This May, Sotheby’s New York will hold an auction for a collection of Old Master paintings, assembled over decades by Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III. Estimated between $80 million and $120 million, the sale could set a new benchmark for Old Masters auctions.

The collection, consisting of 60 paintings spanning the 16th to early 19th centuries, includes works from across Europe, ranging from German Renaissance pieces to Dutch, Flemish, Italian, Spanish, and French masterpieces. Among the highlights are exceptional still-life paintings by Jan Davidsz. De Heem and Luis Meléndez, portraiture by Sir Thomas Lawrence and Frans Hals, and a landscape by Francesco Guardi.

The Saunders began collecting Old Masters works in the late 1990s, guided by George Wachter, Sotheby’s chairman and co-worldwide head of Old Master paintings. The couple approached their acquisitions with decisiveness, Wachter told ARTnews, often flying around the world to acquire a picture and frequently altering travel plans to seize fleeting opportunities. Parts of the collection have been exhibited in top institutions like the Art institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art Washington DC, the Royal Academy London, and the Prado in Madrid.

The works in the Saunders’ collection come, like many Old Masters works, packed with stories. In one instance, the couple trudged through a Canadian snowstorm in order to shop the famous Hornstein collection. They agreed within minutes of seeing the tranche of paintings to buy six works, on one condition: that Hornstein sell them a beautiful still life by Luis Egidio Meléndez that, at first, they weren’t even shown. That picture, Still life with Cauliflower, Basket of Fish, Eggs, and Leeks, and Kitchen Utensils will be offered at the sale with an estimate of between $5 million and $8 million and is in line to mark a record for the artist at auction.

Another painting set to make a record is a still life by Davidsz. De Heem. When Wachter and the Saunders took a last minute trip to Rome to see the painting, its owner carried the work into the room wrapped in a garbage bag because he didn’t want his wife to know he was selling it.

Can a sculpture convey power? Historically, sculpture has been one of the key ways to depict who is in charge and who is worth remembering. That has been the case in the United States where the Lincoln Memorial and Mount Rushmore recall the country’s most revered presidents. Sculpture as a tool of conveying power can be seen in the rise in monuments to leaders of the Confederacy both after the Civil War and in the early 20th century; for many these sculptures are alienating and oppressive. In the past five years, numerous protests have called for the removal of many of these statues, from Louisiana to Virginia to Georgia, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. By looking at the public monuments, primarily to white men, that celebrate this country’s history, we can see who is especially celebrated.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” (on view through September 14) aims to upend that history, presenting a view of artists of diverse backgrounds whose sculptures take power head on. Here, everyone has power and import.

The exhibition offers a new gaze with which to look at American sculpture, which cocurator Karen Lemmey said has remained an understudied part of art history; the last major US publication dedicated to the medium was published more than half a century ago.  

“There’s been a real surge in interest about monuments, public art, and sculpture maybe more broadly,” Lemmey told ARTnews. “There haven’t been a lot of resources, and people would ask questions, and I would inevitably refer back to this last big survey that wasn’t really up to date.”

Featuring 82 artworks by 70 artists, made between 1792 and 2023, the exhibition is divided into nine themes, including “Family and Racial Identity,” “Solidarity and Resistance,” and “Classical and the Myth of the White Ideal.”

Among the more difficult things to navigate when visiting Los Angeles is the traffic. The fact that Post-Fair is in Santa Monica, a (relatively) short car ride away from this week’s main event, Frieze Los Angeles, is an added bonus to what is a delightful and easily digestible nugget of a fair. 

Billed as a “pilot edition of an alternative three-day art fair,” this inaugural edition of Post-Fair sprung the mind of LA-based dealer Chris Sharp. Last year Sharp ran a similar micro-fair in Paris called Place des Vosges. Named after its location, the event served as an amuse bouche for that French capital’s iteration of Art Basel. It had only eight galleries spread across two venues in a 17th-century delightful Parisian square.

Post-Fair is equally charming, albeit in a much more West Coast way. The fair is housed in a historic Art Deco post office that was built in 1938. The number of galleries had increased significantly since Paris while remaining manageable, another benefit for those who can get overwhelmed at larger fairs. Of the 29 exhibitors and project spaces, there is a large number of local and international talent, with a mix of plucky newcomers and top-tier galleries including P.P.O.W. and Sprüth Magers.

“I really wanted to create something that was more about the galleries, more collegial—a place where galleries can take a risk and bring challenging work without risking the future of the gallery if nothing sells,” Sharp told ARTnews. At larger, more commercial fairs, a few bad days can trigger existential dread and put a gallery’s financials in question. “The whole idea was to have a place to avoid the fear that a bad fair could take your gallery out.”

The building itself is elegant: red marble on the walls, magnificent exposed beam roof, an intricate wood floor, with soft globe lighting hanging from the tall ceiling. The booths aren’t booth at all but rather single gallery walls set up in the center of the room, with one gallery on either side, and dealers set up along the parameter. 

Lucie Kitchener, the CEO of stalled design fair Masterpiece London, which shows works by antique dealers and designers, stepped down from the role in December, a representative for the fair’s parent company MCH Group told ARTnews recently. The departure was the latest shift for Masterpiece, which has not staged a fair since 2022; the MCH representative said that “future plans are under review” for the brand, though further details were not provided.

In 2023, MCH, the Swiss events company that also owns Art Basel, announced in regulatory filings that it was cancelling that year’s edition of Masterpiece and that the fair would not run again in its current form, as it had been losing money since at least 2020.

Two years before that, in 2021, MCH’s directors reported in financial filings they expected Masterpiece London to “return to profitability” after recovering from the pandemic cancellation of the 2020 fair. That did not end up happening. In subsequent reports, MCH said that Masterpiece suffered a £2.2 million profit loss in 2022 and another £2 million in 2023. MCH reported that it was operating the design fair with a £2.6 million loan from the accounts of its most lucrative fair, its annual Basel edition.

In 2022, the last year the fair ran, Masterpiece reported generating $5.9 million from that year’s edition, only 2 percent above the costs it spent to operate the fair. At the time, MCH had been trying to build the fair’s sponsorship business, courting heritage brands with ties to Old Masters like the Wallace Collection. However, those partners accounted for only 15 percent of the fair’s revenue that year and wasn’t nearly enough to offset the high operating costs. In June and July of that year, four board members resigned from their roles at the fair.

After MCH announced the cancellation of the 2023 edition, former employees of Masterpiece left the fair to establish the art, antiques and design fair Treasure House Fair. Around 40 galleries that were planning on participating in Masterpiece switched to the new fair. Treasure House will hold its third edition this June, despite quietly reporting that it too was in a loss-making position, with a £50,000 deficit in the summer of last year, according to UK financial filings.

A German federal court recently decided that Birkenstocks cannot be considered art, since they are just comfortable, popular footwear made of cork.

After years of litigation, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice dismissed the intellectual property case against Birkenstock, which is especially known for its Arizona sandal, featuring wide-straps and large buckles. The court’s ruling stated that a product can not be copyrighted if “technical requirements, rules or other constraints determine the design.”

Birkenstock, which is headquartered in Linz am Rhein in western Germany, filed a lawsuit against three competitors, arguing that they sold similar styles of sandals to four signature models. These models, Birkenstock said, are “copyright-protected works of applied art” that could not be copied.

Under German law, works of fine art are granted stronger intellectual property protections compared to the design or “applied art” of consumer products.

The lawyers representing Birkenstock argued that German copyright law gave the sandal’s creators exclusive rights of use, just as they would for any artist or creator of literary works, computer programs, or paintings. Other consumer items granted this similar level of copyright protection include furniture by the Swiss-French artist Le Corbusier and lighting designed by the Bauhaus art movement, according to reporting from the Guardian.

The Netherlands will return 113 Benin Bronzes from the Dutch State Collection to Nigeria. A press statement from the Dutch government on February 19 said the decision was made by Eppo Bruins, Minister of Education, Culture and Science at the request of Nigeria. The announcement also acknowledged the items had been looted by British soldiers in 1897 from the Kingdom of Benin, sold, and eventually ended up in the Dutch State Collection.

“The return of these objects is the result of intensive cooperation between experts and representatives of both countries,” said the press statement.

Olugible Holloway, Director-General of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, called the repatriation from the Netherlands “the single largest of Benin antiquities directly linked to the 1897 British punitive expedition. We thank the Netherlands for their cooperation and hope this will set a good example for other nations of the world in terms of repatriation of lost or looted antiquities.”

“This restitution contributes to redressing a historical injustice that is still being felt today. Cultural heritage is essential for telling and living the history of a country and a community,” Bruins said in the press statement. “The Benin Bronzes are indispensable to Nigeria. It is good that they are going back.”

The 113 items—which include plaques, personal ornaments and figures—are currently housed in the Wereldmuseum Leiden, part of the country’s National Museum of World Cultures.

North America’s first and only Leonardo da Vinci Museum is opening in Pueblo, Colorado later this fall.

The museum will feature interactive exhibitions and life-sized replicas based on da Vinci’s drawings and sketches. It’s approach will center on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) as an educational guide to problem solving.

The former Professional Bull Riders Center near the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk will become the new home of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America, accompanied by an outdoor cafe. Plans for the new institution were granted final approval by the Colorado Economic Development Commission.

“This approval allows us to move forward with our plans to create an interactive and educational experience that celebrates the genius of Leonardo da Vinci,” Joe Arrigo, the board chair of the Southern Colorado Science Center, told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “We believe this museum will be a transformative addition to the Pueblo community in the areas of STEAM education and a significant draw for visitors from across North America.”

An influential part of finalizing the decision was a ten-year exclusivity memorandum of understanding with the Italian craftsman’s organization Artisans of Florence, which oversees the operation of da Vinci museums across Italy, France, South Korea, Australia, and Brazil. The memorandum ensures that Pueblo will be the only permanent da Vinci museum of its kind in the United States.

The Louvre’s first fashion exhibition — titled “Louvre Couture: Art and Fashion — Statement Pieces” and on display through July 21 — highlights the fact that museums make marvelous mood boards, and provide inspiration galore.

To wit: WWD Weekend asked an array of designers during the recent menswear and couture shows in Europe to name their favorite museum in the world, revealing a mix of famous institutions and many lesser-known gems:

Giorgio Armani

“There are two places that hold a special place in my heart. One is in my hometown of Milan. It is the Pinacoteca di Brera, built by Piermarini and located in the Palazzo di Brera, that also hosts the Botanical Garden, the Astronomical Observatory and the Academy of Fine Arts. It is home to masterpieces by great painters such as Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Raffaello, Mantegna and Piero della Francesca, as well as Hayez’s iconic ‘The Kiss.’ The Pinacoteca and its treasures are my neighbors in an area that preserves the blend of aristocratic elegance and popular charm that is one of Milan’s most enchanting qualities.

“Another museum I like very much is 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo, envisioned by Issey Miyake and designed by Tadao Ando, the architect behind my Armani Teatro. I’m fascinated by the architecture of the museum, which is nestled into a wedge of earth, giving it a unique and striking character. It also hosts extraordinary design and art exhibitions, the kind that only the Japanese can come up with.”

In 1897, amid rumors that Mark Twain was seriously ill, the famed author told a reporter, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” That statement might as well have described Thursday at Frieze Los Angeles. By the end of the VIP Day, the fair had sent out a 1,500-word email reporting “strong sales,” an “energetic opening day” and a long list of sold-out booths and major sales.

Mariane Ibrahim, David Kordansky, Casey Kaplan, and Carlyle Packer all reported selling out, with prices ranging from $13,500-$60,000, $8,000-$80,000, $30,000, and $16,000-$54,000 respectively.  Hauser & Wirth also reported selling out its booth of Ambera Wellman works, priced $150,000-$210,000 and presented in collaboration with Company under its “Collective Impact initiative.” James Cohan, meanwhile, “nearly” sold out of its booth of works by Eamon Ore-Giron, featured in last year’s Whitney Biennial, priced between $30,000 and $125,000.

The overall sentiment at the fair seemed to be a mix of relief, excitement, and gratitude at collectors for showing up and supporting the LA arts community as it recovers from a harrowing start to 2025. As one East Coast-based collector put it outside of the Ruinart Art Bar, “Up until Tuesday I wasn’t sure [if I would come]. Then I said to myself, ‘Of course you’re going.’ It’s the right thing to do.”

Just after 11 a.m., the main corridor thrummed, and two collectors in front of Matthew Marks booth— one in tannish red suede pants and a brown leather trench, the other in a puffy-armed knit jacket and clutching a fur-and-leather handbag—exclaimed how glad they were to see each other. Showing up was important.

They weren’t the only ones to make the trip. The fair reported a star-studded list of attendees that included celebs like Katie Couric, Kid Cudi, Gunna, Brit Marling, and Gwyneth Paltrow—spotted in the aisles eyeing a Mark Manders print at Xavier Hufkens—and a raft of Top 200 collectors, including Larry and Allison Berg, Lauren Taschen, Komal Shah, Ric Whitney, and more than a few Rubells. Taschen, according to one New York dealer, showed up even before the fair opened, to stroll the aisles and earnestly, joyfully thank out-of-town dealers for coming. (However, Frieze spokesperson told ARTnews that there there were no collectors visited the fair prior to the official opening.) There were also brand-name institutional figures like the Serpentine Galleries’ Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Thelma Golden, and LACMA’s Michael Govan, to name just a couple.

In 79 C.E., Pompeii, some 14 miles southeast of Naples, was a luxurious resort city. By then it was part of the Roman Empire, though the area had been first settled by the Osci, a central Italian ethnic group eventually absorbed into the empire. Before its name became synonymous with tragedy, Pompeii was something of a playground for the Roman elite. Stone-paved roads connected shops, restaurants, bathhouses, brothels, and even an arena that could hold 20,000 people. Volcanic ash enriched the land around Pompeii, making the area a major exporter of grapes and olives.

According to Pliny the Younger, minor earthquakes had rattled the area around Pompeii in the days leading up to the fateful eruption. Those, however, were not unusual in the region, and thus not cause for alarm to its 10,000 to 20,000 residents.

When Vesuvius did erupt that autumn, the disaster unfolded in two stages. With the initial eruption ash and pumice were blasted straight into the air and rained down on the city. Historians assume most Pompeiians, spooked by the plume and the damage, fled during this stage, escaping certain death. The next morning, pyroclastic flow—essentially an avalanche of volcanic matter and hot gas—swept the city. Scholars believe upwards of 2,000 people were killed, more than half of whom were accounted for in subsequent archaeological digs.

Pompeii’s ruins weren’t discovered until the 18th century. Their remarkable level of preservation and the subsequent discovery of human-shaped cavities in the ash there (and in nearby Herculaneum) seized the public’s imagination. Pompeii’s discovery rekindled a general interest in antiquity, a fascination that inspired arts, letters, and architecture.

Why is Pompeii so well preserved?

The pyroclastic flow blanketed Pompeii in some 20 feet of ash, pumice, and volcanic debris in a matter of seconds. The effect was like snapping a photo: The ash and debris froze the city in place and immediately killed those unlucky enough to be in their way.

On Thursday, Christie’s announced that it will sell dozens of works by artists including Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Giacometti, and Piet Mondrian from the collection of the late Barnes & Noble founder—and former ARTnews Top 200 collector—Leonard Riggio.

Valued at $250 million, the 30 or so works will go under the hammer during the house’s upcoming spring sales in New York.

The book mogul’s wife, Louise, is downsizing from their Park Avenue apartment—where the trove of works held court—after he passed last year.

“This is tough for me to say goodbye to old friends, but I will not put them in storage,” she said of the artworks, as reported by the New York Times. “They need to be seen.”

A Mondrian work that hung in the vestibule of the Riggio’s lux apartment is due to be the auction’s headline act, with a reported high estimate of over $51 million. (A similar painting by the artist titled Composition No. II sold for that record price at Sotheby’s in 2022.)

Christie’s won the tender after a bidding war with Sotheby’s. According to the New York Times, in a curious move, the latter house reportedly enlisted mega-gallery Pace to charm Louise Riggio, although Sotheby’s and Pace have so far declined to comment.

“We have a longstanding relationship with Christie’s,” she said.

As ARTnews’ Daniel Cassady wrote last week, Leonard Riggio “was a profound collector of the Minimalists and a driving force behind the establishment of Dia:Beacon in Upstate New York.” Among the treasures Riggio kept at his Bridgehampton home was Richard Serra’s 300-ton steel sculpture Sidewinder (1999), which was visible from space thanks to Google Earth satellites. 

The Riggio sale will be a test for the art market’s health after several years of disappointing auction results, not helped by global conflict, last year’s US presidential campaign, and now, it seems, President Donald Trump’s plan to impose widespread tariffs.

Christie’s CEO Bonnie Brennan described the Riggios as “true collectors.”