The Headlines
DALÍ DISPUTE. Italian authorities seized 21 suspected forgeries attributed to Salvador Dalí from a show titled “Dalí, Between Art and Myth” in the northern city of Parma. The works account for roughly a quarter of the 80-exhibition, which opened at Palazzo Tarasconi on September 27. A court in Rome ordered the seizure after the Carabinieri TPC, Italy’s art crime squad, and experts in Spain agreed that the artworks might not be genuine. Diego Polio , the commander of the Carabinieri TPC’s Rome branch, told the Guardian that the Italian authorities first suspected the works were forgeries after a routine check in January. “It was difficult to understand why someone would want to organize an exhibition of such low-value works,” he said. Stefano Opilio, a public prosecutor involved in the investigation, told the Art Newspaper that the Carabinieri TPC sent an exhibition catalog to the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in the Catalonian town of Figueres in February. The foundation then confirmed that it had not been consulted for the show.
INDIA’S STATE OF THE ART. Many art market observers have recently heralded Milan as Europe’s next art hub due to a generous tax break for wealthy foreigners, which in turn is ushering in a wave of new buyers. India’s art market is also getting the same treatment: a tax cut and new buyers have brought on auction records and well-received exhibitions. Artnet News spoke to Roshini Vadehra, co-director of New Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery, who said that while Indian art has been gaining increasing visibility on the global stage through biennials, fairs, and auctions, this progress has largely come from the private sector. Public institutions and museums have more work to do, since most of the country’s biggest art initiatives, such as the India Art Fair and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, remain privately funded. While a recent tax cut has helped fuel sales and attract new buyers, Vadehra believes lasting growth depends on greater state investment to build the institutional support needed to sustain India’s cultural momentum.
The Digest
The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has awarded its 2027 Nasher Prize to Petrit Halilaj, a closely watched artist who is the youngest ever to win the award since its establishment in 2015. [ARTnews]
A group of artifacts, believed to be from the Medieval period and found in a thrift store in western Canada, will form the basis of a real-time learning lab for students at Simon Fraser University near Vancouver. [The Art Newspaper]
The independence of European museums is at risk following growing political pressure, the Network of European Museum Organisations has warned. The organization is seeking to raise awareness and open debate about an “alarming trend” that has until now been “boiling under the surface,” per Julia Pagel, its secretary general. [The Art Newspaper]
The second floor of Barcelona’s Casa Batlló, which was designed by Antoni Gaudí and is considered one of his masterpieces, will, for the first time, open to the public as a gallery dedicated to contemporary art. [WWD]
The Kicker
KAHLO REFRAMED. Will Mexico City’s Museo Casa Kahlo reshape Frida Kahlo’s artistic legacy? The city is already host to one Kahlo-focused museum, Casa Azul, and has now gained another that “attempts to plumb deeper, revealing a more intimate portrait that transcends the image of La Sufrida (the sufferer) and highlights the Kahlo family influence on the painter’s personal and professional life,” according to Wallpaper. The newly opened Museo Casa Kahlo in Mexico City’s Coyoacán neighborhood has been over two decades in the making. Located just a few blocks from Casa Azul, this museum could soon be come a major tourist attraction in its own right.
