Dealer Mary Boone pleads guilty to two counts of tax fraud

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Dealer Mary Boone pleads guilty to tax fraud | The art dealer Mary Boone yesterday appeared in a Manhattan federal court, where she pleaded guilty to two counts of tax fraud. She is charged with filing false income tax returns in 2011, reporting business losses of some $52,000 in the same year that her gallery made a profit of around $3.7m, and claiming some $1.6m of personal expenses as tax-deductible expenses from the business. Court documents also claim that Boone engaged in similar fraudulent schemes in 2009 and 2010. She has agreed to pay over $3m in restitution to the IRS, while awaiting sentencing scheduled for January 2019. 

CCA in Glasgow’s indefinite closure puts it in financial peril | The Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow is closed indefinitely, says its director Francis McKee. The centre, which has been closed since the fire at the neighbouring Glasgow School of Art, was planning to reopen on 14 September. Earlier this week, however, Glasgow City Council told the CCA that it cannot reopen until the structural engineers have completed their report assessing the consequences of a possible collapse of the Mackintosh structure. Criticising the City Council’s general lack of communication on the matter, McKee says: ‘It’s basically an indefinite closure with no schedule and no dates,’ adding that in the absence of any commercial income, ‘Financially, we are on a knife edge.’ The institution has yet to receive any money from the £5m Fire Recovery Fund the Scottish Government announced in July.

Mary Jane Long (1939–2018) | The American architect Mary Jane Long has died at the age of 70. Long moved to England in 1965, where she met and married fellow architect Colin St John Wilson. The pair worked together on the Grade I-listed British Library, which was completed in 1997. From the mid 1970s to ’90s Long also ran her own practice, MJ Long Architect, designing studios for artists including Frank Auerbach and Peter Blake. In 1994 Long left Colin St John Wilson & Partners to set up Long & Kentish with former colleague Rolfe Kentish, working on the library at Brighton University, Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery, Camden’s Jewish Museum and the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.

Wizard of Oz ruby slippers found 13 years after theft | One of the four pairs of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz have been recovered thirteen years after they were stolen from Minnesota’s Judy Garland Museum. The FBI launched a sting operation after a man offered to help return the shoes to their insurers, finally recovering the pair in Minneapolis in July. Nobody has yet been charged with the theft. 

Ben Hartley named as executive director of New York’s National Arts Club | Ben Hartley has been named as the next executive director of the National Arts Club in New York. Hartley, an art consultant, has previously worked at the Guggenheim Museum, as deputy director at the Museum of Arts + Design, as vice president of Ruder Finn Arts & Communications Counselors and as president of Louise Blouin Media.