chamber of the German parliament on 8 July. If passed, it will bring in the worlds strictest import and export restrictions on cultural objects, says Vincent Geerling, the chairman of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art. His association is one of 20 in the newly formed Action Alliance for Cultural Property Protection (AACPP), which is lobbying the German parliament to reject the bill. The association argues, among other things, that the new law will put an end to the trade in non-European art objects.

Germanys culture minister, Monika Grtters, was determined to get the bill passed before parliament breaks for the summer, while the AACPP hoped at least to delay it. On 23 June, the lower house, or Bundestag, passed the bill with some last-minute amendments. The bill is now scheduled to go to the Bundesrat, or upper house on 8 July, the final of parliamentary business before the summer break. If approved, it would take effect immediately.

The primary aims of the law are to stop illegal trafficking in looted antiquities and to ensure that works of art with national significance do not leave Germany. It has been warmly greeted by those whose heritage has suffered most from antiquities theft and smuggling. The ambassadors of 12 countries, including China, Egypt and Mexico, gathered in Berlin on 9 May to show their support for Grtters.

Antiquities dealers argue that the law would hit the legal trade too. The main bones of contention are requirements for export and import licences for cultural objects above a certain value, even within the European Union. The rules for archaeological assets, defined as objects found in the soil or water, are particularly stringent. The law would demand an export licence from the country of origin for any item offered for sale.

Leaving Germany

Supposing you are offered a marble Roman head from a Swiss family collection, says Gnter Puhze, a Freiburg-based dealer in antiquities. How could you get an export licence from the country of origin without knowing exactly where it was dug up, maybe decades ago? Would you have to go to all the states that were once part of the Roman Empire?

More controversial yet is a requirement that any cultural goods above a certain value and age can be exported only with permission from yet-to-be established authorities in Germanys 16 federal states. Puhze says one of his most valued clients has moved his entire antiquities collection to London in case the law is passed and he is left unable to sell abroad.

Traders in Asian art have also begun to question their future in Germany. The Cologne auction house Van Ham is considering moving out of Asian art. At Nagel Auktionen in Stuttgart, Michael Trautmann, a Chinese art expert, says the firms Asian art business may move to Austria if the law comes into force unamended.

Meanwhile, the AACPP has written to members of the Bundesrat warning them about the potential hidden costs to the states of the additional bureaucracy and petitioning them to reject the bill.

The antiquities trade in Germany has been in decline in recent years, with many dealers shutting up shop altogether in the face of increasing regulation or retirement. Few young dealers have entered the trade in the country, which Geerling estimates to be worth only around 15m a year.

Brexit changes everything: our politics, economics, even our national psyche. In art historical terms, we have chosen the way of Hogarth over Turner. And, yes, our art will probably be different, tooor at least the way we organise it, display it and, of course, sell it.

Primarily (and Im sorry to be so utilitarian) it all comes down to money. It seems reasonable to assume, given the precipitous falls in the pound and world stock markets, that a period of economic uncertainty or contraction lies ahead. It will take years of hesitancy to extract ourselves from the European Union (EU). Tax receipts are likely to fall, and consequently arts institutions will come under funding pressure. It also seems likely, with the opposition Labour Party in some disarray, that a Brexiteer Conservative will become our next prime minister. Boris Johnsons only previous experience of a ministerial brief was as shadow arts minister in 2004, and it was not a success (I worked for his successor).

The chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne (who warned against Brexit), might not have been popular among the culturati but he did genuinely value the arts and, especially in the latest spending round, went out of his way to protect funding for our national institutions. All those old conversations we used to have about arts funding (instrumental versus intrinsic) will disappearquaint reminders of indulgent times past.

Will arts funding be seen as a priority in such a government (presumably quite a right-wing or free market one)? Probably not, given the many other priorities, both economic and diplomatic, that lie ahead as we grope our way towards our newly found freedom. The arts will just have to get on with it. Perhaps a period out of the spotlight will be a good thing, with increased autonomy the consolation prize for decreased funding. Will free museum entry survive? Some institutions might be tempted to introduce charges for overseas visitorscurrently prohibited by EU law. On the silver-lining principle, the weaker pound may provide some short-term comfort. The UK might become cheaper for tourists, providing opportunities for museums and galleries to increase visitor numbers and fundraise. Any EU funding will obviously disappear; remember, theyre going to spend that mythical 350m a week on the health service.

The weaker pound will also impact the UKs art market. At first, art on sale in the UK will be cheaper for overseas buyers. The next few auctions might be surprisingly successful. Art dealers with stock may feel comforted by the effective rise in their asset values; art is a good hedge and can be sold easily around the world in different currencies. In the longer term, higher costs for buying works abroad will, of course, even things out. And consignors from other countries may be wary of sending their work to London for sale, only to be paid in pounds that dont go so far.

Some dealers may hope for the abolition of the Artists Resale Right (ARR) and import VAT. Neither are likely, in my viewat least in the short term. The artist lobby is more vocal than the art market lobby, so ARR will probably stay. Abolishing import VAT (currently 5% on works imported from outside the EU) would certainly help the market. But post-Brexit every industry will be lobbying for concessions, and I fear art dealers will come a long way down the list. That said, dealers must lobby as hard as they can for the abolition of import VAT, for if 5% is now to be levied on works imported from the EU, the market will be severely affectedespecially London's auctioneers, who rely on consignments from Europe.

The more fundamental question is what will happen to the domestic market, and to the wider, mid-range art and antiques market. In my experience, people only buy art when the world is a prosperous and stable placeand after theyve paid off the mortgage, the school fees, and bought the second car. Weve some way to go before we see those days again, especially if Londons pre-eminent position as a centre of global finance is threatened. In the short to medium term, Im pessimistic. After that, who knows?

Bendor Grosvenor is an art historian, art dealer and broadcaster

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Portrait of Jane Morris (around 1870)
Estimate 300,000-500,000
As befits Christies 250th anniversary auction, this coloured chalk study pulls together several strands of British art history. Rossetti, the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, depicts his long-time muse Jane Morris, the wife of the Arts and Crafts champion William Morris, in a portrait that later belonged to L.S. Lowry. The painter of industrial Britain owned at least 16 works by Rossetti, including two of his stunners, Proserpine and Pandora, for which Jane Morris also modelled. He bought them both at Christies. Such was his obsession, Lowry confessed in a 1960s interview to having nightmares sometimes that Christies are going to hold an entire sale of Rossettis. Defining British Art also includes a work of Lowrys, Industrial Scene (1951), which is estimated to sell for between 1.5m and 2.5m.

Lucian Freud, Ib and Her Husband (1992)
Estimate in the region of 18m
One of the most recent works in the sale is Lucian Freuds tender oil painting of his daughter Ib (Isobel Boyt) and her husband Pat Costelloe. Freuds unflinching but affectionate paintings of his daughters speak volumes about their family relationships. In Ibs case, he was absent through most of her childhood, only growing closer to her later in life, when this work was painted. Ib and Her Husband passed through the Acquavella Gallery in New York to a Washington collection and was bought by the present owner at Christies in New York in 2007 for $19.4m (with premium), then an auction record for the artist. The painting also appeared in the travelling retrospective Lucian Freud: Recent Work at Londons Whitechapel Gallery, New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art and Madrids Reina Sofia in 1993-94.



Frederic Leighton, Golden Hours (1864)

Estimate 3m-5m
While the presence of Modern works by Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon in the sale injects some gritty British realism, this oil on canvas by Lord Leighton from a century earlier is an unabashedly beautiful example of British Aestheticism. Golden Hours is also clearly influenced by 16th-century Venetian artthe bearded man would fit seamlessly into a Giorgione painting. Viewed from behind while leaning over the piano, the female figure recalls Vermeers A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (early 1660s), which Leighton may have seen in the Royal Collection. Golden Hours is now coming to auction for the first time in a century, having last been sold at Christies for 260 guineas in 1916. The painting was first shown in the 1864 summer exhibition at Londons Royal Academy of Arts, where it returned for its last public appearance in the Leighton survey of 1996.

The Spanish island of Ibiza is the latest destination for US artist Jenny Holzers trademark LED light works which are on show at two spaces, the Lune Rouge and Art Projects Ibiza (Are you Alive? Until 17 December). The LED pieces incorporate the artists Truisms series (1977-79) as well as transcriptions of US government documents (a series of new footstools and benches crafted from stone such as Azul Bahia are also inscribed with some of the Truisms maxims including Everyones work is equally important). But a special site-specific piece will make waves on the island. In response to her time in Ibiza, Holzer will undertake her first site-specific commission on the island. Using raw materials from the Ibicencan countryside and coastline, she will engrave poems on cliffs, monumental boulders and on bedrock, a press statement says. Private viewings of Holzer's elementary verse can be arranged through Lune Rouge and Art Projects Ibiza.