Good Morning!
- Experts say a painting Lucian Freud long denied ever making was, in fact, an early painting by the artist.
- The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam denies obstructing provenance investigations of the Koenigs collection in its holdings.
- Feminist, self-taught French artist Raymonde Arcier has died at 86.
The Headlines
FREUDIAN FEUD. The late artist Lucian Freud long maintained he never made the striking portrait titled Man in a Black Scarf, despite much speculation to the contrary. But now, scientific evidence has ruled otherwise, reports the Guardian. According to authentication experts, Freud was indeed the author of the painting of his friend John Jameson, made in 1939 while he was a student at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Suffolk. One red-hot clue: art students from the school recorded observations of Freud working on a painting of Jameson at that time. Why deny a work showing the promise of a great talent? Apparently, Freud’s reasons may have been motivated by a rift between the former owners of the work, old schoolmates Denis Wirth-Miller and Richard Chopping. The latter allegedly wrote a list dubbed “13 Reasons to Hate Lucian,” according to Jon Lys Turner, who was gifted the disputed painting by the list-writing Freud-haters on the condition that Turner authenticate and sell it “to infuriate Lucian.” Freud “was the golden boy, he was a star even then, and there was jealousy,” explained Lys Turner. Old grudges aside, the painting will be shown for the first time at the Garden Museum in London, along with other works that Freud did acknowledge painting around the same time, bearing a recognizably similar style.
KOENIGS CONUNDRUM. The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam has responded to an article by the Dutch media NRC alleging the institution has blocked independent provenance research into the Koenigs collection in its holdings. “The portrayal that the museum is obstructing research or refusing to cooperate is incorrect,” the institution stated on Saturday. The Franz Koenigs collection, including works by Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and others, has been the subject of multiple claims over the years that it was sold under duress due to Nazi persecution. Yet the museum asserted it has always taken such claims “very seriously,” and did its own research into the matter that “presents a different picture,” indicating no harm was done. Still, the institution added, “it is fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation by the Restitution Expertise Centre.”
The Digest
Feminist, self-taught, and belatedly recognized French artist Raymonde Arcier has died at 86. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]
The estate of revered art dealer Barbara Gladstone, who died in 2024, is heading to Sotheby’s with 140 lots, including art and design. [ARTnews]
A new study offers groundbreaking evidence that the thousands of mysterious, ancient, massive stone urns across Laos were in fact ossuaries, which scientists are calling “death jars.” [New York Times]
An international team of archaeologists has discovered the first shipwrecks linked to the real-life pirates of the Caribbean, based in the Bahamas’ Nassau harbor, which they say are just “the tip of the iceberg.” [The Guardian]
A long-disputed transaction involving a portrait of Claude Monet’s father, filed in a complaint by the Impressionist artist’s heirs against the New York-based Wildenstein & Co. gallery, will proceed in a Normandy court. [France Info]
A memorial installation in Kassel, Germany, to murdered victims of right-wing extremists, made by artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian, was awarded the first LVM Insurance Art Prize for Public Art. [Monopol Magazine]
The Kicker
KLINGON PRISON? As the Obama Presidential Center prepares to open on Chicago’s South Side on June 19, reporters are being given early previews of all the museum has to offer, including commissioned works by 25 artists. Yet the presidential library is already falling short of some hopes. Comparisons of the towering, “near-windowless” “Obamalisk” to a “Klingon prison” have been coming in strong for some time, the Guardian reminds us, but now, as the $850 million project nears completion, a clearer assessment is in order. “This controversial monolith feels like a menacing sci-fi HQ. Is it a monument—or a mausoleum?” asks the Guardian‘s Oliver Wainwright. From the tower’s Sky Room at its summit, views of how the center fits into the surrounding Jackson Park make apparent why the choice of this location on public parkland sparked legal disputes, “when there are so many vacant lots nearby,” Wainwright observes. Yet the center is also adding to the area everything from ball fields and playgrounds to a “teaching kitchen” with a vegetable garden. There are also recording studios, an auditorium, and meeting rooms for the public, to name just a few new resources, much of it free. While the Obama Foundation declined to enter into agreements with local communities to address concerns over gentrification, the center “has delivered on other commitments it made to improve Jackson Park and bring perks to the neighborhood,” notes the Times.
