The Art World This Week: 27 June 2025
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Italy slashes VAT to five percent, overtaking France as the European Union’s most competitive market, Sotheby’s London evening sale nets £62.5 million, and more. Here’s Ocula’s briefing on the art world news you might have missed.
Institutions
Europe’s Largest Digital Art Museum to Open in Hamburg
An initiative by German investor Lars Hinrichs, the UBS Digital Art Museum dedicated to new media art is set to open in Germany next year with a teamLab installation echoing their current permanent Borderless museum in Tokyo will inaugurate the 6,500-square-metre space.
Colossal Jeff Koons Topiary Sculpture Takes Root at LACMA
Los Angeles Country Museum of Art now boasts an 11-metre-tall Split-Rocker sculpture by Jeff Koons—half dinosaur, half rocking horse—which will nurture some 50,000 flowers come August. LACMA patrons Lynda and Stewart Resnick funded the acquisition.
Art Gallery of Ontario Acquires 210 Peter Hujar Photographs
Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario has acquired a significant collection of work by American photographer Peter Hujar as it prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a group exhibition of close to 100 works selected by the local community.
Sharjah Art Foundation Names Curators for Sharjah Biennial 17
Next January, the Sharjah Biennial will be led by Berlin-based professor of contemporary art and theory Angela Harutyunyan and Luanda curator and architect Paula Nascimento, who will contribute ‘distinct perspectives’.
Art Fairs and Markets
Italy Slashes VAT to Lowest in EU at 5%
The Italian government announced on Monday that it would reduce taxes on art sales from 22 percent—the highest in the European Union—to 5 percent, and drop its import tax rate from 10 to 5 percent. The legislation should come into effect this week.
Sotheby’s London Evening Sale Brings In £62.5m
Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary sale on Tuesday achieved a solid 83 percent sell-through rate across 48 lots. A £7.4 million nude by Tamara de Lempicka led the sale alongside a £7.1 Picasso, with women artists accounting for a third of value realised. Read more.
Tokyo Gendai Confirms 65 Galleries for First Autumn Edition
Tokyo Gendai will return to PACIFICO Yokohama from 14 to 16 September 2025 for a third edition hosting 65 galleries including the likes of Pace, BLUM, and Almine Rech, and Japanese galleries NANZUKA, PARCEL, and Tomio Koyama Gallery.
Gallery Representations
Ranti Bam Is Now Represented by James Cohan
British-Nigerian sculptor Ranti Bam has joined New York gallery James Cohan following a first exhibition of her clay vessels last year. She will present her work at their co-managed upstate outpost The Campus, opening on 28 June.
Yanyun Chen Joins Sullivan+Strumpf
Singaporean artist Yanyun Chen has joined Australian gallery Sullivan+Strumpf. ‘Chen navigates the intimate terrain of the body and the cultural inscriptions it bears,’ the gallery said, praising Chen for exploring how ‘narratives are etched onto skin, surface, and gesture’.
Youssef Nabil Joins Mariane Ibrahim
Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil is now represented by Mariane Ibrahim in the Americas. Somali-French dealer Mariane Ibrahim said the photographer and filmmaker’s work derived from classical Egyptian film had ‘long resonated’ with her and shaped her relationship with contemporary photography.
Awards
Alfredo Jaar Receives American Edward MacDowell Medal
Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar will take the 65th MacDowell Medal on Sunday, recognising his contributions to American culture and joining big-name artists like Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keefe, Betye Saar, and Nam June Paik.
Obituaries
American Photographer Rosalind Fox Solomon Dies at 95
Rosalind Fox Solomon died in New York on Monday. Her gallery, Stephen Bulger Gallery, confirmed her passing without stating the cause. Solomon is remembered for her portraits of minority communities from Black Americans to AIDS survivors.
Arnaldo Pomodoro, Sculptor of Lacerated Spheres, Dies at 98
Italian postwar sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro died in Milan on Sunday. Pomodoro is remembered for decorating public spaces from the Vatican to the United Nations in New York with monumental bronze spheres that are intentionally wounded and carved out. —[O]
Main image: Man Ray, Noire et Blanche (1926). Courtesy Sotheby's.
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