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The Headlines
BERLIN CULTURE MINISTER RESIGNS. Berlin’s culture senator, Joe Chialo, has announced his resignation, reports dpa. “Today, I asked the governing mayor to release me from my position as senator for culture and social cohesion,” he stated. His reasons for doing so are related to a disagreement over far-reaching budget cuts to the city’s arts sector. Until recently, Chialo was considered a favorite candidate for the next federal culture ministry position, which was instead given to a former journalist and conservative author Wolfram Weimer. “Last year, I supported the requested cuts in the cultural budget with a heavy heart — aware of our shared responsibility for the city,” Chialo said. “However, the further cuts now planned interfere too deeply with existing plans and objectives, alter key professional requirements, and thus lead to the imminent closure of nationally renowned cultural institutions,” he added. “I see it as my responsibility to create space for new perspectives.”
CREATIVE AUSTRALIA FUNDING QUESTIONED. If elected on Saturday, a center-right Liberal-National Coalition government in Australia would make a more than 10 percent cut to funding for Creative Australia, the group that organizes the country’s Venice Biennale pavilion, and instead redirect that money to support the “Melbourne Jewish Arts Quarter and supporting broadcasting,” reports the Guardian. Creative Australia has been under fire since abruptly dropping its selection of Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative at the next Venice Biennale. The Coalition is pledging $33.2 million AUD of Creative Australia’s current annual funding for celebrating Jewish arts, culture, food, and shopping in Melbourne’s Elsternwick neighborhood, according to the report. Last month, the opposing Labor party announced an $18 million AUD for Jewish arts, and soon after, the Coalition party announced they would match that with support that has now been upped to almost $44 million AUD. “The Coalition prefers to fund art rather than arts bureaucracy,” a spokesperson for the center-right alliance said. For Saturday’s national election, Australians will choose between the incumbent, center-left Labor party leadership and its conservative challenger, known as the Coalition.
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The Digest
An ornate sword that once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte is heading to auction in Paris and could sell for more than $1 million. The French leader commissioned the sword, decorated with a mother-of-pearl handle and a carved Medusa likeness and the Nemean lion killed by Hercules, after he was elected consul for life in 1802. [Artnet News]
Rachel Uffner Gallery has brought on a new partner, Lucy Liu, to expand the New York City gallery. Born in China and raised in Canada, Liu, 25, joined the gallery as a sales assistant in 2023 and was promoted to director in 2024. She “understands the art world in Asia … and has cultivated relationships with the growing community of young collectors in the US,” Uffner said. [The Art Newspaper]
Alex Rotter has been named Christie’s new global president in the latest management shuffle since Guillaume Cerutti stepped down. Prior to his nomination, Rotter led the 20th and 21st century art department, and in will now work across categories to develop private sales and “innovative strategies for auction.” [Press release]
The Los Angeles County Museum of American Art (LACMA) has acquired a rare painting by Rome and Paris-based artist Virginia da Vezzi, who lived from 1600 to 1638, and has been ignored by much of art history. Her painting, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is one of 112 new objects added to the museum’s collections over the 39th edition of the Collectors Committee Weekend at the end of April, which raised $2.5 million, as the museum waits the completion of its David Geffen Galleries building. [Press release]
The Kicker
FRENCH NATIONAL TRUST? French culture minister Rachida Dati wants a “National Trust a la francaise,” or a French version of the UK’s National Trust, to help manage the country’s many, costly heritage sites. But does the British model, which boasts thousands of volunteer workers, fit within a nation of “fanatic individualists?” asks reporter Roxana Azimi for Le Monde. The answer is anything but simple, and by the end of May, a special commissioned report on the topic should help shed more light on the issue.