Employment tribunal finds in favour of sacked National Gallery workers

Employment tribunal finds in favour of sacked National Gallery workers | A group of 27 art historians and tour guides, who were dismissed by the National Gallery in London, have won a landmark case after a tribunal found that they should be regarded as employees, with according rights. The group argued that as workers they had been unfairly dismissed, with inadequate notice. The judge ruled that museum’s claim that they were self-employed contractors was ‘unsustainable’.

Masterpiece Fair to open in Hong Kong with Fine Art Asia | London’s annual art fair Masterpiece has announced it will begin a long-term partnership with Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong, hosting up to 25 exhibitors at its pavilion between 4-7 October 2019. Lucie Kitchener, managing director of Masterpiece, said: ‘The Masterpiece Pavilion will have its own identity but is part of Fine Art Asia.’ Fine Art Asia will also be exhibiting at Masterpiece in London this year.

Painting attributed to Caravaggio will be auctioned in June | It was announced yesterday that Judith and Holofernes (c.1607), which may be by Caravaggio will be sold at auction this summer, with an estimate of between €100m–£150m (and no reserve). In 2014, the painting was found in the attic of a home in Toulouse, by the auctioneer Marc Labarbe who passed it to the Parisian dealer, Eric Turquin. The painting is on display at Colnaghi gallery in London until 9 March, before it travels to Paris and New York. The auction is set to take place in Toulouse on 27 June.

Hon Chi Fun (1922–2019) | On Sunday the painter Hon Chi Fun, founder of Circle Art Group Hong Kong’s ‘local avant-garde’ of the 1960s, has died at the age of 96. Hon also exhibited work internationally and was the first Rockefeller grantee from Hong Kong in 1969.

Recommended reading | In The New York Times Russell Shorto tells the story of how the Dutch art dealer Jan Six identified an unknown Rembrandt.  In The Guardian Dale Berning Sawa looks at the Unesco Report about the destruction of Armenian culture heritage in modern-day Azerbaijan.