V&A acquires part of Robin Hood Gardens

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

V&A acquires part of Robin Hood Gardens | The Victoria & Albert Museum in London this morning announced the acquisition of a three-storey section of the Robin Hood Gardens council estate, which is currently undergoing controversial demolition and redevelopment. The rescued 8.8-metre-high fragment includes both the interiors and exterior façades of a maisonette flat, concrete stairways, and part of the building’s ‘streets in the sky’ elevated walkway. Demolition of the 252-flat estate in Tower Hamlets, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, recently commenced after it was declared unfit for habitation and despite a long, high-profile campaign to preserve the widely heralded example of brutalist architecture.

Armory director Benjamin Genocchio is replaced over sexual harassment reports | Benjamin Genocchio has been removed from his position as executive director of the Armory Show in New York, after allegations of sexual harassment were made against him in a New York Times article. Five women told the NYT that they had experienced ‘unwelcome touching by him’ and a total of eight co-workers at various organisations reported inappropriate sexual comments, with multiple additional individuals corroborating these claims. Genocchio, who joined the New York-based art fair in 2015 after previous editorial roles at Artnet and Louise Blouin Media, has been replaced as executive director of the Armory by deputy director Nicole Berry.

Washington National Gallery of Art director Rusty Powell is to resign | The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C.’s director Earl A. Powell III, commonly known as Rusty Powell, has announced his intention to retire from the position in early 2019. A scholar in the field of 19th- and 20th-century American art, Powell, who commenced his tenure at the Washington institution in 1992 after 12 years as head of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is the NGA’s longest serving director to date. For a survey of his many achievements over the past quarter-century, see the Washington Post’s report.

Stolen Matisse bronze is recovered by Art Loss Register | A 1906 bronze sculpture by Henri Matisse, stolen while on display at an unnamed Swiss museum in the 1990s, has been recovered and returned to the museum’s insurer by the Art Loss Register, it was announced today. The work, which depicts the artist’s daughter Marguerite, was traced after its holder, who acquired it from a bric-a-brac store in Switzerland shortly after the theft for less than one per cent of its true value, consigned it to a French auction house.

Nelson-Atkins adds 800 photographs to collection | Over the last two years the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has acquired 800 photographs by nearly 150 artists and spanning a period of over 190 years, the institution announced yesterday. This major expansion of the Missouri museum’s photography collection was made possible thanks to a $10 million gift from the Hall Family Foundation, founded by the owners of Hallmark to support programmes and projects in the Kansas City region. One hundred of the new photographs will be shown in an exhibition this spring to celebrate the acquisitions.