Art Fund launches appeal to save Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage

Our daily round-up of news from the art world 

Art Fund launches appeal to save Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage | Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, has announced the launch of a public campaign to raise the £3.5m needed to save for the nation Prospect Cottage, the home and garden of Derek Jarman. Around half of the required funds has been raised through grants; at the campaign launch this morning, cultural figures including Tilda Swinton, Tacita Dean and Jeremy Deller appealed for public donations to help secure the remaining funds, which will go toward both the purchase of the property and the establishment of a permanently funded programme for its conservation. With the much-loved garden the filmmaker and artist created on the shingle beach at Dungeness, as well as the poems and sculptures that adorn the house, Prospect Cottage has long been considered an artwork in its own right; for more on Jarman, read Richard Martin’s feature for Apollo here.

Thieves confess to stealing and returning Klimt painting | Two men have admitted to the theft and subsequent return of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of a Lady. The painting, found in an external wall of the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Piacenza, was confirmed last Friday (17 January) as being the same Klimt work that was stolen from the museum some 23 years ago. The two men, who are believed to be part of a broader gang operating in the region, wrote to local journalist Ermanno Mariani to explain that they returned the €60m painting as ‘a gift to the city’.

Norman Foster calls for competition to design new House of Lords | The British architect Norman Foster has lent his support for plans to construct a new House of Lords, recommending a competition to design a ‘great building’. It was reported on Sunday that the UK government is considering relocating the second chamber of parliament to a city outside London; York and Birmingham have been named as contenders.

Japan dismisses South Korean protests over national territory museum | The Japanese government has dismissed the concerns of South Korean protestors over displays in the National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty, which reopened in Tokyo on 21 January. The museum includes exhibits relating to the Takeshima or Dokdo Islands in the Sea of Japan, ownership of which has been disputed by the two nations for more than a century.