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The Headlines
SETTLING HIS AFFAIRS. The estate of the late antiquities dealer Douglas A.J. Latchford has agreed to forfeit $12 million in a deal with U.S. officials, who claimed in a civil case that Latchford trafficked in looted Cambodian artifacts, the New York Times reports. Latchford was criminally charged in 2019 with dealing stolen material, but died the next year at the age of 88, before any trial. Since then, Latchford’s daughter and heir, Julia Copleston, has been repatriating scores of artifacts that the Cambodian government has said were illegally taken out of the country. The deal also calls for the estate to surrender a seventh-century bronze statue from Vietnam that was improperly obtained. In a statement quoted by Bloomberg, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations termed Latchford “a prolific dealer of stolen antiquities.”
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THE STAR TREATMENT. September will see the release of Dumb Money, a film version of Ben Mezrich’s eponymous book about the mayhem around GameStop in 2021, and art types might want to consider booking a ticket. During that episode, retail traders poured money into the videogame seller’s stock, inflicting pain on firms that were shorting it. As some many recall, a couple art-collecting hedge-funders were involved in the affair, Ken Griffin and Steve Cohen, who provided financing for an embattled colleague, and so the big question is . . . who will play them in the movie? Bloomberg’s Katia Porzecanski has the details.Cohen will be played by Vincent D’Onofrio, of Law & Order fame, and Griffin by Nick Offerman, of Parks and Recreation. And yes, the script apparently features Cohen sitting near his famous Damien Hirst shark, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), as the action unfolds.
The Digest
The Acropolis in Athens has been drawing big crowds in recent months, as tourism numbers in Greece near pre-pandemic levels. “The wait and the amount of people that are here are definitely overwhelming,” on American visitor said. [AFP/Barron’s]
A story that author-illustrator Maurice Sendak created as a pamphlet for a show at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia, where he was a trustee, will be published as a book by HarperCollins in February. [The Associated Press]
The Public Art Fund in New York hired as its senior curator Melanie Kress, who was previously curator of High Line Art in the city. The nonprofit has also added two new board members: tech entrepreneur and investor Angelo Chan and artist Rasika Reddy. [ArtDaily]
The literary magazine Bookforum—which ceased publication after its sister magazine, Artforum, was acquired by Penske Media Corporation (the owner of ARTnews) last year—is coming back via a partnership with The Nation. [The New York Times]
With a Keith Haring show now on view at the Broad in Los Angeles, artists like Manuel Solano and Jonathan Lyndon Chase shared their thoughts on the legendary artist. “I feel like not everyone understands the depth and complexity of his practice,” Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. said. [Cultured]
After star turns at the Venice Biennale and the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, artist Mire Lee is staging a show of her ingenious kinetic sculptures at the New Museum in New York. “I like it to be a bit unpleasant,” she said, “so that it feels like it’s actually getting onto you.” [The New York Times]
The Kicker
ART MATTERS. Last year, actor and painter Sylvester Stallone sold his Los Angeles mansion to superstar singer Adele for $58 million. There was one very unusual part of that deal, Stallone told the Wall Street Journal: She got to keep his Rocky sculpture, which is next to the pool. He wanted to take it, he said, but she told him, “That’s a no deal. That’s gonna blow the whole deal.” And it is hers. Adele has apparently been renovating the place, and Stallone is pleased with the results. [WSJ via Architectural Digest]