Art Fund reveals shortlist for Museum of the Year 2018

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Art Fund announces shortlist for Museum of the Year 2018 | Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery, the Postal Museum in London and Tate St Ives are among the five institutions shortlisted for the Museum of the Year 2018 award. Along with the Glasgow Women’s Library and the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, the museums in question were selected for their investigation of ‘very current concerns’, Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar said in a statement. The prize, which has previously gone to institutions including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the William Morris Gallery and, most recently, the Hepworth Wakefield, recognises ‘outstanding’ museums specialising across all disciplines. The winner, to be announced in July, will be awarded £100,000. The other four shortlisted museums will all receive £10,000.

Temporary export bar placed on Joseph Wright of Derby’s An Academy by Lamplight | UK culture minister Michael Ellis has placed a temporary export bar on a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby. Painted in 1769, An Academy by Lamplight sold for £6.3m at Sotheby’s in December – a record for the artist’s work. Unless a UK buyer can be found to match the asking price (a little under £7.5m plus fees), it may be exported abroad. The decision on an export license will be deferred until 31 July, with the possibility of extension until January 2019 should DCMS be notified of serious intention to purchase from within the UK.

Collector sues Sotheby’s over sale of Mahmoud Mokhtar sculpture | Emirati collector Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is suing Sotheby’s auction house over a bronze sculpture attributed to Egyptian artist Mahmoud Mokhtar, which al-Qassemi purchased through the auction house in 2016, reports the Times (£). The suit alleges that Sotheby’s misrepresented the value of the work in a catalogue note which failed to address uncertainty over whether or not the sculpture was cast during Mokhtar’s lifetime.

Freya Simms named chief executive of LAPADA | Freya Simms has been named as the next chief executive of the London Association of Art and Antiques Dealers, reports the Antiques Trade Gazette. Simms, who co-founded arts communications firm Golden Squared and was previously director of the Art and Antiques Fair Olympia, will take up the position in June. She succeeds Patricia Stevenson who recently departed after three months in the role.

David Zwirner to represent Joan Mitchell Foundation | David Zwirner gallery has taken on exclusive worldwide representation of the foundation of abstract painter Joan Mitchell, reports Art News. Mitchell, whose foundation was previously represented by Cheim & Read, will be the subject of a show at one of Zwirner’s New York spaces next year.