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The Headlines
HAIRLESS DOGS, UNCERTAIN FUTURE. Mexico City’s Museo Dolores Olmedo, home to the world’s largest collection of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is slated to reopen in 2026 after Covid shut it down in 2020, The Art Newspaper reports. The news ends years of speculation about the museum’s future, although concerns remain over the potential relocation of its collection to the Parque Aztlán in Chapultepec—a move many argue defies founder Dolores Olmedo’s wishes. Olmedo, a prominent art collector and close friend of Rivera who died in 2002, established the museum in 1994 in La Noria, a 16th-century hacienda in Xochimilco. The site became a vibrant cultural hub, known for its art, stunning gardens, hairless Xoloitzcuintli dogs, and Day of the Dead altars. She bought over 140 Rivera works and 25 Kahlo paintings, many directly from the artists, and insisted that the collection remain in Xochimilco “for the Mexican people.” Earlier this month, a letter signed by almost 100 prominent cultural figures was sent to Mexico’s culture ministry expressing their concern over the collection’s possible fragmentation.
FAUX JUDGEMENT ON BRITISH MUSEUM THEFTS. Despite extensive investigations and a BBC documentary series, Peter Higgs, the former curator accused of stealing a trove of artifacts from the British Museum, has not been formally charged with any crime. However, the British Museum dismissed him and is pursuing a civil case. The scandal also prompted the resignation of the museum’s director at the time, Hartwig Fischer. Higgs continues to deny any wrongdoing, and the status of the investigation remains unclear. In response to the broader issues raised by the case, Roger Michel—a former lawyer and founder of the Institute for Digital Archaeology in Banbury—spent months organizing a mock trial. His aim was to highlight the failure of many museums to adopt modern technologies that could help them better manage and track their collections. The mock trial brought together a diverse cast, including academics, collectors, campaigners, practicing lawyers, and a King’s Counsel. Participants assumed fictional names inspired by Hollywood courtroom dramas and notable historical figures from the museum world. What verdict did the pseudo jury give? Find out here.
The Digest
While much of the global auction market continues to be in a correction period, overall auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips for the first half of 2025 have fallen only 6.2 percent and the number of lots sold rose 1.3 percent compared to the same time last year. [ARTnews].
Check out the Wellcome Photography Prize’s 2025 selection, from microscopic images of a human kidney to self-portraits of epilepsy and endometriosis. [Guardian]
Christie’s is reportedly turning to provisions in Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill as a potential boost for the struggling art market, which has faced headwinds due to ongoing geopolitical instability and sluggish sales. [FT]
A 4,000-year-old ancient city called Peñico has been discovered in Peru, and it opened to the public earlier this week. [The Art Newspaper]
The Kicker
THE NEXT NEUENDORF? As the dust settles from Artnet’s recent sale, Swiss auctioneer and art dealer Simon de Pury weighs in on who might be the next leader in the art market in his monthly Artnet column. But before he revealed his two picks, he aired some grievances: “Covid forced everyone to adapt but as soon as the pandemic receded, most auction houses, galleries, fairs, and dealers returned to doing business the way they had always done before,” he writes. De Pury compared these players to an ailing middle-aged man, who—having had a health scare and subsequently swearing to change his habits—reverts to type as soon as he feels better. He points to Peter Wilson, the chairman of Sotheby’s between 1958 and 1980, and Artnet’s founder, Hans Neuendorf, as “true visionaries.” De Pury writes how his employer, Artnet, “was a crown jewel—an ideal platform from which to disrupt the status quo. For years endless contenders have tried to acquire it without any success [until Beowolff Capital snapped it up for $73.7 million earlier this year].” So, who will be the next art world visionary? De Pury gives Pharrell Williams his vote. “[Williams] is utterly brilliant and personifies for me what contemporary culture is all about today,” he wrote. “While he does have a few things on his plate as men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton, and as a top charting musician, he found the time to build the online auction platform, Joopiter. He installed the super-smart John Auerbach as CEO who had been for several years the head of digital and e-commerce at Christie’s.” Anyone else? “Another super talented protagonist to follow is Hélène Nguyen-Ban who, with Docent, has created what could potentially become the Spotify of art,” de Pury added.
