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.