Art Outlook: 12 March

Some of the stories and discussions we’ve spotted online this week

Keith Haring authentication suit thrown out of court

A Manhattan court has thrown out a suit brought against the Keith Haring Foundation by a group of collectors. The 20 claimants, who have in their possession 117 works which they believe to be by the artist, had alleged that the foundation deliberately refused to authenticate them to falsely increase the value of its own collection.

Austria allowed to keep Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze 

Gustav Klimt’s famous Beethoven Frieze (1902) will remain in place at Vienna’s Secession Building, after an expert panel ruled against a restitution claim brought by the heirs of a previous owner. The 34-metre-long work was seized by the Nazis from the Jewish industrialist August Lederer in 1938, and returned to the family after the war but subject to an export ban that Lederer’s heirs claim all but forced its subsequent sale to the Austrian state.

Daniel Weiss named the next Metropolitan Museum president

The medievalist and current president of Haverford College, Daniel Weiss will succeed Emily K. Rafferty at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art this year. As president he will oversee fundraising and administrative projects at the institution.

Gerhard Richter says art is too expensive

Gerhard Richter has revealed his disbelief at the enormous prices paid for his work. ‘The records keep being broken and every time my initial reaction is one of horror’, he said in an interview with a German daily, speaking of his (often unsuccessful) efforts to introduce more affordable works to the market and to find interested collectors.

A brighter future for the Warburg Institute?

The Warburg Institute announced this week that it had reached a ‘binding agreement’ with the University of London regarding its future management. It’s also hired a new director, David Freedberg, who will take up the position in July. The unique library’s fate seemed uncertain last year, when the university asked for clarification of the deed of trust that brought the Warburg under its management in 1944.

No room at the museum

A recent conference, ‘Dig It!’ revealed that many museums are turning away recent archaeological finds because there’s simply no room to store them, The Art Newspaper reports. While land developers spend millions on archaeological digs, the public benefit of such research is limited because most collections remain inaccessible. It’s a problem we’ve touched on before on the blog…