Winners announced for 2016 RIBA Awards

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

RIBA National Award winners announced for 2016 | The Royal Institute of British Architects has revealed the identities of the 46 winners of its annual national awards. Among the winners are Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, the Portland Collection, the Drawing Studio at Bournemouth University and York Art Gallery. Several reports have commented on the omission of FAT Architecture and Grayson Perry’s ‘House for Essex’, which was ineligible for selection as it had not been nominated by regional judges. In the Guardian, Oliver Wainwright writes that the project has been ‘shamefully overlooked by this year’s regional juries.’

Mixed auction results in London ahead of EU referendum | Impressionist and Modern sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London this week have delivered mixed results, with some lots fetching impressive sums but others underperforming. The Wall Street Journal’s Anna Russell reports that sellers at both auction houses have in part attributed the comparatively slack performances to the uncertainty caused by today’s referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Union. ‘It’s obviously part of the financial landscape,’ Christie’s Jay Vinze told the paper. ‘It may have affected people’s decisions to talk to us in the first place.’

Léon Cligman donates 1,200 works of art to Tours’s musée des Beaux-Arts | Moldovan-born industrialist and philanthropist Léon Cligman has donated a collection of almost 1,200 works of art to the musée des Beaux-Arts in Tours. (French language article.) The bequest, valued at €20 million, includes antiquities from Egypt, Greece and Rome, and paintings by Corot, Delacroix and Toulouse-Lautrec. Léon Cligman and his wife will also fund a €5million extension to the museum.

Christo’s Floating Piers to close at night for repairs | Italian officials have decided to close Christo’s monumental Floating Piers installation on Lake Iseo from midnight to 6am for repairs after the fabric used for the work began to show signs of wear and tear. According to the New York Times, some 350,000 people have visited the installation since it opened at the weekend. Organisers had expected around 40,000 visitors per day.