Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
Happy Wednesday! A round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week:
New York’s Tilton Gallery to Close: The storied gallery announcedWednesday that its upcoming exhibition for abstract painter Ruth Vollmer will be its last. The gallery closes eight years after founder Jack Tilton died.
Esther Schipper Gallery Takes on Lotus L. Kang: The Berlin-based gallery, with spaces in Paris, New York, and Seoul, now represents New York–based Kang, who is Canadian. Her practice spans sculpture, photography, and site-responsive installation. Her first solo presentation with Esther Schipper will open in November in Berlin.
Başak Doğa Temür and Nilbar Güreş to Join Forces for 2026 Venice Biennale’s Turkish Pavilion: Güreş is known for her poetic, critical, and witty engagement with cultural symbols and social inequalities. Her exhibition will be curated by Temür, with the pavilion coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts.
Yan Du Project Names Billy Tang as Artistic Director: The London nonprofit Yan Du Project has appointed Tang as artistic director ahead of the opening of its new home this October in a Grade I–listed townhouse on Bedford Square. He begins in the role this month, reports Hok-hang Cheung for ARTnews.
Phillips to Offer Juvenile Triceratops Skeleton at Fall Auctions in New York: The dinosaur remains will headline a dedicated section of natural history lots offered alongside modern and contemporary masterworks.
Big Number: HK$106 M.
That’s the high estimate for the 1944 Pablo Picasso painting Buste de femme at Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale on Friday. At about $13.6 million, the lot is by far the highest priced on offer during the September sales in Hong Kong across the three major houses this week. The next highest priced lots are the 1963 Zao Wou-Ki painting 7.3.63 (estimate HK$70 million–HK$90 million), also at Christie’s, and two Yoshitomo Nara works—the 2012 painting Can’t Wait ’til the Night Comes at Sotheby’s and the 2000 painting Pinky at Phillips. Those works are estimated at HK$65 million–HK$85 million and HK$60 million–HK$80 million, respectively.
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Mary Boone is back. Ahead of the opening of a new show co-organized by the onetime “queen of the art scene,” New York magazine’s Carrie Battan shadowed Boone at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, coaxing her to speak candidly about her 13 months in prison for tax evasion. “To tell you the truth, I got to go to the gym every day. I read a book a day. It was very relaxing,” Boone told Battan. Sounds like a lovely staycation. There are, predictably, plenty more colorful quotes where that came from.