Karen Bradley appointed UK culture secretary

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Theresa May appoints Karen Bradley as UK culture secretary | Former Home Office minister Karen Bradley has replaced John Whittingdale as secretary of state for culture, media and sport. Bradley’s appointment, which comes as newly installed UK Prime Minister Theresa May assembles her first cabinet, is perhaps a surprising one. A mathematics graduate, her background is in finance, having worked at Deloitte & Touche and KPMG before being elected to parliament as MP for Staffordshire Moorlands in 2010. Meanwhile, culture minister Ed Vaizey has reason to celebrate, having been appointed to the Privy Council.

Pavlensky stripped of Human Rights Foundation award | Russian dissident artist Pyotr Pavlensky has been stripped of the prestigious Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent by the award’s selection committee after pledging to donate the prize money to the ‘Primorsky Partisans’, a controversial group of fellow activists. According to the Moscow Times, the group is recognised as a criminal organisation in Russia, and members have been found guilty of charges including murder, robbery and the assault of a female taxi driver. The organisers of the prize had reportedly sought assurances that the $42,000 in prize money would not be given to any group using violent means to achieve its aims.

Julius von Bismarck wins Wolfsburg art prize | Julius von Bismarck has been awarded the city of Wolfsburg’s 2017 art prize. Von Bismarck, a former student of Olafur Eliasson, was awarded the $80,000 prize for a body of work that understands ‘the connection of artistic and political subjects on a highly intellectual and aesthetic scale’. The award will also grant him a solo exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, an acquisition for its collection and a publication.

David Bowie’s art collection comes up for auction | Sotheby’s has announced that it will stage a major sale of the late David Bowie’s art collection in November, with worldwide previews commencing at the auction house’s London HQ later this month. The sale, which is expected to fetch more than £10 million, includes important examples of modern and contemporary British art and more than 100 pieces of furniture.