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Good Morning!
- ARTnews has revealed the winners of its annual awards in six categories.
- President Trump hosts the Kennedy Center Honors after a year of seizing control of the arts institution.
- Celebrated photographer Martin Parr has died at age 73.
The Headlines
ARTNEWS AWARDS 2025. It’s that time of year. The second annual ARTnews Awards winners were just announced, honoring excellence in exhibitions at US arts institutions. Five esteemed US-based curators joined ARTnews senior editors to make their selections in six categories. Ralph Lemon won the Lifetime Achievement Award; Claudia Alarcón and Silät is the Emerging Artist of the Year; Wafaa Bilal is the Established Artist of the Year; Jack Whitten won the Historical Artist of the Year Award; Parker Gallery, Los Angeles won the Best Gallery Group Show for “Bowls, Boxes, Plates & Vessels”; and “Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City” at 80WSE, New York, curated by Howie Chen, Jayne Cole Southard, and christina ong, won the Best Thematic Museum Show Award.
“TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER” is how the current US President likes to refer to the storied Washington D.C. arts institution, and yesterday, it certainly felt like he had the place in the palm of his hand. Donald Trump hosted the 48th edition of the center’s awards gala, known as Kennedy Center Honors, becoming the first sitting president to do so, culminating a tumultuous year in which he has seized control of the institution, reports the Washington Post. This has included purging political foes, spurring mass resignations, and plunging ticket sales, as well as launching a $257 million renovation. The latter has already begun with new exterior lighting in red, white and blue, which staffers joke looks more like the French flag, not the American one. Trump was also heavily involved with selecting yesterday’s honorees: the band Kiss, actor Michael Crawford, musician George Strait, actor Sylvester Stallone, and singer Gloria Gaynor. While the Hollywood turnout was reportedly down, a pro-MAGA crowd was not, showering the president with applause, and helping raise $23 million toward the center.
The Digest
Martin Parr, a photographer known for his wry depictions of tourists, died on December 6. Famous for his pictures of sunbathers and sightseers, Parr also did fashion shots for Vogue, Gucci, and other brands. His “photography was always characterized by a certain crassness and a fascination with ‘low’ culture,” writes ARTnews senior editor Alex Greenberger. “Depending on how you looked at his work, it was either unironically interested in its subjects or shrewdly critical of them.” [ ARTnews]
Austria has formed a panel of experts to study whether it has a claim to the famous, 137-carat Florentine Diamond and other jewels, which the Hapsburg family says it rightfully owns, and has kept hidden for decades. The jewels recently surfaced in a vault in Canada after they were believed lost or stolen for over a century. [The New York Times]
Armed men stole eight engravings by Henri Matisse, as well as five artworks by Brazilian painter Candido Portinari, from a library exhibition in São Paulo. “The pair held up a security guard and an elderly couple who were visiting the library,” police told reporters, before fleeing with their loot. [AFP and France 24]
About 1,700 historic military drawings from the Royal Engineers Museum in Kent were destroyed when the van transporting them was stolen and set on fire near Edinburgh. The collection included technical drawings and plans related to D-Day and is estimated to be worth £500,000 ($666,000). [BBC]
Francis Ford Coppola’s custom F.P. Journe FFC Prototype watch sold for $10.8 million at Phillips on Saturday after 11 minutes of bidding. The lot was among seven watches offered at the New York auction, which comes as the Oscar-winner faces financial losses from the 2024 film Megalopolis. [The Hollywood Reporter]
What happened after 14 of the July-announced galleries pulled out of Art Basel Miami? Several of the galleries that cancelled last-minute discuss their reasons for doing so, while some new waitlisted galleries swooped in to replace them. [Artnet News]
The Kicker
WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS. Or more accurately, leaks. The beleaguered Louvre in Paris can’t seem to get a break. After a heist, and then the revelation that a 2018 audit warned against the very spot where the thieves broke in, a large leak has inundated a library in the museum’s Egyptian Antiquities department, reports Le Monde. Some 300 to 400 books and documents were soaked but are reportedly replaceable. The leak was discovered the night of November 27, and was due to a mistakenly opened valve in the museum’s older, no longer in-use piping system.
See you tomorrow!
