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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.

“We are where we come from?” That’s not true. That’s not true because if that’s true there’s no hope for any of us.

The Troubles in Northern Ireland are over. Almost a decade later, Lori returns home early from her first term at university. Neither her parents, nor her two younger sisters, can quite grasp how and why everything went wrong. When their perfectly normal life is shattered, the family struggles to define who they are, where they might be headed and why.

The first play from Belfast-born writer Lucy Caldwell, Leaves won the George Devine Award in 2006 and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2007.

“Leaves dramatises the stresses of this desolate situation with unblinking insight and quiet, rueful humour.” – Paul Taylor, Independent.

Writer: Lucy Caldwell
Director: Rachel Chant
Assistant Director: Samantha Hickey
Set and Costume Designer: Isabel Hudson
Lighting Designer: Benjamin Brockman
Sound Designer: Nate Edmondson
With Harriet Gordon-Anderson, Bobbie-Jean Henning, Poppy Lynch, Simon Lyndon and Amanda Stephens-Lee.

Previews: 9, 10, 12 July.
Opening night: 13 July.

During 2013, the Ngala Nanga Mai pARenT group program, in partnership with Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation NSW (ANTaR NSW) and in association with the Head On Photo Festival, delivered a project titled Underexposed.

Through activity funding provided by Recognise, Underexposed engaged mothers of Aboriginal children from La Perouse and surrounds in a 9 week participatory photography project.

The project sought to encourage and celebrate a visual mode of storytelling from women whose voices are usually silenced or pushed to the margins.

These women’s perspectives and narratives are told through photography.

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.

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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.  

Dont look for any faces in the exhibition This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine. The show is named after Robert Rauschenbergs work This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so (1961), which is simply a telegram that declares its title. Although each of the around 60 works in the Bowdoin exhibition represents a specific individual, it does not include traditional portraiture, says Anne Collins Goodyear, the co-director of the museum and co-curator of the show. The exhibition is divided into three chronological sections: 1910s-20s, 1960s and 1990s to the present, periods when issues of identity became particularly politically significant, she says.

Among the works on show are Byron Kims Emmett at Twelve Months #3 (1994), a grid of monochrome panels painted the colour of his son's body (skin, hair, etc.) and Dan Flavins whimsical Barbara Roses (1962-65), an early light work.

This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, 25 June-23 October

A survey examining the work of Bas Jan Ader, who died in 1975 attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat as part of a performance work, opened Wednesday (until 5 August) at Metro Pictures. Among the works in the show is a slide projection by Ader that reflects on his father's execution by the Nazis in 1944. At the Whitney, a show with lighter themes looks at the paintings of Stuart Davis. Stuart Davis: In Full Swing (until 25 September) includes around 100 pictures from the early 1920s to his death in 1964 and focuses in particular on how, after 1939, he tended to recycle forms and ideas from earlier pictures. It's also your last chance to see a show of Giorgio Morandi's rarely-seen work from the 1930s at the Center for Italian Modern Art (until 25 June). The exhibition, which closes this weekend, includes around 40 works and features, notably, two of seven self-portraits still in existence.

Want to know which artists Van Dyck, Matisse and Lucien Freud collected? Painters Paintings (until 4 September) at the National Gallery sheds a light on the collections of eight painters, some of whom collected each other. The show, which opened yesterday (23 June), includes Picassos Portrait of Dora Maar (1942), which he sent to his rival Matisse as a get-well present. If the British summer fails to materialise, there is always the South London Gallerys Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today (until 4 September). Serious themes are contrasted by playful works and colourful palettes, including Federico Herreros site-specific floor painting in a nearby playground. If getting Ivan Turgenev, Fedor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy into a room together is your idea of a fun (literary) afternoon, dont miss Russia and the Arts: the Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky (until 26 June) at the National Portrait Gallery, which closes this weekend. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see some of the best portraits from Moscows State Tretyakov Gallery, which is lending part of its collection in a cultural exchange marking the 160th anniversary of both museums.

British arts organisations and artists are dismayed by the results of the European referendum, in which 52% of voters opted to leave. The decision by David Cameron to resign as prime minister in the early autumn has only added to the political and economic uncertainty, which will increase difficulties in the art world.

Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, voiced the concerns of many when he told us this morning that the fund is deeply concerned at the impact leaving the EU will have on culture in the UK, and particularly on its museums and galleries. He explained: At one level there is obviously now great financial uncertaintythe effect on European funding streams for the arts, for examplebut quite as important is the potential effect on the spirit that drives a myriad of international partnerships in the arts.

During the campaigning, there was overwhelming arts support for remaining in Europe. A survey of members of the Creative Industries Federation had shown that 96% backed remain.

The cultural sector is now so cosmopolitan that there is a strong commitment to internationalism and links with Europe, a sentiment which is strengthened by the fact that art has crossed borders for centuries. There is therefore a strong emotional commitment to being part of Europe.

Financially, there is great concern that there will be economic uncertainty for many months and even years, as the UK goes through the complex process of withdrawal. If the economy suffers, there could be further cuts in government expenditure, leading to lower levels of funding for arts organisations. Economic problems could also reduce corporate sponsorship for culture.

There are also specific issues impacting on the arts. The European Regional Development Fund and the Creative Europe programme grant millions of pounds a year to UK arts organisations. Tougher controls on visitors and immigration may make it more difficult for foreign artists to visit or work in Britain. A fall in incoming tourism would impact negatively on museums, such as Tate Modern, which has just opened its huge extension.

London, along with New York, is the worlds largest art market, and both the disruption of leaving the EU and possible trade barriers could have a damaging impact. The financial uncertainty is also likely to reduce buying by wealthy UK collectors. Although leaving the EU could lead to some advantages, such as changes to artists resale rights, the uncertainty is bound to have a damaging short-term impact. It will take years for the full impact of Brexit on the arts to become apparent.

Politically, a new Conservative prime minister could well lead to fresh faces at the Department for Culture, Media and Sportreplacing John Whittingdale as culture secretary and Ed Vaizey as the long-standing culture minister. Vaizey wrote on Twitter minutes after Camerons resignation: So sad to see PM going. Utterly decent to the end.

BBR Festival is proud to announce the 4th annual weekend bustling with appreciation for everything French. Held over Bastille Day weekend, the 4 day open air festival boasts an array of artistic events and delicious stalls for punters across Circular Quay Foreshore and Customs House Square.

Paying homage to France’s National Day (La fête nationale), the BBR Festival celebrates Le “Quatorze Juillet” in style with an array of live concerts, traditional French cabaret, French films, food and exciting cooking masterclasses with French chefs! Oui, s’il vous plaît!! Last year’s festival attracted 350,000 people over the 3 days. This year is expecting to go above and beyond with an additional day of celebration, more attractions, stalls and entertainers.

BBR Festival brings the best of French and European food, culture and entertainment to the heart of Sydney. Celebrate Bastille day like the Frenchies, eating and drinking your way around Europe, dance with can-can girls, see real snow and ice sculptures run around a traditional Swiss village!

The BBR Festival is a family fun weekend like no other.

See website for full details of the exciting weekend of celebration ahead.