Beijing artists evicted from two arts districts

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Beijing artists evicted from two arts districts | Hundreds of artists have been removed this week from two arts districts in Beijing – Luoma Hu and Huantie – as part of what is meant to be a crackdown on organised crime that will involve the demolition of the neighbourhoods. Canon Duan, an artist who has had a studio in Huantie for four years, said residents of the neighbourhoods were given a week’s notice to move. ‘We’re not prepared at all. And no one has explained it to us,’ she said.

Judge rules in favour of Agnes Martin authentication committee members | A New York Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of Pace Gallery founder Arne Glimcher, his son Marc Glimcher, and one other member of the Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné committee in a suit brought by London dealer James Mayor over the exclusion of thirteen paintings from the catalogue. This is the second suit filed by Mayor over the works; the first was dismissed in April. Mayor argues that the Glimchers’ ‘substantial monetary interest’ in Martin’s art hurt his business and renders their role on the committee a conflict of interest. In her ruling, Judge Andrea Masley stated: ‘It is not for the court to determine what the art market should or should not credit as reliable.’

Recommended reading | In the New York Times, read a lively multimedia story on the eight-person crew that maintains the grounds at Storm King Art Center, the 500-acre outdoor sculpture park in upstate New York. In the Atlantic, Daniel Trillling reports on the sacred Ethiopian relics kept in Britain and the demands for them to be returned to Ethiopia.