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The Headlines
CRIME SHOW. The well-known Greek dealer Giorgos Tsagarakis, who hosted televised art auctions, was arrested in Athens on Friday on felony charges for trafficking forged and stolen artwork and antiquities, according to The Greek Reporter. Greece’s Organized Crime Division made the arrest and dismantled the dealer’s alleged counterfeit art network following a “smoking gun” social media post featuring illicit items. Investigators then made a series of raids throughout Athens, which led to the seizure of 321 paintings, a majority of which experts said were forgeries, artifacts, and large amounts of cash. Indeed, local authorities had grown suspicious of Tsagarakis, as collectors began recognizing their own stolen objects being offered for sale on the dealer’s TV show. The dealer claims he is innocent.
MIA. Paul Klee’s iconic watercolor, Angelus Novus (1920), is missing from New York’s Jewish Museum exhibition about the artist, because it is stuck in Israel as the country navigates the ongoing regional conflict, reports Hyperallergic. For now, the historic artwork is represented by a placeholder until the original (hopefully) makes it to the institution from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Its transport is delayed by “current conditions affecting international transport,” according to a museum wall text. Famously, the painting inspired critic Walter Benjamin, who became its owner in 1921, and it is seen as a symbol of Nazi persecution and Benjamin’s suicide. With its own dedicated gallery space, the work also holds a central role in the exhibit, which looks at Klee from a political lens.
The Digest
On Monday, preservationist and architect associations collectively filed a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to immediately halt any destruction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Trump administration’s plans to renovate the monument, and also demanded that Congress be consulted on the project. [The Washington Post]
At Monday’s Hong Kong International Cultural Summit, leaders in the arts discussed the reorganization of cultural influence amid destabilizing geopolitical factors, and Hong Kong’s next steps as a self-sufficient cultural engine. [ARTnews]
Art collector and Galerie magazine founder Lisa Fayne Cohen appeared to have been in close contact with Jeffrey Epstein in 2015 and 2016, according to released documents by the Justice Department. [ARTnews]
France’s government blocked the planned March 23 sale of a rare 1517 silverpoint portrait by Hans Baldung Grien, because just 48 hours earlier, it had officially labeled the artwork a National Treasure. [ArtDependence]
Paris Internationale has announced its participating galleries for its inaugural Milan edition, taking place from April 18 to 21. [Artforum]
The Kicker
‘HONG KONG NOSTALGIA-BAIT.’ That is the term used by the Hong Kong indie collective N+ Museum (a satirical wink at Hong Kong’s M+ museum) for its current group exhibition title, reports the South China Morning Post. And if you’re in the city for Art Week, you can learn all about it in the show, which playfully skewers the “cringe” pitfalls of “the exploitation of memories,” as sellable souvenirs for the highest price, per the pseudonymous artist and N+ co-founder Louie Jaubere. “Nostalgia is not cringe in itself. But what’s cringe is people trying to use nostalgia to make it consumable,” added curator and fellow N+ Museum co-founder Renee Lui.
