The V&A Receives a Sizeable Gift From an American Billionaire
The Victoria & Albert Museum has received a hefty donation from Leonard Blavatnik—a Ukraine-born businessman who emigrated to the US in the 1970s and currently lives in London. Although the sum of the gift has yet to be disclosed, it’s rumored to number in the millions. The donation comes at a pivotal time for the London institution as it is in the midst of numerous projects, including a major extension. Click here to continue reading. (via The Art Newspaper)

A Sneak Peek at the New San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Two years after closing its doors to the public, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is preparing for a major reveal. On Saturday, May 14, the institution will unveil its newly renovated (and considerably expanded) home. Designed by the celebrated architecture firm Snøhetta, the revamped structure boasts three times the gallery space as its predecessor. The size increase will held accommodate the collection of Gap-cofounders, Donald and Doris Fisher. Click here to continue reading. (via The Guardian)   

JMW Turner Lands on New UK Banknote
The Bank of England has announced that the English painter JMW Turner will adorn the UK’s new £20 note. Turner, who is best known for his singular use of light in his landscape and seascape paintings, was a key influence behind many of Europe’s most important artistic movements, including Impressionism. Turner will replace the economist Adam Smith, who has been featured on the bill since 2012. In addition to a self-portrait by Turner, the note will feature his painting The Fighting Temeraire. Click here to continue reading. (via NPR)

A Rare Clyfford Still Painting Heads to Auction
Abstract Expressionism will be well-represented at Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on Tuesday, May 10. In addition to a 1957 canvas by Mark Rothko, the auction will include Clyfford Still’s 1948 work, PH-234. Paintings by Still rarely appear at auction as the majority of his works reside in public institutions. PH-234 is expected to fetch $25-$35 million. Click here to continue reading. (via ArtInfo)

For Sale: The Carnegie Family’s Hamptons Home and a Converted Courthouse Flat in London
1. This courthouse-turned-flat is as cool as it gets. This three-bedroom residence brings tons of modern style to a historic structure in London’s West Kensington neighborhood. Located in a Grade II listed building that once served as a courthouse, the home features dramatic, thirty-five-foot vaulted ceilings, a mezzanine area, and a courtyard garden. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)

Lucian Freud’s Estate Leaves an Unseen Self-Portrait by the Artist to the UK
The estate of Lucian Freud has left a previously unseen self-portrait by the British artist to the UK via the nation’s acceptance in lieu scheme. The unfinished painting, which was created in the mid-1980s, will go on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Freud’s estate has already left sketchbooks, drawings, and letters belonging to the artist to the nation. Click here to continue reading. (via Blouin ArtInfo)

The Walton Family Foundation Donates $10 Million to the National Gallery
The Walton Family Foundation—a philanthropic organization established by Walmart founders Sam and and Helen Walton—has donated $10 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The bequest was made in honor of John Wilmerding, a curator, deputy director and trustee at the museum, as well as a celebrated American art scholar. The donation will help establish the John Wilmerding Fund for Education in American Art. Wilmerding also served as a primary advisor for Walmart heiress Alice Walton, when she established the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2011. Click here to continue reading. (via The Washington Post)

Tate Loans Picasso Portrait to Crystal Bridges
Tate Britain has loaned Pablo Picasso’s classically inspired Woman in a Chemise to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The work will be on view from Friday, April 29, through July 2017. In addition to the Picasso portrait, the museum will receive another major loan in the fall—Rene Magritte’s L’Anniversaire, which belongs to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Click here to continue reading. (via Arkansas Online)

Yayoi Kusama Installations are Coming to Philip Johnson’s Glass House
The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama will bring two installations to Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, beginning in May. The first installation will be Narcissus Garden and Pumpkin, followed by a version of her wildly popular Infinity Room. The installations will commemorate the Glass House’s tenth year as a public institution as well as the 110th anniversary of Johnson’s birth. Completed in 1949, the Glass House is a National Trust Historic Site and an icon of modern architecture. Click here to continue reading. (via Artnet News)

Top 3 Interior Design Projects of the Week: A Modern Hamptons Home, A Stylish Manhattan Residence & An Art Deco Pied-a-Terre
This bright and welcoming glass house in Southampton, New York, is like a breath of fresh air. The modernist retreat features mid century furniture that is sleek yet livable, and natural elements throughout, adding an earthy appeal to its sophisticated spaces. The living room, which is outfitted with an organically shaped coffee table, a low-slung sofa and rattan PK 22 lounge chairs by Poul Kjaerholm, exemplifies the effortlessly elegant atmosphere that pervades the home. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)

Francois Pinault Will Open a Private Museum in Paris
The French businessman and art collector Francois Pinault has announced plans to open a private museum in Paris. The luxury goods magnate will showcase part of his illustrious contemporary art collection at the Bourse de Commerce, an eighteenth century building in the city’s 1st arrondissement. Pinault has selected the Japanese architect Tadao Ando to renovate the space. The museum is expected to open in 2018. Click here to continue reading. (via The New York Times)  

Phillips is Growing Its Watch Department
The London-based auction house, Phillips, is ramping up its watch department with the appointment of new specialists in New York, Hong Kong, and Geneva. Focused mainly on twentieth and twenty-first century art, Phillips launched its watch department in 2014. The new hires include Douglas Escribano, Vice President and Head of Sale for Christie’s watch department, Amy Chow, who worked for the Beijing-based auction house China Guardian, and Alex Ghotbi, who comes from the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin. Click here to continue reading. (via Blouin Artinfo)

The Broad Introduces a New Ticketing System
The Broad, Los Angeles’ newest contemporary art museum, will implement a new ticketing system starting on May 1. The institution, which opened in September 2015, has been attracting huge crowds thanks to its stellar collection, eye-popping architecture, and free admission policy. In an effort to combat overcrowding, the museum will release timed tickets a month in advance of desired entry. Click here to continue reading. (via NBC Los Angeles)

A New Documentary Spotlights David Hockney
A new documentary by filmmaker Randall Wright explores the work of the pioneering British Pop artist, David Hockney. Hockney, who rose to prominence in the 1960s, is best known for his flat, colorful portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. The film, aptly titled Hockney, forgoes the biographical approach, focusing instead on the painter’s work and his artistic approach. The documentary premieres in New York and Los Angeles this week. Click here to continue reading. (via Vogue)

Prominent Art Dealer Pleads Not Guilty to Embezzlement Charges
Perry Rubenstein, a well-known Los Angeles art dealer, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of grand theft. Rubenstein is accused of failing to pay more than $1 million to Michael Ovitz, co-founder of the Creative Artists Agency and former President of the Walt Disney Company, after selling two Richard Prince paintings for the entertainment exec. Rubenstein is being held on $1 million bail. Click here to continue reading. (via The Denver Post)

George Weymouth, Founder of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, Has Passed Away
George A. “Frolic” Weymouth, the founder of the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, has passed away. He was 78. Weymouth, an accomplished artist, acquired a nineteenth-century mill in 1971 and after an extensive renovation, established the Brandywine River Museum of Art. The institution, which focuses on American art, champions artists practicing in the Brandywine River Valley. The museum owns many works by local artists, including N.C., Andrew, and Jamie Wyeth. On June 2, the Brandywine River Museum will celebrate Weymouth’s legacy with an exhibition of his paintings. Click here to continue reading. (via The Delaware County Daily Times)

LACMA Receives $75 Million for Its New Building
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has received a whopping $75 million from two donors—Elaine Wynn, a museum co-chair and a well-known collector who offered $50 million, and A. Jerrold Perenchio, the former CEO of Univision who gifted the institution $25 million. The funds will go toward LACMA’s $600-million expansion project, helmed by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Click here to continue reading. (via The Los Angeles Times)

The Minneapolis Institute of Art Names a New Curator of Decorative Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has named Ghenete Zelleke the James Ford Bell Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture. The department is the museum’s largest, boasting 18,000 pieces of furniture, textiles, silver, porcelain, glassware, and sculpture, as well as period rooms. Zelleke succeeds Eike Schmidt, a German art historian, who was recently named Director of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. Click here to continue reading. (via The Star Tribune)

Modernist Interiors from the Four Seasons Head to Auction
Furniture and architectural details from the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York will be auctioned at Wright following the legendary eatery’s closure on July 16. An icon of modern architecture, the Four Seasons features Philip Johnson-designed interiors brimming with stylish mid century furniture by the likes of Hans Wegner, Le Corbusier, and Knoll, as well as tableware by Ada Louise Huxtable. The auction will take place on July 26 in New York. Click here to continue reading. (via Blouin Artinfo)

Legends of La Cienega Celebrates Los Angeles’ Famed Design Quarter
In the 1950s, Los Angeles saw a major population boom, beckoning Americans from across the country to its sun-kissed beaches and sleek, modern homes. The city, which played a pivotal role in the mid-century design movement, quickly developed a reputation as the most stylish and innovative hot spot on the West Coast. As Los Angeles emerged as a design haven, it was only natural that a bustling design quarter develop along with it. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)

Cy Twombly Paintings to Lead Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Auction
On Wednesday, May 11, Sotheby’s New York will auction a trove of postwar and contemporary art estimated to be worth $257 million. The sale will be led by two canvases by Cy Twombly —a blackboard painting, which is expected to fetch $40 million, and a $20-million work from the artist’s gestural Bacchus series. Twombly’s current auction record was set in November 2015 at Sotheby’s, when a different blackboard painting netted $70.5 million. Click here to continue reading. (via Artnet News)

Collectors Pull Artworks from Geneva’s Free Port Storage
After a raid at the Geneva Free Ports uncovered a Nazi-looted Amedeo Modigliani painting earlier this month, collectors have begun removing valuable paintings and sculptures from its tax-free storage vaults. Due to the increased scrutiny that has followed the scandal, many customers have transferred works to facilities in London as well as the Delaware Freeport near Philadelphia. Click here to continue reading. (via Bloomberg)

The Yale Center for British Art Will Unveil Its Revamped Louis Kahn Building Next Month
Louis Kahn’s seminal building for the Yale Center for British Art will reopen on Wednesday, May 11, following a comprehensive, eight-year restoration. The museum, which houses Paul Mellon’s illustrious British art collection, has been closed for the past eighteen months. The restoration has remained faithful to Kahn’s vision and involved refinishing the Modernist building’s woodwork, replacing the exhibition walls’ aging fabric, and installing new carpets. Click here to continue reading. (via The New York Times)

The Vatican’s Gallery of Maps Reopens After a Major Restoration
The Vatican’s Gallery of Maps—a 400-foot-long corridor adorned with painted maps of Italy from the sixteenth century—will reopen on Saturday, April 30, following a four-year restoration. Commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII, the frescoed maps had started separating from the walls and were cracked and scratched prior to the overhaul. The damage was due in part to the large number of visitors who pass through the gallery on their way to the Sistine Chapel. Click here to continue reading. (via The Wall Street Journal)

The Shelburne Museum Will Present Grandma Moses: American Modern This June
Few Americans needed a map to locate “Grandma Moses Country” in the 1950s. For the literal, it could be plotted as that corner of the United States where New York adjoins Massachusetts and Vermont. For most people, though, it was a landscape of the imagination—an idealized and geographically indeterminate place of hill and dale planted with tidy houses and barns and populated by hard-working yeoman families. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)