Report states that 80 per cent of online antiquities could be looted or fake

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Report states that 80 per cent of online antiquities could be looted or fake | A report published by the Wall Street Journal (£) has stated that up to 80 per cent of antiquities available online may be looted or fake. According to an investigation conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, around 100,000 antiquities are usually for sale on the internet at any given time, the overwhelming majority of which have no recorded provenance. Suggested explanations for this statistic include the rise in looting of antiquities by terrorist organisations in the Middle East, as well as the growth of online platforms like Facebook, eBay and Amazon.

Frieze appoints Andrew Durbin as US senior editor | Frieze magazine has announced the appointment of former gallerist Andrew Durbin to the role of senior editor for the Americas, Artnews reports. Durbin is the co-founder and former director of Company Gallery in New York on the Lower East Side. He is now editing content at Frieze relating to North and South America.

Dalloul Art Foundation raises collection authenticity concerns | The Dalloul Art Foundation in Lebanon, which is currently preparing for the opening of its Museum of Arab Art in Beirut in 2020, has placed around 30 works from its collection in temporary ‘quarantine’ while seeking to address questions over their authenticity, the Art Newspaper reports. It has been confirmed that several purchased works were returned recently to their dealers due to forgery concerns, which the Art Newspaper article describes as a ‘growing problem’ in the young, expanding market for modern Middle Eastern art. The Dallouls’ collection, established four decades ago, is made up of over 4,000 works of modern and contemporary Arab art worth more than $100m – one of the largest of its kind.

Artforum contributing editors condemn publishers’ handling of Landesman allegations | The contributing editors of Artforum have issued a statement on the magazine’s website in response to the current allegations of sexual misconduct against former co-publisher Knight Landesman, who resigned over the complaints last week. Signed by a number of high-profile individuals including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Anne M. Wagner and Molly Nesbit, the statement affirms that its contributing editors ‘stand with the magazine’s current and former staff in condemning the publishers’ handling of the allegation of Knight Landesman’s sexual misconduct [in…] denigrating the actions of the woman who first brought this situation to light.’