Bernini’s Saint Bibiana reportedly damaged in transit

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Bernini’s sculpture of Saint Bibiana reportedly damaged in transit | According to a report by La Repubblica (Italian language article, £), Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture of Saint Bibiana has suffered significant damage – a finger from the right hand of the effigy which appears to have been broken off. The damage is thought to have occurred while the work was in transit back to the Santa Bibiana church in Rome, in which it is normally housed, from the Galleria Borghese, where it had been on view as part of a Bernini exhibition that ended in February.

Collectors join forces to launch new art prize | Collectors Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman have partnered with Suzanne Deal Booth and Contemporary Austin museum to establish a biennial prize for artists worth $800,000, reports the New York Times. The award is an expansion of Deal Booth and Contemporary Austin’s current $100,000 prize, which was inaugurated this year. The winner of the newly named Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation prize – to be announced in July 2020 – will receive $200,000 cash, along with invitations to stage solo shows at Contemporary Austin and the Fuhrmans’ FLAG Foundation in New York.

New Artangel fund established with artists’ gifts | Artists including Taryn Simon, Jeremy Deller and Rachel Whiteread have donated works in order to establish a new fund for the site-specific art organisation Artangel. Operating under the banner of ‘Artists for Artangel’, the fund will see works by 37 artists come up for sale at a silent auction on 28 June, the proceeds of which will go towards future Artangel projects.

Charlotte Amelia Poe wins inaugural Spectrum Prize | Suffolk-born artist Charlotte Amelia Poe has been named as the winner of the inaugural Spectrum Prize, a new award celebrating artists on the autistic spectrum. The judging panel, which was led by curator Sacha Craddock and included artists Mark Wallinger and Richard Billingham, praised Poe’s video piece How to be Autistic as an ‘unforgettable’ work of art that provided an account of a ‘lived hell and ultimate triumph’. Poe was awarded £10,000, with the other six finalists each receiving £1,000.

Lead image: used under Creative Commons licence (CC BY 3.0; original image cropped)