Art news daily: 17 December

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Arts complex at World Trade Center receives $89m grant | The Ronald O. Perelman Center for the Performing Arts, currently under construction at the World Trade Center complex in New York, has been awarded a grant of $89m. The funds, which have been granted by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, mean that the institution has now raised 82 per cent of its total construction costs.

Dalí lobster telephone acquired by National Galleries of Scotland | A Salvador Dalí lobster telephone sculpture has been purchased by the National Galleries of Scotland. A temporary export bar was placed on the object by the UK government following its sale to a foreign buyer at a Christie’s auction in March. The purchase was made for £853,000, with funds from the Henry and Sula Walton Fund, as well as a £100,000 grant from the Art Fund. The phone will go on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art this week, adding to the museum’s extensive collection of Surrealist art.

Troels Wörsel (1950–2018) | The Danish painter Troels Wörsel has died at the age of 68. The artist, known for his innovative ways of applying paint to canvas, represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2007. His work is held in public collections worldwide, including MoMA in New York and the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek.

Recommended reading | In the London Review of Books, Hal Foster visits the Bruce Nauman exhibition at MoMA and assesses the many ways in which the artist ‘messes with his own image’. Meanwhile, in a Q&A with the Guardian, Monster Chetwynd discusses her giant slugs at Tate Britain, and offers some advice on how to look on the bright side in an age of mass extinction.