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Your correspondent is not usually prone to horn blowing, but it is difficult not to feel a small triumphant glow after rather achieving a rather significant victory opposing the motion that contemporary art has sold out to the market in last nights (5 July) Intelligence Squared debate, hosted by Investec at Phillips. Decrying the evils of the art market and its corrupting effect on artists was the Guardians chief art critic Adrian Searle. Before the debate commencedmoderated by the BBC arts editor Will Gompertzthe room was 38% in favour of the motion and 15% against, with 47% undecided.

A spirited discussion ensued with much parry and thrust between the two combatants and some vigorous questioning from the audience who included Sigrid Kirk of Arts Co, the Monocle culture editor Robert Bound and the chief curator of Hepworth Wakefield, Andrew Bonacina. But your correspondent won the day by claiming a resounding 72% of the rooma 34% risein favour of the integrity of art and artists and that selling well need not mean selling out. In what was apparently the biggest ever swing in Intelligence Squared debates, the room of bankers and artworlders ended up by being convinced that, to paraphrase Damien Hirsts former manager Frank Dunphy, money chases art more than art chases money. Hurrah to that!

Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author, who founded the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul, was a keynote speaker at the International Council of Museums (ICOM) conference in Milan this week. He delivered the following message, first published by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, by video link. He stressed that in the future we need "small and economical museums that address our humanity". 

Pamuk said: "All museums are genuine treasures of humankind, but I am against these precious and monumental institutions being used as models for the institutions to come. Museums should explore and uncover the population as a whole and the humanity of the new and modern man that emerges from the growing economies of non-Western countries. I address this manifesto in particular to Asian museums that are experiencing an unprecedented period of growth. 

The aim of the great state-sponsored museums is to represent a state and that is neither a good nor innocent aim. Here are my proposals for a new museum, some themes on which we must reflect now more than ever. 

The great national museums like the Louvre and the Hermitage assumed the form of tourist institutions with the opening of royal and imperial palaces to the public. These same institutions, today national symbols, present the narrative of nation, History with a capital H, as much more important than the histories of individuals. This is a shame, since individual histories lend themselves much better to portraying the depths of our humanity. 

The second reflection I want to introduce is that the transitions from palaces to national museums and from the epic to the novel are parallel processes. The epic is like a palace: it speaks of the heroic gestures of the kings that inhabited them. National museums should be like novels, but this is not the case. 

Three: we do not need more museums that attempt to construct a historical narrative of our society and community as a narrative of faction, nation and state. We all know that ordinary and everyday stories are richer, more human and above all more joyful. 

Four: demonstrating the richness of Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Iranian or Turkish history and culture is out of the question. It must surely be done, and it is not difficult to do. The true challenge is to use museums to tell with the same brilliance, power and depth the stories of the human beings living in these countries. 

Five: the measure of success of a museum should not be its ability to represent a state, a nation, a society or a particular history. It should rather be its capacity to reveal the humanity of individuals. We must judge museums on that criterion.

Six: it is imperative that museums become smaller, more orientated towards the individual and more economical. This is the only way that they can ever tell stories on a human scale. The great museums invite us to forget our humanity and to accept the state and its human masses. This is why there are millions, outside the West, who are frightened by museums. This is why museums are associated with governments. 

Seven: the aim of museums present and future must not be to represent the state but to recreate the world of individual human beings, the same human beings who have suffered under tyrannical oppression for hundreds of years.

Eight: the resources channelled into the great monumental and symbolic museums should be redirected to small museums that tell the stories of individuals. These resources should also be used to support and encourage people to transform their small houses and small stories into places of narrative.

Nine: if objects are not uprooted from their contexts and streets but situated with care in their natural places, they can have a way of independently telling their own stories. We need modest museums that can honour the streets, houses and shops around them and transform them into moments of their narrative. 

In brief, the future of museums begins at home. The situation is very simple: we are used to having epics but what we need is novels. In museums we are used to representation, but what we need is expression. We are used to having monuments, but what we need is houses.

In museums we have History, but what we need is stories. In museums we have nations, but what we need is people. We had groups and factions in museums, but what we need is individuals. We had great and costly museums and will continue to have yet more, especially in Asia, where government money is funding these museums. Yet what we need are small and economical museums that address our humanity." 

This article first appeared in La Repubblica

The Art Newspaper is a media partner of the International Council of Museums conference in Milan, until 9 July

One hundred years after the American painter Georgia OKeeffe (1887-1986) made her professional debut at the 291 gallery in New York, Tate Modern opens the first UK survey of her work since 1993. The show, which is almost entirely drawn from US collections, speaks to a startling fact: none of OKeeffes works are held by any public UK museum.

With around 100 pieces by the artist, the survey opens with abstract charcoals, including those shown at her first 291 exhibition, and moves through the skyscape series she made in the early 1960s, when she was still working at the height of her powers, says Tanya Barson, the curator who organised the exhibition.

Thirteen galleries will be organised chronologically and thematically so that visitors will encounter less familiar works before her flower pictures and south-west American landscapes. One room, for instance, is dedicated to paintings OKeeffe made at Lake George in upstate New York, where she took annual holidays from 1918 to the early 1930s. Another gallery will include photographs of OKeeffe taken by Alfred Stieglitz, who founded the 291 gallery and later became her husband. OKeeffe was a collaborator and co-author of these pictures, Barson says. The strength of her own self-presence comes through really powerfully in those works.

The shows central aim is to privilege OKeeffes voice, Barson says. From very early on, interpretations were made of her work that she didnt agree with. In particular, the Freudian reading of her flower paintings, which originated with Stieglitz, emphasised how the flora resembled vaginal forms. Barson, however, insists that the works are about form, composition, colour.

The exhibition is co-organised by the Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna, where it shows from 7 December-26 March 2017, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (22 April-30 July 2017).

Georgia OKeeffe, Tate Modern, London, 6 July-30 October

The UK is on course to leave the European Union, after a narrow vote in favour of divorce in a referendum held two weeks ago on 23 June. How long the process known as Brexit will take, and its consequences for the arts and for artists, remain largely unknown. The referendum resultLondon and Scotlands voters were among the dissenterswas greeted with shock by many in the arts, and the fallout from the subsequent political and economic turmoil has caused widespread concern internationally.

Thomas Campbell, the British-educated director of the Met in New York, says: Since the Second World War, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has pioneered ambitious and groundbreaking loan shows, often in co-operation with European partners. We believe that these collaborations are ever more important now. He adds that, although it is too early to assess the impact of Brexit, we trust that we will be able to work with our peers to navigate new legal and financial issues so that, together, we can continue to bring thought-provoking, educational and relevant exhibitions to our national and international audiences.

The importance of maintaining international co-operation was echoed by Campbells peer in London, Hartwig Fischer, the German-born director of the British Museum. We think about where we come fromand what this museum has achieved at the heart of this nation and of Europe. We all know that we have to continue to share this future, Fischer says.

The former Tate trustee and Turner Prize-winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans, who designed anti-Brexit campaign posters, told the Munich-based Sddeutsche Zeitung: The only thing that helps is not to lose courage. Its now the duty of us all to defend the pillars of the free world order that were created over the past 70 years. And I know that were still the majority.

Meanwhile, the Paris- and Salzburg-based art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac remains committed to opening a large gallery in London in spring 2017. He says: I have no doubt that London will continue to be one of the most vibrant and quintessential art centres in the world, despite the UKs vote in favour of Brexit.


Brexit fears: international reactions
"Hundreds of artists from all over Europe have chosen to live in London, just as many of us live in cities across the continent. We will now lose the right to this ease of movement," Michael Craig-Martin, artist and Royal Academician.

While Brexit isnt necessarily an existential threat to most major cultural institutions in London, its surely going to make life much more difficult, especially in the short to medium term with the inherent uncertainty. Cultural institutions like the RA have long been international in outlook and, through partnerships, we have encouraged ties between nations. We now have a responsibility to nurture such relations more than ever, Charles Saumarez Smith, secretary and chief executive, Royal Academy of Arts.

The Leave campaign preyed on fear, ignorance and prejudice to vote through a misguided return to an antediluvian Britain. As a fourth-generation immigrant, this makes me sad, angry and ashamed. Discussing the art market feels insensitive, but the devalued currency could make British art and services cheaper, and lower London house prices for art workers. Frieze remains more committed to working internationally than ever before, Matthew Slotover, co-founder and co-director, Frieze.

As a German I grew up in a country that wanted to overcome nationalism, and my whole education was based on not being German but identifying with something larger, international, standing for peace. Now there is a very disheartening atmosphere, not only for the art world but in every little detail of daily life for so many people, Klaus Biesenbach, director, MoMA PS1, and chief curator-at-large, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

I am not that concerned. The art market has become so firmly institutionalised in London. In the short run, I am much more concerned that Brexit and the turmoil on financial markets add a lot of uncertainty to an already weakened art market, so I would expect potential buyers to wait and see, Olav Velthuis, art market academic and economist.

Following the largely successful round of post-war and contemporary auctions last week, which appeared  unaffected by the surrounding political chaos in the UK post-Brexit, Londons art world now turns its eye to Old Masters and classical art in one final burst of market activity before many dealers shut up shop for the summer.

The fourth edition of London Art Week, an amalgamation of Master Drawings and Sculpture Week (founded in 2001) and Master Paintings Week (founded in 2009), has seen strong six- and even seven-figure sales that prove there are still collectors hungry for top Old Master works. Colnaghi, for example, sold a dramatic work by Jusepe de RiberaA philosopher holding a mirror (around 1630)priced in the region of 1.25m. Over at Ariadne Gallery, meanwhile, a gold Phoenician axe-head, dating to the Middle Bronze Age (around 2000-1750 BC) sold for a six-figure sum to a private buyer.

Almost 50 galleries involved in London Art Week (1-8 July), however, are showing works that range from 500 all the way up to millions of pounds, so there are buying opportunities for all types of collectors. We have picked a few examples here that cover the variety of art on offer, both in terms of price and object.

Sam Fogg
16th-century stained glass roundels from the collection of Sir Thomas Neave
Asking price: from 500 to 30,000

The prices for some of these stained glass roundels might come a surprise to those who are used to associating Old Masters art with imposing sums of money. Almost half of the 35 pieces, which have never been seen in public before, have already sold. Its worked well for us, says Sam Fogg, weve been selling to museums and private collectors."

Rupert Wace

Greek bronze griffin protome from the Archaic Period (mid-7th century BC)
Asking price: 140,000

This detailed and well-preserved artefact would have been fitted around a cauldron and used as part of votive offerings to the gods in ancient Greece. Its in particularly good condition and such fine engraving is uncommon on such a piece, says the gallerys Harry Prance. Its typically Greekyou dont find this anywhere elseand it indicates the presence of a long-term religious practice that predates the building of temples and places of worship.

 Johnny Van Haeften
Song Yu, A still-life with Chinese porcelain and bowls of cherries and strawberries (2015)
One of a series of works, in the region of 50,000

We try to do something different every year for London Art Week, says Johnny Van Haeften, the veteran Dutch Old Masters dealer. This year, he is pairing 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings with work by the Chinese contemporary artist Song Yu. Yu draws on the rich history of trade between the Dutch East India company and his native China, producing works of striking precision, which evidently reference the Dutch masters. The Chinese bowl in this work resembles the very same Chinese export porcelains that flooded the European market in the 17th century, and found their way into the Dutch Old Master paintings of the time.

Maurizio Nobile
Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of a man (1601)
Asking price: 180,000

Before Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana was perhaps the most well-known and most respected woman artist of her time, and certainly one of the most important portrait artists working at that time too, says Maurizio Nobile, the Bologna-based gallerist who is showing at London Art Week for the second time as a pop-up on Bury Street. The most incredible part of Fontanas story is that when she was made to marry a much lesser painter than her, Giovan Paolo Zappi, she forced the wedding contract to recognise her as a professional painter. Zappi ended up working as her assistant and accountant, while she painted portraits for all of Bolognas high society.
 
Lullo Pampoulides
Thomas Jones, Bay of Naples with mount Vesuvius (1782-3) and Marco Ricci, Architectural Capriccio with Saint Pauls Cathedral, sculptures and figures (around 1713)
Asking prices: around 600,000 and 300,000 respectively

Going against the Brexit grain, the newly-opened Lullo Pampoulides gallery are showing these two works, one painted by the Welshman Thomas Jones, after a trip to Italy, and the other by an Italian, Marco Ricci, after a trip to London. The work by Jones, which is very rare in itself, was only recently attributed to him and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785. Weve only been open for five days so far, says the Italian Andrea Lullo, but its going very well and weve already made sales. I think other dealers are happy to see younger dealers entering the Old Masters market.

A bomb was detonated late yesterday (4 July) near the Prophets Mosque in Medina in western Saudi Arabia, Islams second holiest site. The mosque, which was founded in the seventh century, houses Muhammads tomb as well as those of the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and Omar.
 
Images posted on the Al Jazeera website show a fire outside the mosque where the explosion took place; officials at the Saudi embassy in London were unavailable to comment on whether the mosque, which was filled with worshippers for Ramadan, was damaged.
 
The bombing, which claimed the lives of four men, was one of three apparently coordinated suicide attacks in the country yesterday; an attacker attempted to destroy a Shiite mosque in Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia, but failed. Another bomber detonated a device near the US consulate in Jeddah.
 
No group has yet claimed responsibility, but Saudi Arabia has been the target of Islamic state attacks (Isil) in the past year.  

This summer at Fort Tilden, a disused military outpost in Queens, MoMA PS1 presents Rockaway!, a new work by the German painter Katharina Grosse in which she covers an abandoned beachside building with methodical splatters of neon red, orange and pink paint. We spoke to Grosse about her project.

Your work often seems like it is done by someone hovering in the sky. Do you see a narrative there? Is it your eye there, or is it a more objective view?

It has to do with a certain kind of absurd scale, so you could choose whether its another [persons] eye, whosever eye that is. But its not objective. I think its a multidimensional painting and it looks different from all kinds of angles. I do think that scaling it up is very important, so that you have a totally different relationship with the painting, with your body and with the house.

My work is very interfering, even if its a beautiful colour or a wave. Inscribing a large painting on a large structure is upsetting at times. Thats what I want to do, of course. I want to be visible as a painter in our social fabric and Im trying to find out what a painting can do, so Im trying to use different forms, sizes, situations, set-ups or surfaces for my understanding of painting.

Have you considered the audience for this work?

What I find interesting is that you have to go there to see it. Thats something Ive been so intrigued by in works like Walter De Marias [permanent installation in the New Mexico desert] The Lightning Field.

But people should go [to see Rockaway!]. Its a very physical experience to see it, rather than see a photo. Its a great spot, and it will be taken down afterwards. The whole thing will disappearnot only my work but also the house. So its just a little moment in our lives. You cant see it again. You cant replay it, in a sense.

Katharina Grosse: Rockaway!, Gateway National Recreation Area at Fort Tilden, New York, until 30 November

Looking for some great ideas to avoid the winter brain drain, and keep the kids entertained over the July school holidays?

The flagship Microsoft Store at Pitt St Mall Sydney is the perfect destination to keep their imagination and creativity active over the winter break.

In collaboration with EA Sports, this unique Festival of Xbox will include workshops on the most popular EA Sports games, including FIFA ‘16, NBA Live and Madden ’16. Kids will work in teams to complete hands-on challenges and in-game tournaments. These interactive workshops are recommended for children aged 7 – 14 years.

Apart from brushing up on their teamwork, participants will also be treated to exclusive ‘tips and tricks’ from an expert player, learning to play like pros on the virtual field!

There are limited spaces available so parents are advised to register in advance. All children need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

The 21st Biennale of Sydney may be two years away but the organisers have already put in place a curator for the established Oz event. Mami Kataoka, the chief curator at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, takes the reins in 2018, saying: As artistic director, I am interested to ask how we can test the biennales significance given the growing understanding of multiple modernities; the many socio-political contexts and accelerated complexities in the world today. Kataokas CV is extensive, from organising exhibitions at the Mori Art Museum such as Roppongi Crossing (2013) to serving as an advisory member for the Ullens Center for Contemporary art in Beijing. The 20th Biennale, which closed earlier this year, drew 640,000 visitors. 

Heavy Metal brings together works from three ongoing series by Sydney sculptor, Dion Horstmans. Wall mounted and freestanding, Horstmans’s multi-dimensional sculptures are crafted using precious and base metals. Heavy Metal includes works in gold, bronze, black nickel, copper, and steel.

Horstmans’s obsession with contrasting ideas (flow and stasis, light and shadow) is built upon in Heavy Metal as he examines the notion of strength, weakness, and the passing of time. Malleable precious metals that will tarnish and corrodes sit alongside Horstmans’s trademark steel structures – a material renowned for its strength and longevity.

Shadow, the overarching theme in Horstmans’s practice, transforms works and marks the passing of time; the impermanence of precious metals highlights this notion. Metallic lustres are exploited – areas are polished to produce brilliant illumination while others are left dull and raw. Light is captured and reflected, darkness is omnipresent and time is frozen in Horstmans’s tangible, static shadows.

Traditional tribal patterns and motifs underpin Horstmans’s entire body of work and these bold studies of line and shadow are a respectful nod to his Islander heritage. Shapes are revealed as the viewer moves around each work – a constant dynamism that embodies Horstmans’s infinite energy.

Text by Harriet Morgan.

In Metamorphosis, I explore of one of the great mysteries of life through the transformation of fly larvae in an immersive stereoscopic projection. Maggots are more commonly associated with death and decay, but like caterpillars they undergo a stage of transition before emerging as exquisite insects.

For this installation, I visualised and animated virtual pupa data captured through the science of 3D Microcomputed X-ray Tomography led by forensic research at the Natural History Museum in London. This new work is a result of my collaborative relationship with key researchers in visualising 3D and 4D data captured with Micro-CT at the NHM Imaging and Analysis Centre. My 2015 residency at the Centre was supported by an artsACT project grant.

My practice encompasses a range of photographic media in both traditional print, digital platforms and interdisciplinary research. My investigations of frontier scientific visualisation technologies has forged new territory with the science of Micro-CT. I am a pioneer of 3D and 4D Micro-CT visualisation using Drishti volume rendering software at the ANU Department of Applied Mathematics. In 2015, I was awarded the inaugural Paramour Prize for Art and Innovation and am a recipient of the 2011 Synapse residency grant through ANAT.

This series of small oil paintings responds to the striking architecture and colours of Sydney’s famous beachside suburb, along with the accoutrements of urban living – traffic lights, parking meters, and wheelie bins.

I frequently paint en plein air and for this series, turned my back to the beach to record the man-made environment that clings to its margins.

Significant landmarks and back street views are recorded with the fidelity of a portrait painter. The everyday is illuminated however, with a theatrical quality, as carefully considered compositions provide the stage for the atmospheric play of light.

What if you could travel the world without actually having to leave Australia? Krispy Kreme is introducing a new kind of travel experience with the arrival of its Around the World doughnut range.

Krispy Kreme will be giving away free doughnuts from the new range to customers who hold passports or have visa stamps from, Italy, Argentina, Mexico or England. To relive their travel memories through taste, customers can go into a Krispy Kreme store, show their passport or stamp, and receive a relevant Around the World doughnut.

For those who are yet to visit any of the four countries featured, Krispy Kreme will have bespoke passports available in-store to collect stamps as you sample the four Around the World flavours. Passports with all four stamps can then go into ­­­a draw to win a tailored trip for two, worth $9,000, to one of four Around the World holiday destinations.

The Around the World doughnuts are:

• Ti Amo Tiramisu
• Caliente Chilli Choc
• Dulce De Leche
• English Raspberry Scone

The new doughnuts are now available in-store and online. Order before 5pm for next day delivery or pick up in-store for free.

Join in on the conversation by using the hashtags #krispykreme #tastebudadventure #tastetowin

Aunty Julie Freeman, a Gorawarl Jerrawongarla woman, is a cultural leader, senior cultural knowledge holder and artist. Join Aunty Julie and her daughter Markeeta Freeman for a morning of learning an Ancient South Coast Weaving tradition using local natural materials. Whilst you are weaving, Aunty Julie who will share with you many of her creation stories for the local environment, reminding us of traditional knowledge systems of the region.

Ages: 14 years old and over

Bookings Essential as spaces are limited.

Light refreshments will be provided for morning tea.

In 1970, the year that Christo and Jeanne-Claude first conceived of the Floating Piers, the phenomenally popular installation that closed this weekend on Italys Lake Iseo, the artists wrapped monuments were greeted with hostility in nearby Milan. The Wrapped Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II was undone by the city authorities after two days of protests by ex-servicemen and monarchists, while the Wrapped Monument to Leonardo da Vinci lasted a week before a group of neo-fascists set it on fire. 

Forty-six years on, all seems to have been forgiven and forgotten. Christo, a keynote speaker at the International Council of Museums conference in Milan yesterday (4 July), described Lake Iseo as the most spectacular set Ive worked in. In collaboration with the Italian curator Germano Celant and the engineering firm Arup, the Bulgarian-born artist spent two years planning the Floating Piers, his first major project since the death of Jeanne-Claude in 2009. The free installation, which connected the islands in the middle of the lake to the mainland for the first time, drew more than 1.2 million people during its 16-day run. 

The figures involved in its creation are no less mind-boggling. The 3km structure of 220,000 interlocking polyethylene cubes was held in place by 37,000m of rope and 200 concrete anchors. Approximately 80,000 sq. m of felt and 100,000 sq. m of shimmering yellow nylon covered the piers and the streets of the tiny lakeside towns in between. These materials are now due to be recycled (though a number of square fabric swatches distributed by stewards as souvenirs are already up for sale on eBay). Christo has funded the 18m project through the sale of his preparatory drawings and other works of art. 

For the artist, however, the work of art isnt the Floating Piersbut the journey: those who went will carry them in their minds for the rest of their lives. Maybe it was apt that the journey to a work deemed impossible for almost half a century was at times fraught for visitors too. As long queuesfar exceeding expectationsformed at the entrance, train operators suspended regional services to the lake to prevent overcrowding. Christo intended the work to be open around the clock, but bad weather caused partial closures, while overnight access was blocked after six days to ease the strain on the fabric and the local area.

In spite of the crush, the atmosphere on the closing weekend was good-natured, reminiscent of a festival or a day at the seaside. Visitors waited patiently for hours to board trains at Brescia station and then finally set foot on the piers. Dog-walkers, wheelchair users and young families joined the promenade, undeterred by the sweltering heat or lack of barriers. Christo himself rode by, waving to fans from the makeshift barge that dropped the anchors beneath the piers. Some cheered, while others failed to recognise the slight white-haired figure who made it temporarily possible to walk on water.

As the local officials who approved the project pay tribute to the boost to international tourism in the region, it seems that Italy has learned to embrace Christos monumental, ephemeral brand of sculpture. But against the instincts of an artist who claims not to understand computers, the Floating Piers will have a digital afterlife. The selfie-friendly installation has generated 130,000 hashtags on social media, while Google is due to put 360-degree images of the work online through its Street View function. 

EU-loving art worlders had their legs emphatically stretched this weekend with Saturdays (2 July) anti-Brexit march attracting a considerable and multigenerational posse from the capitals visual arts contingent. Among the estimated 50,000 throng of protestors who paraded from Park Lane to Parliament Square were the eminent art historian Dawn Ades; the former Serpentine Gallery director Alastair Warman; the artists Anne Hardy, Charlotte Cullinan and Gavin Turk with his wife Deborah Curtis and their daughter Frankie.

Once everyone had marched the route and shouted themselves hoarse (with much boo-ing outside No 10 Downing Street) it was then time to hit the trail for Art Night. This all night art-fest, organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Unlimited Productions, transformed ten locations throughout the City of Westminster with installations and performances from 5pm on Saturday until the wee small hours of Sunday. Some of the spaces are normally inaccessible, such as the disused Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross tube station which Korean artist Koo Jeong A had infused with beaming lights and the costly scent of the endangered Agar tree; or the shut-off rooms of Admiralty Arch, which had been anointed with squid ink and populated by bizarre guides, courtesy of the Turner Prize winning artist, Laure Prouvost. The Danish artist Nina Beier installed well-trained dogs and masked performers in a luxuriously generic show flat at 190 Strand. In the almost-refurbished brutalist building next door, which overlooks the Thames, Celia Hempton took advantage of the view (soon to be blotted out by another development) with her strikingly panoramic installation of paintings exploring the source of the river, including via the undulating bodies of her three river goddesses.  

Art was also let loose in and around some of central Londons most iconic sites, but in such a way as to present them in a very different light. The 18th-century baroque gem of St Mary le Strand played host to the Californian Jennifer Wests projected film while the Duke of York Steps became the stage set for Linders full-blown extravaganza of tap dancing showgirls, singing choirs, posing model boys, Northern Soul and ballroom dancers, and performers dressed as rabbits wearing surgical masks. But the grand finale was provided by the magnificent Joan Jonas who collaborated with the jazz pianist Jason Moran to fill the gothic interior of Southwark Cathedral with a constantly-changing array of sounds, drawings and projected images as both a tribute and an elegy to the volatile flux and fragility of our world. A perfect end to a troubling but also stimulating day.  

Claude Gelle, called Claude Lorrain, A pastoral landscape with a shepherd and shepherdess beside their livestock in an Arcadian landscape with drovers on a bridge beyond (1635-37)
Bonhams, New Bond Street, Old Master Paintings, 6 July
Estimate 600,000-800,000 (sold for 722,500 with premium)

Claude Lorrains lyrical observations of landscape, light and nature revolutionised painting in the 17th century. Before then, pure landscape had been looked down upon: it offered only aesthetic simplicity when compared with the moral superiority of religious art. Certainly, landscape had been appreciated, but it tended to play a supporting role to the main narrative of a painting. Claude, however, showed that even the plainest clump of trees or hillside could be made into an engaging subject, if you knew how to light the scene with dexterity and drama. Through Claudes eyes, nature became poetry. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the Englishhaving managed perfectly well without religious art since the Reformationwho collected his work most keenly. By the early 19th century, two-thirds of Claudes works were in England, including this example offered at Bonhams, which was first recorded in the collection of Earl Howe in 1824.

Jean-Etienne Liotard, A Dutch Girl at Breakfast (around 1755-56)
Sothebys, Old Masters evening sale, 6 July
Estimate 4m-6m (sold for 4.4m with premium) 

Liotards elegant homage to Dutch genre painters of the 17th century went on show in the Royal Academys recent monograph exhibition. Although widely seen as the 18th centurys premier pastellist, Liotard was just as happy to paint in oil, though such works are rare. Sothebys describes A Dutch Girl at Breakfast as his only genre scene of an interior in oil to remain in private hands, and such a unique selling point perhaps accounts for an estimate that dwarfs the current auction record for Liotard of 1.4m (in 2012, for a pastel). Julys auction will be only the second time this picture has appeared for sale. It was last sold by Liotard himself in 1774, for 15.4s.6d. at Christies, where it was bought by the second Earl of Bessborough. In 1993, the tenth Earl of Bessborough bequeathed the picture and his house, Stansted Park in Sussex, to a charitable foundation (now, alas, the vendor).

Peter Paul Rubens, Lot and his Daughters (around 1613-14)
Christies, King Street, Old Master and British Paintings evening sale, 7 July
Estimate on request (sold for 44.9m with premium)

It is an Old Master market clich that great works never come up for sale anymore. But every now and then a truly extraordinary picture surfaces to prove that not all the worlds masterpieces are already in museums. The subject matter of Rubenss Lot and His Daughters might not be to everyones taste. But look beyond the depiction of a drunk old man about to commit incest and you will see as good a demonstration of Rubenss early style as it is possible to findas well as a work in unusually good condition. Despite having belonged to an emperor (Joseph I) and dukes (of Marlborough), the picture has until now only been known to scholars through an old black-and-white photograph. Collectors have already expressed an interest, and despite Christies high estimate, widely reported at 20m to 30m, there can be little doubt it will sell. 

Photo © Alessandro Moggi" />
Ai Weiwei will be the first artist to have the full run of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence when his first retrospective in Italy, Ai Weiwei: Libero, opens there on 23 September (until 22 January 2017). Sculptures, installations, photos and videos will fill the exhibition spaces inside and out, including the piano nobile, the Strozzina contemporary art gallery and the courtyard, says Arturo Galansino, the director general of the Strozzi. The show will include Reframe, a new installation made in response to the ongoing refugee crisis. Ai plans to hang 22 inflatable orange boats evoking Italian search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean across the venue's faade. The work, supported by the charitable foundation Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, will symbolise "cultural rescue in this time of international and European crisis", Galansino says. Meanwhile, the courtyard will host Refraction, a five-tonne metal sculpture of a bird's wing previously shown in the former prison of Alcatraz. Its feathers are made from solar panels used in Tibetan cookers a reference to the region's long struggle for freedom from China.

The United Arab Emirates will host a high-level, international conference on terrorism versus culture, led by the French president Franois Hollande and the president of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The exact date is not yet fixed, but the event is due to take place in December in Abu Dhabi, when the Louvre Abu Dhabi building, designed by Jean Nouvel, is due to be completed.

Since 2015, France has taken the lead in this campaign. The decision to hold the conference, which will bring together ministers as well as museum and heritage experts, was made in May by the G7 summit in Japan, on a proposal from Hollande. Along with the other G7 members, France and the emirate are gathering a coalition of states to support the initiative, according to information from the Elyse Palace in Paris. It is expected to be formally announced at the Louvre today (5 July) during a visit by Hollande and a high-ranking official close to the emir, who will be in charge of this mission. According to our information, a French special envoy has already been appointed: Jack Lang, a former minister of culture and the president of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.

The prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, invited Jean-Luc Martinez, the director of the Louvre, to present his plan to protect cultural heritage to the heads of state at the G7 meeting. Among a series of 50 proposals, Martinez stressed the need to control freeports around the world. Hollande expressed the hope that the conference in December will enable the creation of a global fund for endangered heritage. Hollande has already contacted Irina Bokova, the director-general of Unesco, to get the organisation involved; Frances wish is to create a global movement similar to the one launched three decades ago to fight HIV/Aids, which involved United Nations agencies as well as public and private donors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Terrorism attacks men, women and children, but also the sites of our collective memory and civilisations, Hollande said at the G7 meeting. Terrorism wants to eradicate history, to wipe out any trace. It destroys works; sometimes it sells them, exploiting the dreadful traffic of humanitys history. The international community must reply, and this is why I asked for this report from the Louvre.

The report was commissioned in March last year after the destruction of the Mosul Museum and the ancient city of Nimrud in Iraq. The French president also proposed to open shelters for cultural goods before they could be attacked or sacked, and record the memory of cultural sites, using all forms of media, to keep them alive and restore them one day.

The specifics should be provided on 5 July at the Louvre, but we understand that the conference in December will be held on a ministerial level and will include a strong scientific contribution. The one-day ministerial segment will be preceded by a meeting of experts, planned with the full support of the Louvre. The museum could not say at this stage how it would co-operate with other institutions and museums such as New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum in London or the Pergamon in Berlin.

Abu Dhabi was selected as the location because of the planned opening of a Louvre on Saadiyat Island, which is increasingly presented as a crossroads of culture by the team that took over the project in 2013. The opening was planned for December and could have coincided with the conference; unfortunately, the construction of Nouvels spectacular museum has been delayed by technical issues. The Louvre and the French government have declined to confirm an opening date (this will probably be in 2017). But the conference will take place when the building itself is finished, allowing for a symbolic ceremony led by Hollande, with the heads of state and other leaders present in Abu Dhabi.