Art Outlook

Some of the news and comment we’ve spotted online this week

British Museum will lend key treasures to Abu Dhabi for five years

A preliminary list of 500 items to be considered for loan includes some of the collection’s most prized exhibits, including Assyrian reliefs from Nimrud, the Iraqi cultural heritage site recently destroyed by Isis. The lucrative five-year loan agreement, which is intended to bolster the museum’s finances in the face of government cuts, is not without its critics.

Iranian artist imprisoned for 12 years for criticising the government

Atena Farghadani was jailed for ‘insulting members of the parliament through paintings’ and ‘insulting the Supreme Leader’ after publishing a cartoon in which government officials were depicted as animals.

Frick Collection abandons plans to build over its garden

The Frick has faced significant opposition to its ambitious expansion plans, which originally included a new wing on the site of a garden designed by Russell Page in 1977. In a statement released today, the museum promised to rethink the project.

Photographer Mary Ellen Mark dies aged 75

The Philadelphia-born documentary photographer took powerful and haunting pictures of the dispossessed, from heroin addicts, to human rights protesters, and psychiatric patients at Oregon State hospital.

SuicideGirls ‘steal’ back their Instagram images from Richard Prince

Last week there was uproar when people noticed that Richard Prince had been selling other people’s Instagram photos at $90,000 a pop. But instead of taking legal action against him, the SuicideGirls opted to sell versions of the works themselves – for charity – at a far more attractive price.

‘Modern Art, Ancient Wages’: MoMA staff protest against proposed cuts

Members of staff staged a protest outside the Museum of Modern Art’s annual garden party on Tuesday. Local 2110, the union that represents 286 of the museum’s employees, are opposing plans to reduce staff pay rises and raise healthcare costs.

Manet’s first version of Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère put up for sale

The Courtauld’s famous second version is going nowhere, but Edouard Manet’s original Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère has found its way onto the market just days after being taken off the wall of the nearby National Gallery, where it featured in the major exhibition ‘Inventing Impressionism’.

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize winners announced

Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse have won for Ponte City, a photographic series documenting everyday life in and around a notorious Johannesburg apartment block.