The Art World This Week, 15 August 2025

Sotheby’s to open its anticipated Breuer Building headquarters this November, the White House orders a review of Smithsonian Museums, Christophe de Menil from the Menil family dies at 92, and more. Here’s Ocula’s briefing on the art world news you might have missed.

Institutions

White House Orders Review of Smithsonian Museums

The White House is planning an extensive review of the Smithsonian Museums and exhibitions to ensure the museums ‘reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story’ ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary. 

Guillaume Cerutti Proposes €58m Museum Fund for EU

Former Christie’s chairman and Pinault Collection president Guillaume Cerutti called for a €50 million fund to promote joint museum acquisitions in the EU. Cerruti said amid cultural funding cuts in Europe, such an initiative ‘should be a priority for public cultural policy’.

Bangkok Art Centre Censors Exhibition After ‘Pressure’ from China

Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre removed and altered artworks from an exhibition on authoritarian states and resistance after a demand from China to avoid ‘diplomatic tensions’. The exhibition included work addressing the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities. Read more.

Beloved Gallery Art in General Will Return to New York

Art in General, the alternative non-profit gallery, will reopen at a yet-to-be confirmed location in New York after closing at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Its programme will be led by Xiaoyu Weng, former head of Art Gallery of Ontario’s modern and contemporary department. Read More.

Art Fairs and Market

Sotheby’s to Open Breuer HQ This November

Sotheby’s will launch its new headquarters at 945 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side with a blockbuster exhibition on 8 November. The house bought the Breuer Building from the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2023 and spent two years renovating the premises. 

Ex-BLUM Partner Matt Bangser Joins Art Intelligence Global

Matt Bangser will join advisory firm Art Intelligence Global as senior director on 8 September after 16 years at BLUM, where he oversaw global sales and secured the estates of artists like Robert Colescott. The move follows the Los Angeles gallery’s closure last month.

Zao Wou-Ki Painting to Anchor Christie’s Hong Kong Sale This Autumn

A red painting by Zao Wou-Ki, valued at 9 to 12 million USD, will headline Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale in Hong Kong, which will be held at the Henderson on 26 September 2025, alongside works by Yayoi Kusama, Tamara de Lempicka, and more. Read more.

Awards

Gaypalani Wanambi Wins Australian Telstra Art Award

Yolŋu artist Gaypalani Wanambi has won the 2025 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, worth 100,000 AUD. Her work, Burwu, blossom, is on view at Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin through to January 2026.

Obituaries

Patron and Designer Christophe de Menil Dies at 92

Christophe de Menil, the patron and member of the mega-collecting Houston-based Menil family, died in New York on 5 August. Her collection counted works by Barnett Newman, Daniel Arsham, and more.

‘Visionary Collector’ Sylvio Perlstein Dies

Belgian-born patron Sylvio Perlstein, who built upon his family’s diamond business, died on 6 August. Hauser & Wirth, who exhibited 380 pieces from Perlstein’s collection in 2018, including Dada, Surrealist, Minimalist, and Land art, shared the news on Instagram.

Korean-born Artist Kwak Duck-Jun Dies at 88

Conceptual artist Kwak Duck-Jun died on 26 July. His representatives Gallery Hyundai shared the news last week, noting the artist, who was among early practitioners of conceptual art in Korea, played a ‘pivotal role’ in the artistic exchange between Korea and Japan. —[O]

Main image: A rendering of Sotheby's lobby at the Breuer Building. Artworks: Frank Stella: © Frank Stella/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York; Isamu Noguchi: © 2025 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York/ARS.