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- The London branch of the Artist Pension Trust is closing to the dismay of participating artists.
- “Combative” former head of the Barnes Foundation has died at 79.
- Historians rebut White House attack against the National Museum of American History.
The Headlines
ARTIST PENSION DISTRUST. The London chapter of the New York–founded Artist Pension Trust (APT) is shuttering, and now participating artists claim the trust that promised a “mutual assurance program” by pooling and selling their art is in fact “unlawful,” the Financial Times reported. Over 40 artists allege APT London Inc has likely been operating as an unregulated investment scheme, and they are now demanding all of their artwork be returned, along with compensation for any financial losses incurred. As ARTnews reported in 2009, APT was presented as “a pension program for contemporary artists,” to which participants would contribute art instead of money, over 20 years. But even in that 2009 story, the multi-investor-supported program meant to pay artists upon art sales was characterized as “speculative” by private art dealer Clarissa Dalrymple, who told ARTnews “there is no way to know if it really will work.” For impacted UK artists, it seems that time has come. Three of them told the FT they had not received any money from APT, ever. Things took a turn for the worse after the London branch announced its plans to close in May, and sent a termination agreement asking artists to retrieve works worth 70 percent of their contributions. The remaining 30 percent of artworks would be kept by APT to pay outstanding expenses. That offer was “a betrayal on an epic scale,” said artist Céline Condorelli. Meanwhile, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has not been regulating the company, which is run from outside the UK. According to Guillermo Malm Green, a lawyer administering APT’s closure, APT is currently owned by “a large number of distributed shareholders,” excluding APT co-founder and tech entrepreneur Moti Shniberg.
IN MEMORIAM. Richard H. Glanton, who headed the Barnes Foundation in the 1990s, has died at 79, reports the New York Times. Glanton is remembered for pushing against opposition and taking the Foundation’s 80 French artworks on an exhibition tour to raise money for a museum renovation, as well as his “combative” approach that helped bring visibility to the Philadelphia institution. Glanton did not have a background in art and joined the institution’s board through his relationship to Lincoln University, a historically Black college about an hour outside Philadelphia that had close ties to the collection’s founder, Albert C. Barnes. Glanton was later embroiled in a few lawsuits, including one for sexually harassing a female associate at a previous job, which eventually ended in a settlement.
The Digest
Historians rebut White House’s July 4th attack against the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. [The New York Times]
Sculptor Lynda Benglis is the inspiration for Dior’s latest haute couture show by brand creative director Jonathan Anderson. [ARTnews]
In a first, a British man pleaded guilty to breaching the UK’s ban on exports of art to Russia and has been fined $37,400. [Artnet News]
A New York City gallery identified by the Cambodian government as Antiquarium Fine Ancient Arts Gallery on Madison Avenue has relinquished 20 artifacts linked to dealer Douglas Latchford, accused of trafficking looted antiquities. [The New York Times]
The Louvre has acquired a rare icon painting by the 15th-century artist Andreas Pavias, which was initially mistakenly attributed and undervalued. [Le Figaro]
A new performing arts center designed by Frank Gehry, called Dar al Funoon Abu Dhabi (House of the Arts), is being built on Saadiyat Island, with plans to open by 2030. [ArtAsiaPacific]
The Kicker
DISCOVERING DUALITY. For Ocula, the poet Will Harris talks to Stockholm-based artist Lap-See Lam on the occasion of her “watery” exhibition, “Ombres,” at Norway’s Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, which is located in an area that is itself largely surrounded by water. The winner of the 2025 Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, Lam is showing recent video works, such as Floating Sea Palace (2025), featuring Chinese opera and a “dragon ship” that discuss how Lam’s family moved to London and then Stockholm from Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese diasporic community. Another work, Mother’s Tongue (2018), focuses on the family’s Chinese restaurant, where Lam spent much of her childhood, via perspectives of fictional restaurant workers from 1978, 2018, and 2058. “With the Chinese restaurant, I always found its duality interesting. It’s a projection of Chineseness, a place catering to a Western gaze — and, of course, one can point that out and reject it. But it’s also a real place where a lot of important unwritten history is being played out in relation to the diaspora and everyday life. I’m interested in working through that doubleness,” said Lam.
