US Court of Appeal rule against sale of African artifacts

Pair of Igbo Statues Attributed To The Master Of Awka Couple, Nri-Awka Region, Nigeria.

About three weeks ahead of Christie’s and Sotheby's sales of suspected illicit African artefacts, a ruling by US Court of Appeal — in an unrelated issue — has strengthened the power of sovereign states to stop commercial transaction of cultural objects.
In 2018, Greece prevented Sotheby’s from selling an ancient equestrian statue over questionable provenance and demanded that the sculpture be returned to the country. In response, the auction house challenged Greece’s claim in court. And on June 9, 2020, the US Appeal Court, according to quite a number of media reports, ruled that Sotheby’s cannot sue Greece because the country’s interest in the artefact was non-commercial.
Later this month, specifically, June 29, artefacts of West African origin, including some from Nigeria, Gabon and Benin Republic are going on sales at both Christie’s and Sotheby's different auctions. Also, over two weeks ago, a notice to stop sales of Nigerian origin artefacts by Barakat Gallery, London, UK and Seoul, South Korea has been recorded. Like the Greece’s contentious equestrian object, the African artefacts that the auction houses have publicized for sales, carry contentious and questionable provenance. However, unlike the Greece’s situation, a legal process is not likely to surface between any of the African countries concerned and the auction houses, ahead of the sales. As at the time of going to the press for this report, Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) had its hands full in stopping, at least, two or three auction outlets involved in suspected stolen cultural objects of the country.

After the ruling against Sotheby’s, Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni told VOA the judgment was of "enormous legal importance," particularly for countries fighting against illegal antiquities trade. Having legally stopped Sotheby's from selling the piece, next for Greece is to file a repatriation suit. "The ministry will proceed with every legal process to repatriate the statuette, stressing that when stolen and illegally exported monuments are returned," the country of origin recovers part of its lost history, Mendoni said.

For Christie’s proposed-sales of its Arts of Africa, Oceania and North America, in Paris, some sculptures with Nigerian, Benin Republic and Gabonese origins also come with clandestine provenance. Listed among the lots in the online catalogue of Christie's website for the June 29 auction are Belt Mask Edo and Edo Hip Mask, Kingdom of Benin, selling for EUR 10,000-EUR 15,000 (USD 11,247-USD 16,870); Edo Bronze Plate, estimated for EUR 30,000-EUR 50,000 (USD 33,740 - USD 56,233); Pair of Igbo Statues Attributed To The Master Of Awka Couple, Nri-Awka Region, Nigeria, selling for EUR 250,000-EUR 350,000; Urhobo- Meeting-House Posts, estimated.for EUR 80,000 - EUR 120,000(USD 89,973 - USD 134,959); and Urhobo Figure, going for between EUR 600,000 - EUR 900,000(USD 674,797 - USD 1,012,195).

Yoruba Wooden Divination Bowl. ( 20th Century AD, 6.5″ (41.9cm) high x 8.5″ (21.6cm) wide x 9.5″ (24.1cm) depth). 

With no specific dates for any of the works, the provenance has created a deliberate distraction, perhaps meant to prevent any spotlight on the works as being from the prohibited Red List of UNESCO. Among the works described by UNESCO under its Red List are artefacts and other cultural objects not approved for export by country of origin.

Christie's described Belt Mask Edo and Edo Hip Mask as sourced from Robert L. Stolper, Stolper Galleries, New York, but "acquired" via the collection of James and Marilynn Alsdorf, Chicago, on April 24, 1961. How the foreign collectors got the works directly or not, from Nigeria, is not explained in the auction house's provenance.

Also, lacking appropriate provenance are the Igbo Statues, described by the same auction house as from Jacques Kerchache Collection, Paris, Ana and Antonio Casanovas & Bernard de Grunne, Madrid / Brussels, 2010. Similarly, the Urhobo Meeting House piece on the list is said to be of Count Simon du Chastel (1926-2014), Brussels, acquired in 1972  from Philippe Ratton and Daniel Hourdé, Paris.

In all the artefacts, no date to place any as either modern or ancient.  A strong pedestal on which Greece stopped Sotheby's was the fact that the period of the equestrian work falls under several UNESCO red List. From all indications, the collectors' legitimacy in acquitions of the African works being put up for sales by Christie's and Sotheby's have not been established. Basically, the date of an art piece, mostly of suspected artefact status, provides an easy ground to track its origin. None of the African art pieces for both the auction houses were dated.

Prof of Art History, Chika   Okeke-Agulu — who, two weeks ago, raised alarm over the illegitimacy of Christie's to sell the Igbo Statues — continued to challenge the auction house's proposed sales. Perhaps the age or date of the Igbo pieces, if available, could give a path into whatever the auction houses might be hiding. Okeke-Agulu of African and African Diaspora Art, Princeton University, Department of Art & Archaeology, few days ago, said "I cannot provide a definite answer," as regards the age of the sculptures. "But, they were taken from shrines and community houses in Eastern Nigeria in 1968-1970," Okeke-Agulu stated via email.  He explained that being of wood medium, irrespective of how old the works are, the condition would still be fairly good. He suggested that the sculptures "must have been made in the 20th century, with a few perhaps even late 19th century."

With or without evidence of illicit trade against Christie's, over the proposed sales of the Nigerian origin art pieces, NCMM, on Wednesday, said "we are tracking the situation." Babatunde Adebiyi, Legal Adviser at NCMM disclosed that the commission was already gathering information and will respond adequately. Less than 24 hours after, NCMM stated that a letter dated June 17 has been sent to Christie's, requesting the auction house to stop the proposed-sales.

The letter, addressed to Victor Teodorescu, Head of Sale, African and Oceanic Art Department, Christie’s Gallery was also copied Bruno Claessens, European Head of the African and Oceanic Art Department Christie’s Gallery. Signed by the Acting Director-General, NCMM, Aliyu Abdu, excerpts from a copy of the letter received by this writer reads: "We are surprised to discover the advertisement of the under-listed artefacts on your website for a planned auction scheduled to hold on the 29th of June, 2020, 3pm at 9 Avenue Matignon, Paris. France.

"These artefacts as you have stated are from Nigeria and they lack the proper providence. We thus request that you suspend the auction and provide us with the provenance of these artefacts because we are of the opinion that they belong to classes of antiquities that Nigeria will object to their exchange or transfer.

"Some of them are not just mere objects in some fancy collection. They have sacred purposes within the community." The letter listed Lots 29, 30, 31, 47 and 49 as the contentious artefacts.

For Sotheby's sales come provenance of a piece taken from 1931, and described as "African reliquary" sculpture, of which the auction house provided no details of origin. Scheduled for sale at Sotheby’s evening of contemporary art in New York' June 29, the statue has been labelled after one of its collectors, by the auction house, as 'The Clyman Fang Head.'

To boost commercial value of art, it's a common practice among auction houses to use popular collectors' names as promotional spin. In such situation, the identity and origin of the work is not completely removed in contrast to Sotheby's distorted provenance against the African sculpture mentioned.

Edo Hip Mask (Benin, Nigeria)

Clearly, the sculpture has all the suspicions of going under the hammer without its origin known. The provenance available include its movements from one collector to another after it first appeared in 1931. In fact, the name of the sculpture is derived from what appears as its second or third collector.

More interesting, the sculpture is not dated to any period, which makes it complex to place either as ancient or modern African art piece. From Sotheby's press statement, no date, or cultural location in Africa was mentioned, even if the piece were of ancient origin.

 “We are excited to present the exquisite Clyman Fang Head to a new audience of collectors for the first time in our Contemporary Art Evening auction," David Galperin, Head of Sotheby's Evening Auction of Contemporary Art in New York stated. "Beyond its renown as a legendary icon of classical African Art, what struck me about this singular sculpture when I first saw it in the Clyman home alongside their collection of Post-war art was how its form appeared so radical and purely modern."

With presale estimate of between US$2.5 million and US$4 million, the piece is being featured alongside masterpieces from artists such as Clyfford Still, Francis Bacon and Jean-Michel Basquiat. "The sculpture last appeared on the market in 1992 when the Clymans acquired it at auction in New York," Sotheby's disclosed.

While the date of the work, its cultural or religious link to specific place in Africa and artist are unknown, the provenance tracks index collection to Charles Ratton, the popular Parisian patron of African art. The provenance explains how, in the 1930s, the head was acquired from Ratton by a modern art curator and writer, James Johnson Sweeney. And with the assistance of Ratton, Sweeney "organized the legendary 1935 exhibition African Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York."

Other group of art from Africa for the auction include what Sotheby's described as from "Kota artists," Central Africa. However, nothing suggests that The 'Clyman Fang Head' belongs in the Kota artists.

In his comment sent via internet, Prof of Art, Dele Jegede of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, U.S, described Sotheby's inadequate provence of the works for sale as unprofessional re-branding. "I am apoplectic reading Sotheby’s flagrant and shameless re-branding of this exquisite Gabon mask as Clyman’s Collection." Jegede traced such diatortion to an unrepentant tradition of derogating African origin, in cultural context. "This whole episode strongly reifies the old, time-worm method of first de-legitimizing Africanity, then forcibly stealing it only to finally appropriate and monetize it." 
  He also highlighted a deliberate creation of anonymity being given the work on the commercial platform.

"Equally on display in this ceaseless assault on Africa and its common wealth is the shameless ploy of ascribing indigenous African art to the realm of anonymity: no name of artist, no name of work, place, or purpose for which the piece was made. Oh, excuse me; it is now to be known as Clyman Collection, right? Oh well... we’re back to where we started." He asked: "who determines the value placed on this piece of unacknowledged and looted art?"

As NCMM prepares for a possible legal battle should Christie's go ahead with the June 29 sales, there is something to learn from the Greece's experience. The 8th-century BC Geometric Period horse that Greece successfully stopped Sotheby's from selling, for an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000, was well investigated by the country of origin. Greece claimed that it had been purchased in 1973 from Robin Symes, an art dealer who already got previous records of being accused of dealing in looted antiquities.

In a post-lockdown opening of the European and Eastern art markets, NCMM seems to have its hands full tracking suspected illicit trade in art of Nigerian origin. NCMM also cited how its intervention has stopped a London, UK-based Barakat Gallery with branch in Seoul, South Korea, from selling a list of artefacts from Benin and Ife origins, recently. The letter dated June 1, 2020, and addressed to the gallery, requested for a halt of their sales, stating that "Nigeria will object to their exchange or transfer."

A check on the website of Barakat Gallery showed that the Ife and Benin ancient pieces earlier advertised for auctioning have been relocated from the auction section to another part. Perhaps, this suggested that the sales have been put on hold.

Among the pieces on Barakat's list are Yoruba Wooden Decimation bowl (Circa),  20th Century AD, Wood; and Benin Bronze sculpture of a Portuguese Man, (Circa), 17th Century AD, bronze.

UK’s Art Fund to award $2.5 million in COVID-19 Relief for Cultural Institution

Photo credit: Alamy

The London-based charitable organization Art Fund has pledged $2.5 million in grants for museums and galleries in the United Kingdom impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, in an effort to cushion the financial losses and expected drop in visitors and revenue as cultural organizations prepare to reopen. Nearly $2 million have been allocated for the immediate needs of institutions. The funds will go toward collections and exhibitions, the development of digital skills and infrastructure, audience engagement initiatives and reopening costs, and staff support, which were identified as the four key areas of focus from the charity’s Covid-19 impact research, published in May.

Based on two surveys—one for museum professionals, and another for museum directors—which collected data from more than four hundred responses, the Art Fund report found that “the most pressing concern for almost all organizations is safe reopening and attracting audiences back, and the financial impact of opening with social distancing measures.” It also found that 85 percent of directors are concerned about the capacity to bring visitors back. And though more than half of all staff were worried about the futures of their workplaces, the rates were much higher in independent organizations—which are less likely to have received funds from existing emergency pandemic grants—as opposed to university or state-run spaces.

In response, Art Fund will award $2 million in grants, ranging between $12,500 and $63,000, to organizations, which may begin applying for funding on Tuesday, June 16. The first round of grants will close July 6. An additional $350,000 will support smaller local authority museums and independent organizations that have not yet received emergency funding—56 percent of accredited UK museums are community-based and largely volunteer-run, and another $188,000 will be available for the “Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring” (MAGNET), an initiative that will produce collaborative, nationally touring exhibitions drawn from the collections of twelve organizations, including the National Museums Liverpool, the Bristol Museums, and the Glasgow Museums. The first show is slated to open in October 2021, with a focus on international hair cultures.

“The future of our museums and galleries, which are so vital to society, is far from certain,” said Art Fund director Jenny Waldman. “We encourage all those at immediate risk or re-imagining future ways of working to get in touch. However, these steps alone will not secure the future—more help is required. We are now fundraising so we can continue to support museums and galleries and we’re calling for everyone to come together to help support museums and galleries adapt and thrive during the biggest challenge in our lifetime.”

Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture opening delayed

Antrepo 5, the future home of the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum.

The Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture (IRHM), which has been closed since 2008 and was scheduled to reopen this spring before the reopening date was pushed back to September, seems unlikely to welcome visitors in 2020. Though its $25 million Emre Arolat–designed building, which will also house the collection of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, served as the Istanbul Biennial venue last fall, it continues to face difficulties in funding, staffing, and construction.

Curator Vasıf Kortun, who was named the museum’s founding advisor last May, quit in December. One of the problems raised by Kortun was that a core selection of the museum’s holdings are on indefinite loan to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Palace Collections Museum in Istanbul, including paintings by Abdulmejid II, the last caliph of the Ottoman Empire. “The museum cannot open without these,” Kortun said. Previously the director of research and programs at SALT Istanbul from 2011 to 2017, Kortun served as a consultant on the museum’s renovation project before he was hired to lead the institution, which has a 12,000-piece collection with works dating back to the late Ottoman era. 

Though he had promised an approach “powered by critical contemporary ideas,” Kortun ultimately stepped down: “You cannot have the state run an institution like this,” he told the Art Newspaper. “Technically, bureaucratically, financially, ideologically—it’s just the wrong combination. . . . I realized it was absolutely impossible to work through this because I was not given the authority to change things.”

Curator Duygu Demir, who worked with Kortun and took over after his departure before she, too, left her post in February, said: “I couldn’t raise money, curate a show about 120 years of Turkish painting and sculpture, think of the next show, and run an institution on my own.”

Galleries and Artists fundraise for Black Lives Matter Movement

Christine Wang, Angela Davis, 2016, and Kandis Williams, Degradation: Erasure II, 2016. Courtesy of Night Gallery.

Galleries and artists are working together in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Several have organized auctions, and others are selling works by individual artists for organizations working toward racial justice. California’s Night Gallery launched an online auction exhibition on June 8. Featuring works by Mira Dancy, Awol Erizku, Marisa Takal, Christine Wang, and Kandis Williams, among others, the event runs through June 22. One hundred percent of the gallery’s proceeds will go to initiatives such as the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, the Equal Justice Initiative, and the Los Angeles Action Bail Fund.

Other fundraising efforts include Sargent’s Daughters’ presentation of a new series of drawings by Brooklyn-based artist Abbey Williams—proceeds will be donated to Black Mamas Matter, which works to advance black maternal health and provide health care and resources to black women—Ebecho Muslimova’s selling of prints with Magenta Plains Gallery to benefit community bail funds, and Mpagi Sepuya and Document Gallery’s offering of free prints to anyone who gives at least $250 to one of a number of organizations, including the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, Fair Fight, the Laundromat Project, and National Bail Out.

London galleries and auction houses prepare to open Monday, June 15, after they won the right to be considered “non-essential retail.” Among the galleries that will begin welcoming guests next week are Gazelli Art House, Gagosian (Grosvenor Hill, Britannia Street, and Davies Street), David Zwirner, Goodman Gallery, White Cube Mason’s Yard and West End, Stephen Friedman Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Marian Goodman, and Pace Gallery. Among the artists whose works will be on view are John Chamberlain, Rineke Dijkstra, Andreas Eriksson, Urs Fischer, Bridget Riley, Charles Ray, and James Turrell. According to Time Out, each gallery will be implementing new safety measures, including providing hand sanitizer, enforcing a two meter social distancing rule, and capping the number of guests allowed entry at one time. Visitors will also be required to wear masks. 

Xavier Hufkens announced its representation of Lynda Benglis. “Rather than embodying concrete things, Benglis’s works suggest unfurled feelings or qualities beyond the constrictions of categorization,” Cathryn Drake wrote in a review in the May/June 2020 issue of Artforum. “Arguably, from the day she published her divisive Artforum advertisement of November 1974, in which she was dressed only in sunglasses and wielding a double-duty dildo, her work has been about seizing art as a tool of empowerment and autonomy.”

Benglis lives and works between New York, Santa Fe, and Greece. Her work is housed in the public collections of several New York institutions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern, London; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Hokkaido Museum of Art, Japan; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; among others.

Deana Lawson joins David Kordansky Gallery in California. The photographer and educator, who teaches at Princeton University, is known for her staged domestic scenes, which often feature strangers she met and asked to photograph. Her intimate interiors also usually feature objects or props she adds in order to showcase the materiality of black culture. A Guggenheim fellow, Lawson has shot all over the world, including in Jamaica and Ethiopia. She is also represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, and has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (on view through October 11, 2020); Huis Marseille, Amsterdam (2019); the Underground Museum, Los Angeles (2018); the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2018); the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2017); and the Art Institute of Chicago (2015). Her photographs will also soon be on view in the Art Basel Online Viewing Rooms, from June 17 to 26, 2020.

Arthouse's main Auction debuts Online

Peju Alatise's 'See Me series' (2015 Acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm.)

 Nearly two months after Arthouse Contemporary had its online charity auction in support of covid-19 relief fund, the auctioneer is back with its main premium sales. Artists drawn from modern and contemporary generations are being converged for the on going bidding, which started online June 9, ending 15, 2020. 
According to the auction house, for the first time, its main modern and contemporary sales are being conducted online. The debut online for the main auction, Arthouse explained, is “due to the restrictions of social gatherings during the pandemic,” in Lagos.

Holding on an auction and marketplace online platform named ‘Invaluable’, www.invaluable.com, the sales feature 96 lots of artworks from the modern period and cutting edge contemporary art. Bidding online on Invaluable opens 10:00 am (WAT), and ends 10:00 pm (WAT).

In mid April 2020 Arthouse's online charity auction raised over ₦1,200,000 million, which was said to have been distributed among “underserved” communities in Lagos.  In the auction house’s usual tradition of over 12 years, the main sales, again, though online currently, also features the charity lots section, which is expected to generate more funds in support of the on going fight against covid-19 pandemic in Lagos.
For the main auction, featured masters include Ben Enwonwu, Akinola Lasekan, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Okpu Eze, Ben Osawe, Abayomi Barber, Abiodun Olaku, Chuks Anyanwu, David Dale and Jimoh Buraimoh. Among the lots is one of the iconic paintings in Nigeria’s secondary art market space. Titled ‘Portrait of A Man’, the painting by Lasekan, oil on board and dated 1956, depicts a seated subject in his elaborate male fashion of Yoruba three-piece-garment agbada.

 Confirming the richness and diversity in the two generations of artists assembled for the auction is, among others, a painting by Duke Asidere titled ‘Hairdo’ and dated 1991. A four-figure of females captured inside what looks like hairdressing salon, the painting represents contemporary scene of ladies’ process of beauty and fashion. 

An impressionistic texture titled ‘Touareg Beggar’, gouache on paper, 1951, by Enwonwu; Glover’s ‘Market Women’, oil on cavas, 2015; ‘Duologue’, charcoal pastel on paper, 2019 by Rom Isichei; and Peju Alatise’s ‘See Me Series’, acrylic on canvas, 2015 are among the lots for the auction.

Other top contemporary artists in the online auction include Alimi Adewale, Chike Obeagu, Gerald Chukwuma, Sokari Douglas Camp, Jerry Buhari, Eva Obodo, Victor Ekpuk, Duke Asidere, Ben Osaghae, Chidi Kwuibiri, Sam Ovraiti, and Ngozi-Omeje Ezema, among others.

International artists from outside of Nigeria include Ablade Glover, Kofi Agorsor, Dominique Zinkpe, Armand Boua, Kofi Setordji, Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou and Camara Amadu Guyeye. Also included are prints of Ben Enwonwu, Uzo Egonu, Yinka Shonibare and David Dale.

The charity lots section has four pieces of Muraina Oyelami, Lemi Ghariokwu, Jimmy Nwanne and Solomon Wangboje, in support of COVID-19 related aid during the pandemic. Specifically, funds raised from the charity lots, Arthouse assured, “will be donated to our partner, Global Shapers, Lagos Hub, to support feeding and supplies in underserved communities in Lagos State.” The auction house added that “funds raised with these charity lots will continue these efforts at a much needed time of uncertainty.” 

In expanding its reach onto the global art market space, Arthouse has chosen Invaluable, an online auction platform and marketplace that is used by the world's leading auction houses and galleries. Among the benefits of the Invaluable platform is the feeling of being in actual auction room. “Bidders gain access to an exclusive online bidding console that simulates all of the aspects of being at the auction house.”

Arthouse also stressed that  Invaluable bidding is “user friendly, safe and secure.”

Explaining that the platform makes bidding easy, giving bidders “confidence,” other benefits include “tools like language translation, currency conversion, and a real-time message center.”

Shortly before the lockdown, Arthouse had its 2020 edition of Affordable Art auction in March. Five-edition-old, the Affordable Art Auction, which held inside Kia Showroom, Lagos, had a total of N35,762,500 ($99,340) during the evening’s sale. From 103 lots of emerging and established artists, in addition to five charity lots, the event recorded more than 50% of total works on sale. The Affordable Auction sales featured charity lots by Oladele Awosoga, Nkechi Nwoso Igbo, A. Akande, Em Inwang and Agemo Francis, in support of the Arthouse Foundation, the non-profit artist residency programme in Lagos, raising a total of N750,000," curator at Arthouse, Joseph Gergel stated. "The proceeds from these charity lots will go directly to supporting the programmes of the Arthouse Foundation, including its residencies, workshops, talks and public events."

More dangerous to erase History' _ Shonibare

Statue of Edward Colston being dumped into Bristol Harbourside by protesters in the U.K.

 At the last count, nearly all the statues of trans-Atlantic trade in slave symbols across Europe have been toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters. The mob actions against Confederate and slave trade statues have been giving policy makers and historians concern about public space monuments.

Nigerian-British artist, Yinka Shonibare whose work, most often, satires British aristocrats has also shown concern about erasing history. Shonibare argued that whatever the eventual solution in addressing the issues raised by the protesters against the statues, preserving history should be paramount.

“I don’t believe that you can erase history. It’s more dangerous to erase history,”  Shonibare said. He noted that as much as the agitation of the people is important, perhaps museum space could be an alternative home to the rejected statues.

“If the community wants monuments to be removed, then they should be removed, but they should remain in public view, by creating museums for them, as a reminder so that we don’t make the same mistakes in the future,” Shonibare told Artnet News.

In the English port city of Bristol, a statue of the 17th century slave merchant, Edward Colston, was pulled off its plinth and dumped into the city’s harbor by Black Lives Matter protesters.Colton (1636-1721) supervised trafficking of 80,000 African men, women and children into slavery. Another slave trader, Robert Milligan's statue was removed. Milligan (1745-1809), a Spaniard was also a slave merchant whose ship played major part during the obnoxious era.
Also, reports showed that in Belgium, a bust of King Leopold II was defaced by protesters and his statue attacked by mobs who chanted “reparations” and waving the Democratic Republic of Congo’s flag. Leopold (1835-1909) reigned exploiting millions of Congolese people in the late 1800s.
In the U.S where the Black Lives Matter protests started after a video showing Minneapolis police
strangling unarmed African American, George Floyd, to death went viral, monuments to controversial figures have been attacked by protesters. For examples, in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia, reports showed how protesters have targeted statues of Christopher Columbus, beheading one and pulling down three.

Images showed how demonstrators toppled a ten-foot-tall statue that stood in front of the Minnesota state capitol; in Richmond, protesters pulled down an eight-foot-tall statue in Byrd Park, moving the sculpture away before setting it on fire; and in Boston, it was reported that a marble statue of Columbus was toppled.Indeed, Shonibare's suggestion of a museum for unwanted people is perhaps the solution in preserving history. Every history matters too, even in their ugly trajectory. However, no public space art is sustainable if the community protests against it. With a museum for such statues and symbols, it becomes a matter of choice to see them.

Int'l Sculpture Day 2020: Lagos, Zaria Artists celebrate virtually

A sculpture tittled Eclipse (wood,121.5cm x 152cm, 2020), by Iyke Okenyi.

Over 25 sculptors in Nigeria beat the lockdown in Lagos and Kaduna States to celebrate International Sculpture Day 2020. Held across the world on every last Saturday of April, the International Sculpture Day was first celebrated in 2015.
As early as February, a Lagos-based professional group of artists, Sculptors Association of Nigeria (ScAN) announced its programmes for the year, which included conference and art exhibition. While the conference was held before the lockdown, the exhibition, titled Now Sculpture, scheduled to hold in April at National Museum, Onikan, Lagos has been postponed. The artists, had clarified that the online exhibition will not feature works previously submitted for the postponed and main national show."The creative spirit of man operates beyond the realm of physical (3d) dimensions of human space; and so cannot be subject to physical restriction of a pandemic lockdown," stated Secretary Genreal of ScAN,  Dr. Shola Kukoyi. "Though ScAN members are in full compliance with government directive of lockdown, we have not relented in practice." He assured that ScAN members' "creative spirit has continued unabated, in fact; with a renewed vigor.  "TitledSculpture: Beyond Lockdown, the virtual exhibition, which featured recent and old works of members, according to the group, "remains opened online till ceasation of the lockdown."For art lecturers of Ahmadu Bello University in  (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State,  the International Sculpture Day 2020 was marked in symbolic online display. "The International Sculpture Day, an initiative of the International Sculpture Center, held at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in a virtual form with the Sculpture Lecturers posting e-posters to create awareness around the immediate community," stated Prof Tonie Okpe.

Listed among participants are Prof Okpe, Dr. Ken Okoli, Dr. Muyideen Adio Jaji, Dr. Wesley Emmanuel Okachi,  Dr. Lamidi Lasisi and Dr. Kevin Damden.

Earlier, on April 15, artists from few countries celebrated World Art Day, which first emerged in 2012. And for the first time, UNESCO got involved with the 2020 celebration. From 2-4 p.m, a virtual event themed ResiliArt, which featured debate over the challenges faced by artists was launched by UNESCO. Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General who launched ResiliArt stated: "Our Organization would thus like to pay tribute to the solidarity shown by artists and institutions at a time when art is suffering the full force of the effects of a global health, economic and social crisis."

Unlike the World Art Day, which, for the first time last year got the recognition of UNESCO, the International Sculpture Day is yet to be so listed among the global cultural body's events. The first International Sculpture Day was celebrated in many countries across the world, including Germany, U.S, England, China, Australia, Spain and Mexico. The next year, according to records had 20 nations held different events to celebrate the International Sculpture Day. Nigeria, Australia, Denmark, Poland, Canada, France, Burkina, among others were listed among countries that celebrated the second edition.

Among the diverse events were artists talks, open studios, demonstrations, competition, workshops, public art tours, open museums, brown bag lunches, sculpture scavenger hunts, book signings, foundry pours and pop up exhibitions.

Baltimore Museum of Arts to provide financial reliefs to local Artists and Businesses

Baltimore Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is launching three new initiatives that will provide immediate relief to Baltimore’s artistic community amid the coronavirus pandemic. “As part of our mission of civic engagement, we felt it was incumbent upon us to develop new opportunities to support the cultural fabric of our community,” said director Christopher Bedford. “Our new initiatives build on ideas core to us as an institution from connecting audiences with exciting, thought-provoking works of art to championing artistic experimentation and positioning creative production as central to social change.”

The initiatives—BMA Salon, BMA Screening Room, and BMA Studio—aim to provide direct support to artists, businesses, and familes across the city. For Salon the museum will invite twenty galleries, including As They Lay, Catalyst Contemporary, ICA Baltimore, and Galerie Myrtis, to present shows on its digital platform—each participant will be given a $2,500 stipend and will be allowed to keep all proceeds from the sales. For Screening Room, fifty artists will receive a small licensing fee, ranging from $500 to $750, to display video works on the museum’s website. Among the artists chosen for the initiative are Rahne Alexander, Erick Antonio Benitez, Markele Cullins, Tanya Garcia, Nia Hampton, Chung-Wei Huang, Meredith Moore, Clifford Owens, and Lendl Tellington. For Studio, museum employees will create at least 1,400 ready-to-go artmaking kits to be distributed by the Greenmount West Community Center staff to the Maryland Food Bank, World Central Kitchen, and families in the neighborhood. Conceived as an at-home extension of the BMA’s Free Family Sundays program, the initiative intends to address disparities in digital access.

The new programs were made possible through funds from the Suzanne F. Cohen and the Cohen Opportunity Fund, which were originally earmarked for “The Necessity of Tomorrow(s),” a series of talks on social justice and art that was put on hold because of Covid-19—the series’s next event was rescheduled for October. Cohen, who passed away in 2018, was a longtime museum trustee who served as board chair from 2003 to 2006. During her four decades of involvement with the BMA, Cohen supported dozens of exhibitions and advocated for free general admission and transportation services for Baltimore City students to visit the museum.  

“Sue’s forward-thinking approach and commitment to the arts and civic responsibility propelled the BMA’s own dedication to exploring and implementing new ways of serving our community,” said Bedford. “The expansion and evolution of ‘The Necessity of Tomorrow(s)’ in many ways continues her work in eroding the boundaries between these universes, by helping to ensure that artists have the means to play active roles in shaping our collective future.” 

Rescheduled Art events because of COVID-19

Since its emergence in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has upended numerous cities and countries across the globe. Among the various sectors that have been heavily affected is the art world—an industry fueled by perpetual itinerancy as well as social gatherings of mass scale and close proximity. As the public health crisis escalates, arts organizations have shut down events, have announced postponements, or are carefully trying to trudge forward. Here is a continually refreshed list of major events and institutions that have made such decisions due to the virus as well as a list of resources for artists and arts institutions impacted by the pandemic:

RESCHEDULED EVENTS

Venice Art and Architecture Biennales: The opening of the seventeenth edition of the architecture biennial has been pushed back to 2021. It will now take place from May 22 to November 21, 2021. The art biennial will be held from April 23 to November 27, 2022.

Expo Chicago: The annual art fair, originally to take place this September, will be postponed to April 2021.

Sydney Contemporary: The fifth edition, which was originally scheduled for September 10 to September 13, 2020, will now take place in September 2021. 

La Paris Biennale: The thirty-second edition of the fair will return in September 2021. 

Gwangju Biennale: The thirteenth edition, titled “Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning,” will now be held from February 26 to May 9, 2021.

Biennale de Lyon: Scheduled for 2021, the exhibition has announced it will push its sixteenth edition back to September 2022.

Asia Society Museum Triennial: The inaugural event is now slated to open October 27, 2020 and run through June 27, 2021.

Biennale of Casablanca: The fifth edition has been moved to 2021 and will run from May 24 through August 1, 2021. 

Prospect New Orleans:“Prospect.5: Yesterday We Said Tomorrow,” will now open October 23, 2021 and remain on view until January 23, 2022.

Folkestone Triennial 2020: “The Plot” has announced it will now run from September 2021 to November 2021.

Berlin Biennale: The eleventh edition was expected to open June 13, its new dates have yet to be determined. 

Art Brussels: Originally scheduled for June 2020, the fair will now take place from April 22 to April 25, 2021.

Front International: Originally scheduled for 2021, the triennial will now be held from July 16, 2022 to October 2, 2022. 

Helsinki Biennial: Originally scheduled to take place from June 12–September 27, the exhibition has been pushed back to 2021. 

June Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland: The 2020 edition will run from September 14–September 20. 

Liste Art Fair Basel, Switzerland: The event will be held from September 14–September 20, coinciding with Art Basel.

Art Basel, Switzerland: Organizers have moved the fair from June to September. It will now take place from September 17 to September 20, with preview days on September 15 and September 16.

Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil: The event has been pushed back one month and will reschedule all programming that would have led up to the fair; it will now kick off on October 3.

The Other Art Fair, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Dallas, Melbourne, Chicago: The fair postponed all of its 2020 spring editions. 

Made in LA 2020: a version:Originally slated to open at the Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens on June 7, the biennial will now run from July 19 through January 3, 2021.

Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2):Originally scheduled for May 16–October 11, the exhibition has been postponed. 

Biennale de Sydney: The twenty-second edition of the exhibition, which opened on March 14, has closed. Organizers are teaming up with Google to launch a virtual edition of the biennial for the public, which will remain live until the physical exhibition is able to reopen. 

Manifesta 13, Marseille: The biennial, which was set to open on June 7, will now run from August 28 to November 29. While Manifesta’s project space at Tiers QG at 57 rue Bernard du Bois will reopen June 12, for now its second space—Espace Manifesta 13 at 42 La Canebière—remains closed.

TEFAF New York: Originally scheduled for May 8–11, the fair will now take place October 31–November 4, with a preview day on October 30.

Cannes Film Festival, France:Originally scheduled for May 12–May 23, the festival will announce new dates in the coming weeks. 

sonsbeek 20→24, Arnhem, the Netherlands: Originally scheduled for June 5–September 13, the twelfth edition of sonsbeek will now be held in 2021. 

1-54 New York: Originally scheduled for May 8–10, the fair will now take place in 2021.

Photo London: Originally scheduled for May 14–17, the fair will be held in the fall. 

Object & Thing, New York: Originally scheduled for May 7–10, the fair has been moved to November 13–15.

MIA Photo Fair, Milan: Originally scheduled for March 19–22, the fair will now be held September 10–September 13.

Art on theMART, Chicago: The fair’s spring launch has been postponed.

Glasgow International: Originally scheduled for April 24–May 10. The visual arts festival will be restaged in 2021.

NYCxDESIGN: The May festival will instead present programming in October. 

Sotheby’s: The auction house has closed its auction houses in Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Milan, New York, Paris, and Zurich until further notice and has announced changes in its spring sales schedule. 

The Met Gala: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has indefinitely postponed its biggest annual fundraiser. The event, which is one of New York’s biggest annual fashion events, was supposed to take place on May 4.

Christie’s, New York and Europe: The auction house has postponed sales scheduled for March and April. New dates have yet to be determined.

Phillips: The auction house has postponed all of its sales and events globally until May. 

Art Brussels: Originally scheduled for April 23–April 26, the fair was originally pushed back to June 25–June 28, 2020, but has now been cancelled. Next year’s edition will run from April 22–April 25, 2021.

SP–Arte, São Paulo: Originally scheduled for April 1–April 5. New dates have yet to be announced.

Affordable Art Fair, Brussels:Originally scheduled for March 20–March 22. Rescheduled for September 11–September 13.

Affordable Art Fair, New York:Originally scheduled for March 26–March 29. Rescheduled for September 24–September 27. 

Eye of the Collector, London:Originally scheduled for May 13–May 16. The inaugural fair will be staged September 8–September 11.

Dallas Art Fair: Originally scheduled for April 16–April 19. The fair has been moved to October 1–October 4.

ART COLOGNE: Originally scheduled for April 23–April 26. The fair will now be held November 19–November 22.

Paris Photo New York: Originally scheduled for April 2–April 5. New dates to be announced.

Sharjah Art Foundation’s 2020 March Meeting, UAE: Originally scheduled for March 21–March 23. The event will be postponed until further notice.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, California: Originally scheduled for April 10–April 12 and April 17–April 19. The festival will now take place October 9–October 11 and October 16–October 18.

DRAWING NOW Art Fair, Paris: Originally scheduled for March 26–March 29. The fair has been moved to May 29 through June 1.

Berlin Gallery Weekend: Organizers have downsized the event, which is scheduled for May 1–May 3, and have moved large-scale programming to September 11–September 13, coinciding with Berlin Art Week.

The Photography Show and the Video Show, Birmingham, UK: Originally scheduled for March 14–March 17. The event will now be held September 19–September 22.

MiArt, Milan: Originally scheduled for April 17–April 19. The fair will now take place September 11–September 13, with a VIP preview day on September 10.

Málaga Film Festival: Originally scheduled for March 13–March 22. The twenty-third edition of the festival has yet to announce new dates.

Art Paris: Originally scheduled for April 2–April 5. This year’s edition, originally moved to May 28–May 31, is now cancelled, and the new dates are April 7–April 11, 2021. A digital edition of the fair will open May 28, 2020. 

Art Dubai: Originally scheduled for March 25–March 28. New dates to be announced.

Lille Art Up!, France: Originally scheduled for March 5–March 8. It will now take place June 25–June 28.

Salon del Mobile, Milan: Originally scheduled for April 21–April 26. The exhibition has been moved to June 16–June 21.

Gallery Weekend Beijing: Originally scheduled to take place from March 13–March 20, the event was rescheduled for the end of May. After VIP Days from May 22 to May 24, the event will be open to the public from May 26 to May 31.

Design Shanghai Fair: Originally scheduled for March 12–March 15. The fair will now be held May 26–May 29.

CAFAM Techne Triennial, Beijing: Originally supposed to begin on January 18, the inaugural edition has been suspended.

CANCELED EVENTS

Seattle Art Fair: Originally scheduled for July 23–July 26.

Rencontres d’Arles, France:Originally scheduled for June 29 to September 20.

Art Paris: Originally scheduled for April 2–5.

NADA Chicago: Originally scheduled for September 24–27.

American Ballet Theater, New York:The company has canceled its upcoming season at the Metropolitan Opera House. 

1-54 New York: Originally scheduled for May 8–10.

Masterpiece London: Originally scheduled for June 24–July 1.

Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival, and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo: All five of the Scottish city’s August festivals have been canceled. 

Metropolitan Opera House, New York: The theater has canceled the rest of its 2020 season. 

Frieze New York: The fair has canceled its ninth edition, which was originally scheduled for May 6–10. The satellite event Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center will still be held, but will be moved to the summer.

Park Avenue Armory, New York: All performances of Deep Blue Sea, originally scheduled to run April 14–25, have been canceled. 

Cleveland International Film Festival: Originally scheduled for March 25–April 5. The event will be back next year.

Brooklyn Academy of Live Music, New York: All live programming has been suspended through March 29.

Lincoln Center, New York: All programming has been suspended for the month of March. 

LA Art Book Fair: Originally scheduled for April 3–April 5.

TEFAF Maastricht, the Netherlands: Originally scheduled for March 7–March 15. The fair opened as planned but called off the event on March 11 after an exhibitor tested positive for the virus.

South by Southwest, Austin, Texas: The thirty-fourth annual festival was originally scheduled for March 13–March 22.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC: All events have been canceled through the end of March.

Yale Architecture: The school announced on March 11 that it is suspending all events and programming through at least April 5.

London Book Fair: Originally scheduled for March 10–March 12.

Salon du Livre Paris 2020: Originally scheduled for March 20–March 23.

Tucson Festival of Books, Arizona: Originally scheduled for March 14–March 15. 

Jingart, Beijing: Originally scheduled for May 21–May 24.

Art Central Hong Kong: Originally scheduled for March 18–March 22.

Art Basel Hong Kong: Originally scheduled for March 19–March 21.

FotoFocus Biennial: Originally scheduled for October 2020, the next FotoFocus will take place in October 2022.