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A horse and oxcart from China, dated to around 400–500.

COURTESY RIJKSMUSEUM

R.I.P.

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, the billionaire philanthropist and collector who founded the Seattle Art Fair, has died at the age of 65. He attributed his passion for art to a trip he made to the Tate in the 1980s, where he was stunned by the works of Turner and Lichtenstein. [ARTnews]

The artist, musician, and Fluxus composer Takehisa Kosugi, who was known for his venturesome violin performances, has died at the age of 80. His many collaborators included John Cage, David Tudor, and Sonic Youth. [Artforum]

Geopolitics

Katya Kazakina has the scoop: Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith pulled out of the upcoming Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—the so-called “Davos in the Desert”—following heavy criticism of the Saudi royal family, which is alleged to have been involved in the disappearance and possible murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. [Bloomberg]

Artists

In a wide-ranging profile, Bruce Nauman revealed that Agnes Martin had a special technique for betting on horses. “She knew how to pick ’em,” Nauman said. The artist’s retrospective opens at the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 in New York on Sunday. [T: The New York Times Style Magazine]

Lisa Reihana discussed the work she will stage at the 2017 Venice Biennale’s New Zealand Pavilion, a large-scale video projection following the brutal colonial voyages of Captain Cook throughout the Pacific. [The Guardian]

In case you missed it, here’s a look at the collaborative friendship between artist Mark Bradford and Chris Bedford, the director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. “I don’t look at what other institutions are doing,” Bedford said. “I look at what Mark has done in his social practice and try to scale it up to an institutional level.” [The Baltimore Sun]

Museums

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam plans to perform a restoration of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (1642) in public. The project, which is slated to begin in July, will be the first touch-up the work has received in 40 years. [France24]

Three works that the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has deaccessioned and is offering on the block at Sotheby’s in New York in November could earn more than $30 million. The director of the Santa Fe, New Mexico–based museum said, “Removing an artwork from the collection is never an easy thing for any museum to do, but it is an integral part of good collections management to continually build and refine our holdings.” [The Art Newspaper]

The Orange County Museum of Art is planning to open a temporary location in Santa Ana, California, while its new home is under construction in Costa Mesa, a project scheduled for completion in 2021. The temporary space will have this intriguing title: OCMAEXPAND-SANTA ANA. [Los Angeles Times]

The Springfield Art Museum in Missouri has proposed a new master plan that would include an expansion of its building and work on its grounds, at a cost of around $17 million. [Jefferson City News Tribune]



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