On May 13, Christie’s will offer a rare painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat during its Evening Auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York. The work, which has resided in the same private collection since it was acquired from Annina Nosei’s SoHo gallery in 1982, is expected to fetch between $20 million and $30 million.

Basquiat’s graffiti-inspired Neo-expressionist and Primitivist paintings are highly sought after by collectors and remain influential in the realm of contemporary art. “Untitled,” which was created in 1981, the year that Basquiat transitioned from the underground art scene to international stardom, is frenetic, bold, and colorful -- characteristics that define the artist’s style. Brimming with gestural lines, broad strokes, and flat expanses of color, the work also exemplifies Basquiat’s technique during this period.

“Untitled” ranks among Basquiat’s largest canvases and has not been seen publicly until now. The work is being offered by the heirs of the painting’s original owner, Anita Reiner.

On Monday, April 14, workers began placing scaffolding and protective netting around the former home of the American Folk Art Museum on West 53rd Street in New York City. Last week, the Museum of Modern Art, which acquired the Tod Williams and Billie Tsien-designed building in 2011 after the Folk Art Museum defaulted on more than $30 million in bond debt, filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for a partial demolition. MoMA made the controversial decision to raze the building last April.

Before demolition can begin, the Folk Art Museum’s striking bronze facade must be disassembled and stored. MoMA has made no further decisions about what will happen to the facade beyond its preservation. Demolition of the remaining structure is expected to last through the summer.    

The former Folk Art Museum will be leveled to create space for MoMA's upcoming expansion. The project is being helmed by the architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro and will include a renovation of the museum’s main building. The new site will join MoMA’s existing galleries with a forthcoming 82-story residential tower, which will include exhibition space for the museum.

The Louvre announced that it will reopen its 18th-century decorative arts galleries on June 6 following an eight-year restoration and reinstallation. The Parisian museum’s sweeping collection of more than 2,000 decorative objects will be dispersed among 35 newly-renovated galleries in the north wing of the Louvre’s Cour Carrée. The galleries, which boast 23,000 square feet of exhibition space, were originally expected to reopen last year. Before this extensive restoration, the galleries had not been significantly updated since they were installed in 1966.

The Louvre’s collection of royal furniture, decorative bronzes, rugs, tapestries, gold and silver ware, porcelain, jewelry, and scientific instruments, will be grouped into three stylistic movements: the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency (1660-1725), Rococo (1725-1755), and the return of classicism and the reign of Louis XVI (1755-1790). The galleries also feature a number of period rooms including a drawing room from the nearby Hôtel de Villemaré, which was acquired by the Louvre in the 1800s but has never before been displayed in its entirety. Before being reconstructed in the museum, the room underwent a lengthy conservation.

Jannic Durand, director of the department of decorative arts at the Louvre, said in a statement, “We wanted to achieve a happy medium between period rooms and exhibition galleries. Each object benefits from being in relationship with other objects. In some cases, this means creating a period room so our visitors can understand how people lived with these objects or so they can appreciate holistically the elegance and refinement of the 18th century. In other instances, it means curating display cases devoted entirely to porcelain, silverware, and even some pieces of furniture to underscore the history of techniques and styles.”

The Louvre worked with the celebrated interior designer Jacques Garcia to create the new spaces for its collection of 18th-century decorative arts. The project was funded entirely by the patrons of the museum, including a $4 million donation from the American Friends of the Louvre.

The Musée Picasso in Paris has postponed its reopening after announcing in February that it would open to the public in June. The museum has been closed for nearly five years for a renovation and expansion. Since the museum is under the stewardship of the French government, the Culture Ministry is responsible for determining an official reopening date.

The Musée Picasso, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Pablo Picasso’s work, initially closed for a two-year refurbishment, but once underway, the scope of the project expanded. Except for a few minor technical details, the renovation, which cost around $71 million, is complete.

Prior to the renovation, the Musée Picasso could only display a fraction of its 5,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and documents. The project nearly doubled the institution’s exhibition space, allowing the museum to display more of its illustrious collection. The museum will also be able to accommodate more guests than ever before and annual admission figures are expected to rise from 450,000 to 850,000.

The museum, which is located in a 17th-century Baroque mansion in Paris’ historic Marais quarter, first opened to the public in 1985. Most of its collection was left to the French state upon Picasso’s death in 1973. A number of works were also donated by the artist’s family, including his widow Jacqueline.

The Musée Picasso plans to reopen to the public by the end of the year.

On Thursday, April 17, “Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs” will open at the Tate Modern in London. Late in Henri Matisse's career, when poor health prevented him from painting, he developed his cut-out technique, which involved cutting organic shapes out of painted sheets of paper and turning them into lively compositions on his studio’s walls. The process gave Matisse a renewed sense of freedom and he lauded the technique for its immediacy and simplicity, which he believed helped him express his artistic urgencies more completely.

The exhibition, which features 120 works made between 1936 and 1954, will be the largest and most extensive presentation of these unique, and often large-scale, masterpieces. Many of the cut-outs are being loaned from public and private collections around the world. “The Snail,” from the Tate’s own collection, will be exhibited alongside its sister work “Memory of Oceania,” from the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in New York, and “Large Composition with Masks,” from the National Gallery of Art’s collection in Washington, D.C. A photograph of Matisse’s studio reveals that these works were initially conceived as a unified whole and this is the first time they will have been together in over 50 years.  

When the exhibition’s run in London ends on September 7, “Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs” will travel to the Museum of Modern Art where it will be on view from October 25, 2014 through February 8, 2015.

The Milwaukee Art Museum has announced its Plan for the Future, a comprehensive public campaign to restore its War Memorial Center and Kahler building and reinstall the galleries. The Milwaukee Art Museum is comprised of three buildings designed by three legendary architects -- the War Memorial Center, a masterpiece of mid-twentieth-century design created by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen in 1957; the Kahler building, which was created by the American architect David Kahler in 1975 to create additional exhibition space; and the Quadracci Pavilion, which was created in 2001 by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Last spring, Milwaukee County donated $10 million to help fund the repair of the museum’s War Memorial Center and Kahler building, which house the institution’s Collection galleries. The museum hopes to raise another $15 million to fund additional renovations and a reinstallation of the collections. The institution will be asking for public donations as part of its Plan for the Future campaign, which took two years to develop.

The overarching goals of the Plan for the Future are to increase exhibition space; create a new lakeside entrance, establishing easier public access to the museum; reinstall the collection with a more intuitive layout; and install energy-efficient LED lighting. Repairs and restorations to the Milwaukee Art Museum are slated to begin in the fall. The museum will remain open during the project.

Television journalist George Stephanopoulos has donated his extensive photography collection to the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York. The gift includes 128 works by important American and international artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Larry Fink, Karl Struss, and Garry Winogrand. The donation significantly enhances the museum’s existing photography collection.  

Charles A. Guerin, the director of the Hyde Collection, said, “We have been hopeful of making additions to our photography holdings, but did not imagine that such a significant group of work might come into the collection at one time. The great breadth of photography history as well as the variety of national origins represented by this generous gift by Mr. Stephanopoulos makes this a truly exciting and important moment for the growth of our permanent collection.”

Stephanopoulos is the anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” and the chief political correspondent for the television network. He served as the senior advisor for policy and strategy to President Bill Clinton.

Sotheby’s will offer a rare series by Andy Warhol titled “Six Self Portraits” during its Evening Auction of Contemporary Art on May 14 in New York. Created in 1986, the self-portraits are among the last works created by the pioneering Pop artist.

“Six Self Portraits” was acquired by the current owners in July 1986 from the London gallery of dealer Anthony d’Offay for $57,500. The works anchored the first and only show in Warhol’s career dedicated to his self-portraiture. Purchased the Sunday before the exhibition opened to the public, it was the first sale in an ultimately sold-out and fabled exhibition. “Six Self Portraits” is expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million next month at Sotheby’s. 

Warhol made his first significant self-portrait in 1963, followed by a small series in 1964. In 1966, Warhol constructed a series of self-portraits in what would become one of his signature styles -- a grid of bright, repeated images. In wasn’t until he made “Six Self Portraits” twenty years later that he would find an equally powerful self-image.

The New York City Department of Records and Information Services has added 30,000 historical photographs to its extensive online gallery. Among these images are over 2,000 photographs from the NYPD departmental files and Emergency Services Unit, dating from 1928 to 1941. The images depict everything from a plane crash in Brooklyn to Communist Party rallies in Madison Square Garden, a Nazi summer retreat in Long Island, and John F. Kennedy’s ticker-tape parade from the 1960 presidential campaign. The online gallery now boasts 90,000 photographs, the largest collection of New York City historical images in the world.

The never-before-seen pictures were scanned from vintage large-format film and glass-plate negatives, color transparencies, century-old lantern slides, 35mm Kodachromes, and prints in the Municipal Archive. The city plans to eventually digitize its entire collection. 

The photographs can be viewed here.

Edward Dolman, the former Chief Executive and Chairman of Christie’s, has announced that he will leave his current post as Executive Director and Acting Chief Executive of the Qatar Museums Authority. Dolman will return to the auction world in July when he assumes the role of Chairman and Chief Executive of Phillips.

During his three-year tenure with the Qatar Museums Authority, Dolman oversaw the construction and opening of several new museums. He also presided over the state’s collections, spearheaded new acquisitions, and organized exhibitions.

Phillips, which sells contemporary art, design, photography, limited edition prints, and jewelry, was founded in 1796 by former Christie’s employee Harry Phillips. The auction house is currently owned by the Russian luxury goods company, the Mercury Group.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced that in 2016, it will unveil its John and Lisa Pritzker Center for Photography. It will be the largest exhibition space for photography in the United States. The museum is in the midst of a considerable expansion, which is being helmed by Snøhetta, a firm with headquarters in Norway and New York. The $365 million project will double the size of the museum.

The Pritzker Center for Photography is being funded by a lead gift from philanthropists and photography collectors, John and Lisa Pritzker, as well as generous donations from four additional benefactors. The nearly 15,500-square-foot center will just about triple the current amount of space for photography at SFMOMA. In addition to increased exhibition space, the center will feature an upgraded photographic study center and an interpretive space that will be the first of its kind in the country.

SFMOMA’s photography holdings currently number some 17,000 objects -- its largest collection in any medium. The collection includes works by Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, and the finest holdings of Japanese photography outside Japan. SFMOMA’s photography collection will live on-site, divided between two state-of-the-art storage vault.

The museum’s director, Neal Benezra, said, ““The new center, together with the gifts to our collection, represent a transformative development for our photography program and for the entire museum. We are extremely grateful to our trustee Lisa Pritzker and her husband, John, and to our other supporters, whose vision and generosity will make SFMOMA a global destination for anyone with an interest in photography.”

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has announced that it will voluntarily return a 12th-century Byzantine illuminated New Testament to the Monastery of Dionysiou in Greece after learning that it had been illegally removed from the monastery over 50 years ago. The Getty acquired the manuscript in 1983 as part of a “large, well-documented” collection.

The Getty conducted research into the manuscript with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, which brought to light a 1960 monastery record that said that the work had been illegally removed. The report of the manuscript’s disappearance was never made public and no information was released to law enforcement officials or to any databases of stolen art.

The illuminated New Testament is currently on display at the Getty as part of the exhibition “Heaven and Earth: Byzantine Illumination at the Cultural Crossroad” and has been featured in 14 other shows at the museum. The Getty will return the manuscript to Greece after the exhibition closes on June 22. 

On Monday, April 7, Mayor Bill de Blasio named Tom Finkelpearl, the president and executive director of the Queens Museum, New York’s new Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Finkelpearl will be in charge of a $156 million budget and will be the point person on the arts in New York, a city celebrated for its cultural bounty.

During his twelve-year tenure at the Queens Museum, Finkelpearl focused on the institution’s outreach efforts and emphasized the importance of building relationships between the museum and Queens’ immigrant population. He also spearheaded a $68 million renovation that was largely aimed at making the institution more inviting to the borough’s residents. Before joining the Queens Museum, Finkelpearl served as the deputy director of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1) and oversaw the institution’s merger with the Museum of Modern Art.

De Blasio, who celebrated his 100th day in office on April 10, is taking a more populist approach to the arts and aims to focus on the intrinsic social value of cultural affairs. He hopes to make art available to every child in the city as well as improve the quality of arts education in public schools.   

In a press release from the city announcing his appointment, Finkelpearl said, “New York City is one of the most eclectic and culturally rich cities in the world, and that’s something that should be shared by all New Yorkers and tourists alike. I could not be more proud to return to DCLA and lead the department into an era of ever-increasing openness – to nourish cultural activities in every corner of the city for all to enjoy. Our work is part of what distinguishes New York City as a cultural epicenter, and I look forward to working to fortify the already diverse offerings of the city’s arts and cultural life.”

A Florida pastor was convicted in New York on Tuesday, April 8, of trying to sell forged artworks to an undercover detective for $185,000. Kevin Sutherland, 46, told the detective that the works were by the British contemporary artist Damien Hirst.

Sutherland, who dabbles in art dealing, had brought an alleged Hirst painting to Sotheby’s in Manhattan in December 2012. After attempting to authenticate the painting, Hirst’s London studio, Science Ltd., said that it was a fake. The auction house contacted the district attorney’s office and an undercover detective emailed Sutherland to inquire about Hirst works for sale. Sutherland offered the detective five Hirst pieces, which he insisted were authentic. He was arrested on February 7 last year when he met the detective and accepted cash for the forged works. Sutherland said that he had previously sold 10 to 12 artworks.

Sutherland was convicted by a jury in the State Supreme Court of attempted grand larceny in the second degree and faces up to seven years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 19.

On April 7, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh opened a gallery in Arles, France, dedicated to continuously displaying the works of Vincent van Gogh. Despite the fact that Arles played a pivotal role in the artist’s personal life and career, the city has only hosted two temporary exhibitions of Van Gogh paintings -- one in 1951 and another in 1989.

The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, “Colours of the North, Colours of the South,” features nine paintings by van Gogh and 21 works by his contemporaries. One of the van Gogh paintings, a self-portrait from 1887, has been loaned to the gallery by Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, which has agreed to assist the Arles endeavor. The exhibition will remain on view through August 31 and the self-portrait will remain on loan until next spring.

The Arles project is being funded by Luc Hoffmann, heir to the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceutical company. Hoffmann donated €12m to convert a 15th-century mansion, which previously housed the Hôtel Léautaud de Donines, into the van Gogh gallery. He will also cover operating costs for the next five years. The city of Arles provided the building.

On Friday, April 18, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, will receive Roy Lichtenstein’s towering sculpture, “Tokyo Brushstroke I & II.” The work, which is being loaned to the museum by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, courtesy of Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman and the Fuhrman Family Foundation, will be placed on the Parrish’s front lawn, near the Montauk Highway. It will be the first long-term outdoor installation at the museum’s new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building, which opened in November 2012.

The two-part sculpture, which stands 33 feet tall at its highest point and weighs around 17,000 pounds, will be installed with a crane into a cement brace and joined together on site. The work is from Lichtenstein’s “brushstroke” sculpture series from the 1990s. Similar works can be found in Madrid, Paris, Singapore, and Washington, D.C.

Lichtenstein, a pioneer of the Pop art movement, relocated to Southampton (less than five miles from the Parrish’s current campus) in 1970 and began an enduring relationship with the museum.

A Ming Dynasty wine cup sold for $36.05 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Tuesday, April 8, breaking the world auction record for Chinese porcelain. The tiny porcelain cup, which features a color painting of a rooster and a hen tending to their chicks, was purchased by the Shanghai-based financier, Liu Yiqian, by telephone bid.

The previous record for Chinese porcelain was set in 2010 when a gourd-shaped vase from the Qianlong period sold for $32.58 million. The chicken cup also surpassed the previous world record for Ming Dynasty porcelain, which was set in 2011 by a blue and white vase that brought more than $21 million. Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said, “There is no more legendary object in the history of Chinese porcelain. This is an object bathed in mythology.”

The chicken cup was created during the reign of the Chenghua Emperor between 1465 and 1487, a period known for its exceptional porcelain. A number of later emperors were so enamored by the chicken cup’s design that they commissioned numerous copies. There are less than 20 such cups in existence, with only four in private collections. Yiqian’s cup is the only genuine chicken cup in China.

Las Vegas billionaire Frank Fertitta III is suing a respected Swiss curator accused of standing behind the authenticity of a Mark Rothko painting that turned out to be a fake. Feritta acquired “Untitled (Orange, Red and Blue)” from New York’s disgraced Knoedler gallery in 2008. He paid $7.2 million for the canvas.

Oliver Wick, a Swiss Rotko expert and specialist in American paintings, received $300,000 for the sale. According to court documents, Wick “was aware of substantial evidence that the painting was a forgery” and “conducted no independent research into the authenticity of this fake Rotko.” The painting had been exhibited at the Fondation Beyeler museum in Basel, Switzerland, where Wick was a curator.

Knoedler, which closed in 2011, has been accused by multiple clients of selling forged paintings. The forgeries, which were presented as authentic works by Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning, had been painted by a Queens-based Chinese artist and sold to Knoedler by Glafira Rosales, a Long Island art dealer. Rosales pleaded guilty to nine charges, including wire fraud, tax fraud, and money laundering, last September. During her 15-year scheme, Rosales swindled unsuspecting customers out of over $80 million.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York are joining forces with the Outdoor Advertising Association to execute the “outdoor art show,” Art Everywhere. The interactive art campaign will display images of the greatest American artworks on billboards and signs in select cities across the United States.

The participating museums have created a master list of 100 American artworks from their combined holdings and are asking the public to visit www.ArtEverywhereUS.org and vote for their favorite pieces. The 50 most popular works will be featured throughout August on approximately 50,000 billboards and signs across the country. Art Everywhere’s master list includes paintings, drawings, decorative objects, photographs, and multimedia works from the 18th century to 2008. Artists represented on the ballot include Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Frank Lloyd Wright, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Jackson Pollock.

Voting will remain open until June 20 and the chosen works will be unveiled on August 4.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is currently hosting the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium, a twelve-day program aimed at forging links and developing dialogues between some of the world’s most influential museums. The fourteen participants represent a wide variety of institutions, including national, state, municipal, and private museums. The colloquium will explore the major challenges that museum directors face, including management issues, conservation matters, and the well-being of the global economy.

The colloquium is the first of its kind at the Met, and has been spearheaded by the museum’s Director and CEO, Thomas P. Campbell. In a press release from the museum, Campbell said, “Ideally, this exchange of ideas and expertise will generate collaborative thinking that will prove beneficial not only to the participating institutions but to museums on a much broader scale.”

The Met has been an international institution since its founding in 1870 and has continued to collaborate with museums across the globe through exhibitions as well as training and research projects. In addition, the museum organizes a number of programs that bring international curators, conservators, and scholars to New York.

Participants in the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium include Mohammed Fahim Rahimi, Chief Curator at the National Museum of Afghanistan; Victoria Noorthoorn, Director of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires; Liang Gong, Director of the Nanjing Museum; Stijn Huijts, Director of the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht; and Steven Sack, Director of the Origins Center in Johannesburg.