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After the El Greco painting Saint Sebastian (1610–1614) was pulled from a Christie’s sale in February, Romania has secured a “long-term hold” on the work, which it claims to rightfully own.
Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro died on the eve of his 99th birthday. He was 98.
Abstract painter Thornton Willis has died in New York at the age of 89.
The Headlines
WHOSE EL GRECO IS IT ANYWAY? Romania has secured a “long-term hold” on Saint Sebastian (1610–1614), a painting by El Greco that was pulled from Christie’s New York Old Masters sale in February. The move follows claims that the work was unlawfully taken from Romania’s national collection in 1947, according to the Art Newspaper. The painting will remain at Christie’s New York “until Romania’s recovery efforts are heard and resolved by the proper legal authorities,” according to a letter from Nixon Peabody, the law firm representing Romania.
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Court filings have revealed that the work is currently owned by Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Monaco-based Russian billionaire known for consigning Salvator Mundi, the painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci that sold for a record $450 million in 2017. Rybolovlev reportedly purchased the El Greco from embattled Swiss dealer Yves Bouvier; Rybolovlev and Bouvier have since been involved in a number of legal spats with each other. However, the Romanian suit alleges that Christie’s provenance records were “misleading,” omitting Bouvier’s role and instead stating that Rybolovlev acquired the painting directly from the dealer Giraud Pissarro Ségalot.
IN MEMORIAM. Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro has died in Milan on the eve of his 99th birthday, reports the Associated Press. The news was announced in a statement by Carlotta Montebello, director of the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation . “With the passing of Arnaldo Pomodoro, the art world loses one of its most authoritative, lucid, and visionary voices. The Maestro leaves an immense legacy,” Montebello said. A towering figure in postwar Italian art, Pomodoro was known for his monumental bronze spheres, which he incised to reveal intricate, fractured interiors. “In my work I see the cracks, the eroded parts, the destructive potential that emerges from our time of disillusionment,” he once said.
The Digest
Abstract painter Thornton Willis died in New York on June 15 at the age of 89, according to a statement from his daughter, Rachel Willis. A third-wave member of the New York School, Willis painted atypical geometric forms that showed the artist’s hand with visible brushstrokes and imperfect lines. [Artforum]
Gabriele Finaldi, director of London’s National Gallery, has issued a letter responding to a recent Guardianarticle that spotlighted renewed debate over the attribution of Samson and Delilah, a painting in the museum’s collection credited to Peter Paul Rubens. “I’d like to draw readers’ attention to the recent publication of detailed art-historical and technical research on the National Gallery’s website confirming the attribution of Samson and Delilah” to Rubens, writes Finaldi. [The Guardian]
Japan has announced its full project for the country’s 2026 Venice Biennale pavilion. Nearly two months after naming artist Ei Arakawa-Nash as its representative, the Japan Foundation has appointed Lisa Horikawa and Mizuki Takahashi as co-curators of the presentation. [ArtAsiaPacific]
Bristol City Council has launched a fundraiser to help return what is believed to be JMW Turner’s earliest-known oil painting “to its home,” where the artist painted it at age 17. The signed painting, titled The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol, debuted at the Royal Academy in 1793, and was rediscovered last year. The city aims to raise £100,000 ($133,800) ahead of the painting’s auction on July 2. It is estimated to sell for between £200,000 and £300,000. [BBC]
Two large bronze and stainless-steel sculptures by artist and filmmaker Daniel Winn, stolen from a warehouse in Anaheim Hills, Orange County, on June 14 or 15, were recovered Friday night. The works, valued at a combined $2.1 million, were located following local tips, according to police. No arrests have yet been made in connection with the theft. [The Los Angeles Times]
The Kicker
BASEL ON A BUCK. In a piece for Cultured titled “How to Spend No Money at Art Basel,” writer Gracie Hadland recounts her fair week with entertaining candor, offering a refreshingly offbeat guide to navigating the preeminent art fair for free. From awkward gallery dinners to hotel breakfast buffets and free satellite shows, Hadland, less pressed for time than the fair’s usual wheeling-and-dealing crowd, likens the experience to “being on a business trip with my parents.” Her frugal approach afforded her something rare: time with artists, who personally walk her through their works, and access to a slower social rhythm—curators, writers, and artists who “floated down the [Rhine] river, walked back to our spot, and floated again, repeating until dinner time.” The cycle, Hadland notes, is not unlike Sturtevant’s 2010 video Finite Infinite, in which a dog runs across the screen endlessly.
