Las Vegas casino buys 60-foot-high sculpture by Damien Hirst

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Las Vegas resort buys monumental sculpture by Damien Hirst  | Damien Hirst’s Demon with Bowl (2014), a 60-foot-high, bronze sculpture has been bought by the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, reports Art News. The resin cast of the monumental headless statue was at the centre of the exhibition ‘Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable’ at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2017. The bronze sculpture will be installed in the hotel’s new pool.

Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum closes in federal shutdown | In the wake of Washington D.C.’s federal shutdown, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York City has also closed its doors, reports Dezeen. The closures of all museums and sites under the Smithsonian Institute umbrella is set to continue until new congressional funds are released, which requires the approval of Congress. The indefinite closure of the Cooper Hewitt means that more than 100 employees are on unpaid leave.

Warren MacKenzie (1924-2018) | The celebrated American ceramicist Warren MacKenzie died earlier this week at the age of 94. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, MacKenzie attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after returning from the Second World War. Between 1953–1990 he was ceramics professor at the University of Minnesota. Driscoll Babcock Gallery issued a statement, saying: ‘his hands were those of a master whose presence will live on through his work.’

Lauren Wittels named partner of Luhring Augustine Gallery | Art News reports that the director of New York’s Luhring Augustine Gallery is to become a partner of the company. Wittels began working for Luhring Augustine in 1989, briefly leaving to establish her own gallery in SoHo New York before she was forced to close the space in 1997.

Recommended reading | In The New York Times, Jason Farago discusses the French restitution debate with a Senegalese philosopher, a French art historian and a Nigerian-American artist | Inthe London Review of Books Charles Hope considers the life and work of Lorenzo Lotto.