Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
Happy Wednesday! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week.
Industry Moves
- Ortuzar Takes on the Claire Falkenstein Foundation: The gallery is partnering with the foundation on a multi-year initiative to showcase Falkenstein’s wide-ranging practice, which will be surveyed in a booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, in an exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art opening November 2026, and in the gallery’s first solo show with the artist, to be staged in fall 2026.
- Jessica Silverman Now Co-Represents GaHee Park with Perrotin: Works by Park will be shown by both galleries ahead of a solo show at Silverman’s San Francisco space in November 2026.
- Gurr Johns Appoints Robert Goff as President of Private Sales: The longtime David Zwirner director will build out Gurr Johns’ private sales division. Tabor Story is also joining as director of private sales after stints at Gladstone and Matthew Marks.
- Tara Downs Adds Nizhonniya Austin to Roster: The Diné/Tlingit artist will be included in the gallery’s NADA Miami presentation next month and have a solo exhibition in New York in 2026.
- Kohler Arts/Industry Announces 2026 Residency Cohort: The factory-based program by John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) and Kohler Co. will host 12 new artists, including Jiha Moon, Sharif Farrag, Michelle Im, and Jason S. Yi.
- Upsilon Gallery Names Camilla Previ Managing Director in Milan: The newly launched outpost will be helmed by Previ, who brings more than a decade of project and event experience across Italy’s cultural sector.
Big Number: $236.4 M.
Could it be anything else? Yes, that’s the sale price with fees for Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16) which sold on Tuesday night at Sotheby’s on a $150 million estimate. The Klimt broke the record for the highest price of any work of modern art sold at auction, a record previously held by Pablo Picasso’s 1955 Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”), which sold at Christie’s New York in 2015 for $179.4 million. Klimt’s previous record was $108.4 million for Dame mit Fächer (1917-1918) at Sotheby’s London in 2023.
Read This
Exhibitions of Hilma af Klint’s mystical abstractions have charmed the masses—and rankled some of her descendants who are displeased with the way some have shown these paintings. One recipient of their ire last year was the dealer David Zwirner, whose New York gallery sold rare works by af Klint to Glenstone, a private museum outside Washington, D.C., and faced no small degree of pushback for it. A New Yorker story this week about af Klint’s afterlife provides insight into Zwirner’s strained relationship with certain members of the af Klint family who undid a deal that would’ve seen his gallery represent the estate of late Swedish artist. Still, Zwirner stuck to his guns and sung af Klint’s praises to the New Yorker. “This is work that really touches people, that actually has upended a previous reading of art history, that’s loaned out to the most important museums in the world,” he said. —Alex Greenberger, Senior Editor
Editor’s Note: The email newsletter version of this column incorrectly said that Rachel Uffner had taken on Nizhonniya Austin. The correct gallery is Tara Downs. ARTnews regrets the error.
