Dakota community to bury Sam Durant’s ‘Scaffold’

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Dakota elders plan to bury Sam Durant’s Scaffold | Representatives of the Dakota Nation plan to bury Sam Durant’s dismantled sculpture Scaffold in an undisclosed location, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The sculpture, which refers to a gallows used to execute 38 Dakotas in 1862, sparked protests when it was installed in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden earlier this year. It was taken apart with the consent of the artist and the Walker Art Center, which owns the work and jointly runs the sculpture garden with the Minneapolis Park Board. Durant, who acknowledged that the work was liable to cause offence to members of the Dakota Nation, transferred the intellectual property rights to them. For an in-depth explanation of the controversy and the ways in which the museum, the Dakota community and Durant himself have handled it, look to Walker director Olga Viso’s recent piece in the Art Newspaper.

German prosecutors recover Baselitz works worth €2.5m | Prosecutors in Munich say they have recovered 15 paintings and drawings by Georg Baselitz that are thought to be worth around €2.5m collectively. According to the Associated Press, three individuals have been arrested in connection with the theft. A further four works remain missing.

Exhibition in Adelaide shut down following appropriation complaints | A show by Adelaide artist Driller Jet Armstrong has been closed down early after Indigenous Australian leaders criticised him for making use of a figure sacred to Kimberley Aboriginal people. According to ABC news, Armstrong has apologised for causing offence but defended his decision to appropriate the images and ‘re-insert them into the European landscape.’

UK and Japan plan cultural collaborations | The British and Japanese governments have agreed to collaborate on several major cultural projects centred around the Japan-UK Season of Culture (2019–20), reports the Art Newspaper. The programme will enable UK and Japanese artists to work closely together, and will encourage the use of new technologies. The scheduled opening of Japan House – a cultural venue run by Japan’s ministry of foreign affairs – in London next year, will also feed into the scheme.