The Trump administration has dismissed most of the members of the group that advises the National Endowment for the Humanities on funding and policy. Twenty-two of 26 members of the National Council on the Humanities were informed in an email from the White House on 1 October that their jobs were ‘terminated, effective immediately’. The four remaining members of the Council were appointed by President Trump in 2019. Three women he appointed are among the members fired. A quorum of 14 members is required for the council to function. The members were dismissed on the same day that the US government shut down for the first time in six years. If the shutdown continues into next week it is likely to result in the indefinite closure of federally funded US museums.
Italian authorities have seized 21 suspected fake Salvador Dalí works from an exhibition in Parma, the Art Newspaper reports. ‘Dalí, Between Art and Myth’ opened at Palazzo Tarasconi on 27 September and comprised 80 drawings, engraving and tapestries. Doubts over their authenticity were raised during the exhibition’s presentation in January in Rome; the Carabinieri’s art squad sent a copy of the catalogue to the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, which confirmed it had no knowledge of the exhibition. ‘We found this absolutely strange’, senior investigating officer Diego Poglio told the Guardian, ‘because if you want to organise an exhibition of an artist’s works […] you can’t not go through the foundation which manages the collection.’ Experts from the foundation who inspected the works also suspected forgery, leading Rome prosecutors to order the seizing of the 21 works, which Art News reports had been loaned by two Italians. They will now go under rigorous scientific testing to determine their authenticity.
Sotheby’s has sold its New York headquarters at 1334 York Avenue to Weill Cornell Medicine for a rumoured $510m ahead of its relocation to the Breuer Building on Madison Avenue next month, reports Art News. The auction house has occupied the building since 1980; it was sold in 2003 and later repurchased in 2009 for $370m. Since 2023, approximately half of its 37,000sqm space has been leased by Cornell University’s medical school in a deal reportedly tied to Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi’s attempts to reduce a $60 billion debt (as of 2023) and tax charges in Switzerland.
Terry Farrell, one of the leading architects associated with the British postmodern movement, has died at the age of 87. His death was announced by the architecture firm he founded, Farrells, on 30 September. Farrell was born in Cheshire and studied architecture at the Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape; in 1965 he moved to London, where he formed a long and fruitful partnership with the architect Nicholas Grimshaw, who also died in September. In 1980, Farrell established his own firm, whose most notable projects included the M16 headquarters building in Vauxhall, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and 125 London Wall. Farrell also worked extensively in Asia, realising projects such as Incheon International Airport in Seoul and the KK11 tower in Shenzhen, which is the tallest building ever designed by a British architect.
The Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj has won the Nasher Prize for Sculpture for installations, sculptures and performances that explore his childhood experiences as a refugee of the Kosovo War. The $100,000 prize is awarded by the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. The New York Times reports that Halilaj is donating the entirety of the prize money to the Hajde! Foundation, the non-profit he founded with his sister, curator Hana Halilaj. The foundation is currently focusing on the restoration of the House of Culture in Runik, a former community arts centre near Halilaj’s hometown that was damaged during the war.