The Headlines
SMITHSONIAN SHUTDOWN. The Smithsonian Institution, a government-funded museum network in Washington, D.C., was forced to close this weekend due to the continuing government shutdown, reports Alex Greenberger for ARTnews. The 21-member institution has repeatedly been attacked by the Trump administration, and its closure for the foreseeable future marks yet another blow. The National Gallery of Art has been closed since last weekend for the same reasons, but the Smithsonian had previously used its own money to stay open. News of the institution’s closure comes as the government shutdown nears its second full week.
RUTH ASAWA’S RECORD. A traveling Ruth Asawa retrospective that opens at New York’s Museum of Modern Art on October 19 appears to be the museum’s largest show ever dedicated to a woman artist, Jori Finkel for the Art Newspaper—based on the number of objects included, at least. The MoMA version contains 376 works, and is due to occupy all 16,000 square feet of the museum’s sixth floor. But that is not how MoMA is billing the show, and the museum seems not to have even registered its record-breaking status. The exhibition came from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where it featured 327 pieces, though the museum only confirmed that the exhibition was its largest by a woman after Finkel inquired. To date, MoMA has not explicitly made such a confirmation, despite curator Cara Manes stating it’s “a safe claim to make.”
The Digest
A forgotten Paul Gauguin work from the artist’s famous Brittany period, which was long kept in a private collection, is heading to auction at Artcurial. The December 9 Paris sale of Danse bretonne (Breton Dance), from 1889, is estimated to fetch €500,000–€700,000 ($580,000–$811,000). It will be exhibited in Paris during Art Basel this month. [Connaissance des arts]
Sotheby’s is searching for third-party guarantees to offset risk ahead of its much-anticipated November sale in New York of three, sumptuous Klimt paintings from the Leonard Lauder collection. Sotheby’s guaranteed the paintings, but hopes to find a single backer for the pieces, which together are worth $300 million. [Artnet News]
A famous portrait by Jean-Étienne Liotard, long believed to depict the young Marie Antoinette, actually features her older sister, Maria Carolina, according to a new study. “While these remarkable portraits have been on display many times over the last 250 years, it will be extra special to see Marie Antoinette as she actually was, rather than mistaking her for her sister,” said Marc-Olivier Wahler, director of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. [BBC]
Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña has won the 2025 Roswitha Haftmann Prize, which comes with a cash prize of 150,000 Swiss francs ($187,000). The prize is Europe’s largest of its kind and will formally presented to the artist in a ceremony in Zurich next month. [Artforum]
The Kicker
ART FOR CHILDREN OF WAR. Amid a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the remaining living hostages from captivity to Israel, as well as that of prisoners to Palestine, musician Kate Bush is reminding us of where all sides can agree. She has invited 52 UK visual artists to raise money for children affected by war, reports the Guardian. Specifically, Bush is asking artists to donate an artwork in response to a lyric in her hit song, Running Up That Hill: “If I only could, I’d make a deal with God.” Peter Doig and Maggi Hambling are among the artists contributing to the fundraiser and online auction to be held from October 28 to November 13. Proceeds will be given to the charity War Child, which works to aid children living in war-torn areas, including Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Syria, and elsewhere.
