The Morgan is Exhibiting Rembrandt’s First Masterpiece
Rembrandt’s first masterpiece, Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver, is currently on view at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. The canvas, painted in 1629 when Rembrandt was only twenty-three years old, resides in a private British collection and has never been exhibited in the United States. The exhibition will also include early self-portraits of Rembrandt, created around the same time as Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver. Click here to continue reading. (via The New York Times)

An Important Modigliani Portrait Heads to Auction
On Tuesday, June 21, an important portrait by Amedeo Modigliani will be offered at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in London. The work, which depicts the artist’s muse, Jeanne Hébuterne, has been in a private collection for the past thirty years. The masterpiece is expected to fetch in excess of $40 million—a far cry from Modigliani’s $170 million auction record, which was set in 2015 at Christie’s. Click here to continue reading. (via Blouin ArtInfo)

SFMOMA Visitor Falls Into Warhol Painting
A visitor to the recently revamped  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art tripped and fell into Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis on Thursday, June 2. While no major damage has been reported, the painting was removed from the gallery and taken to the conservation studio for evaluation. The museum reopened to the public on May 14 following a major renovation and expansion. Click here to continue reading. (via KRON4)

A Restored Rubens Goes on View for the First Time in 80 Years
Peter Paul Rubens’ The Resurrection of Christ is on view for the first time in eighty years. The work, which was recently authenticated and restored, is being exhibiting at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Catherine the Great gave the painting to Russia’s Trinity Cathedral, where it remained until 1934. After that, the masterpiece spent decades languishing in storage at the Hermitage Museum. Click here to continue reading. (via The Art Newspaper)

For Sale: A Modernist Gem in New Canaan + A Posh Park Avenue Abode
1. This Eliot Noyes-designed home is one of Connecticut’s finest architectural treasures—In the mid-twentieth century, a number of influential architects, including Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, and Eliot Noyes, settled in New Canaan, Connecticut. Together, they helped turn the bucolic town into a haven for mid-century modern design, peppering the landscape with sleek, sophisticated homes inspired by Walter Gropius—founder of the Bauhaus and a pioneer of Modernist architecture. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect

The Albright-Knox Gallery Selects OMA to Lead Expansion Project
The Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York, has selected the architecture firm OMA to lead its expansion plan, which will involve adding a new wing to the museum’s existing structure. Founded in Rotterdam in 1975 by the celebrated architect Rem Koolhaas, this is the first museum commission in the Unites States for the firm. Shohei Shigematsu, a partner at OMA, will helm the project. Click here to continue reading. (via The Buffalo News)  

Olafur Eliasson Installations Unveiled at the Palace of Versailles
Olafur Eliasson, who is widely considered one of the most influential and pioneering artists of his generation, has created a number of site-specific installations at the opulent Palace of Versailles in France. Best known for his sculptures and large-scale installations that employ natural materials, Eliasson follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Anish Kapoor and Jeff Koons, who have also created monumental installations at the royal chateau. Click here to continue reading. (via The Art Newspaper)  

The University of Iowa Plans to Build a Museum to House Its Impressive Art Collection
The University of Iowa is planning to build a museum to house its $500-million art collection, which includes works by Jackson Pollock, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Officials working on the project have selected the Des Moines-based firm BNIM Architects to design to the structure, which is expected to cost $60 million to realize. The plan will be reviewed by the Iowa Board of Regents this week. Click here to continue reading. (via The Iowa-City Press Citizen)

Christie’s to Auction Art Critic Brian Sewell’s Collection
Christie’s will offer works from the collection of art critic Brian Sewell this September in London. Sewell, who passed away in 2015, wrote a popular column for Britain’s The Evening Standard and was best known for his sharp criticism of modern and contemporary art. Sewell’s collection includes a number of Old Master paintings as well as works by John Craxton, Augustus John, and John Minton. Click here to continue reading. (via The Telegraph)

Alix Aymé Will Be the Focus of a New Documentary Produced by Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art
Alix Aymé’s life reads like a movie—a dramatic tale punctuated by war, loss, and the healing power of art. So it was only natural that Joel Fletcher and John Copenhaver of Virginia’s Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art decided to create a documentary about Aymé and her fascinating story. The duo, who formed Fletcher/Copenhaver in Fredericksburg in 1993, discovered  Aymé’s work while on a buying trip in France about ten years ago. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)

Old Master Paintings Recovered Twenty Years After Being Stolen
A pair of Old Master paintings by Aniello Falcone and Valentin de Boulogne have been recovered in Britain. The works were stolen separately in 1994 from the former Italian prime minister Emilio Colombo and an accountant. The current owner, who was unaware that the paintings were stolen, had been storing the works in a vault in London. The paintings were returned to Rome last week. Click here to continue reading.(via The Telegraph)  

Could Sotheby’s be Leaving the Upper East Side?
Speculation that Sotheby’s is leaving the Upper East Side has been mounting since 2013. While nothing has been confirmed, The New York Post recently reported that the auction house enlisted the real estate company JLL to assist in its search for a new location. Rumor have suggested that Hudson Yards—a massive development on Manhattan’s west side—is in the running to be Sotheby’s new homebase. Click here to continue reading. (via Artnet News)

The Bronx Museum Delays Exhibition of Contemporary Art from Cuba
The Bronx Museum has postponed a highly-anticipated exhibition of contemporary art from Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts. The delay was spurred by Cuba’s ambivalence to send art to the United States as it fears the works could be seized. The exhibition, titled Wild Noise: Artwork from The Bronx Museum of the Arts and El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, is the culmination of years of planning and collaboration between the two institutions. Click here to continue reading. (via The Art Newspaper)   

The Carnegie Museum and San Jose Museum Wager Art Over Stanley Cup
As the San Jose Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins battle it out over the Stanley Cup, Philadelphia’s Carnegie Museum of Art and the San Jose Museum of Art are getting in on the competition. The institutions have agreed that if the Sharks lose, the San Jose Museum will loan an artwork to the Carnegie Museum and vice versa. The Seattle Art Museum and the Clark Art Institute embarked on a similar challenge during last year’s Super Bowl. Click here to continue reading.(via SF Gate)   

The Folk Art Collection of Elie and Viola Nadelman
Elie Nadelman is widely recognized for his spare modernist sculpture, but an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society reveals that he was also a trailblazing collector of folk art. Together with his wife, Viola Spiess Flannery, Nadelman assembled the first significant collection of American and European folk art, which eventually comprised some fifteen thousand objects. The dashing couple’s collecting enterprise began soon after their marriage in 1919 and gathered steam during the heady decade of the 1920s. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)

A New Book Explores the Work of Glass Master Dale Chihuly
A new book, Chihuly: On Fire, explores four decades of glass artist Dale Chihuly's monumental career, touching on some of his best known series, including Cylinders, Venetians, and Ikebana. The tome, which includes 166 full-color plates in chronological order, was published by the Chihuly Workshop and features an essay by the noted art historian Henry Adams. Click here to continue reading. (via The Vancouver Sun)

The U.S. Senate Contemplates Bill to Help Repatriate Nazi-Looted Artwork
The United States Senate is contemplating a bill that would help return Nazi-looted artworks to their rightful owners. The bill will loosen the statute of limitations involved in such claims, making the path to repatriation much easier. A number of high-profile figures, including Helen Mirren and Ronald Lauder, spoke in support of the bill at a hearing on Tuesday, June 7. Click here to continue reading. (via The New York Times)

MoMA to Mount Frank Lloyd Wright Retrospective in 2017
The Museum of Modern Art in New York has announced that it will mount an exhibition honoring the inimitable architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, in 2017. The retrospective will commemorate the 150th anniversary of Wright's birth on June 8, 1867. Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive will include architectural drawings, models, building fragments, films, television broadcasts, furniture, tableware, textiles, paintings, photographs, and more. Click here to continue reading. (via USA Today)

Old Dominion Receives $35 Million for New Art Museum
Virginia’s Old Dominion University has received a $35-million gift from benefactors Richard and Carolyn Barry. The funds will be used to build a new art museum on the school’s campus. The Barrys will also donate their art collection, which includes works by Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery, John Marin, Rockwell Kent, Alfred Mauer, and Wolf Kahn, to the institution. The museum is expected to open in 2018. Click here to continue reading. (via WKTR)

The Tastemakers: A Conversation with Interior Designer Juan Montoya
Juan Montoya has a way of making interiors feel exceedingly opulent without a lot of fuss. Once pegged as a minimalist, Montoya’s style has evolved over the course of his career, but has always remained anchored in skillful restraint. Whether he’s working on a breezy beach home or a sleek urban residence, Montoya employs a unique mix of textures, proportions, forms, and colors to create refined interiors that are underscored by a sense of sublime decadence. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)

David Roche’s Stunning Collection of European Antiques Goes on Public View
When the noted dog breeder and judge David Roche passed away in 2013, he left behind one of the most astounding collections of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European antiques in the southern hemisphere. Roche’s treasure-filled former residence—Australia’s Fermoy House—opened as a private museum this month. Guests can browse Roche’s expansive collection, which includes around 3,000 items estimated to be worth in excess of $70 million. Click here to continue reading. (via The Guardian)

Sotheby’s Watch Sale Nets $11.7 Million
Sotheby’s Important Watch Sale, held Wednesday, June 8, in New York, realized $11.7 million. The top lot was the King Farouk Magician Box—a musical automaton from the early-nineteenth century. The piece, which is attributed to Piguet & Meylan, garnered $1.2 million. Other noteworthy sales included a rare Patek Philippe “Eurasia” wristwatch, which fetched $730,000, and a Patek Philippe pink gold tourbillon wristwatch, which sold for $490,000. Click here to continue reading. (via Blouin ArtInfo)

Johnny Depp to Sell Basquiat Collection Ahead of Divorce
Johnny Depp, who is in the midst of a messy legal dispute with his wife, has decided to sell his collection of Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings. The nine works will be offered during Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary Art auctions on June 29 and 30 in London. The collection spans twenty-five years of the iconic artist’s career. The sale will also include early works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Click here to continue reading. (via Artnet News)  

Sotheby’s Former Head of Contemporary Art Joins Christie’s
Alex Rotter, the former co-head of Sotheby’s contemporary art department, will be joining Christie’s as its chairman of postwar and contemporary art. Rotter left Sotheby’s in February, after sixteen years with the auction house. He is expected to start at Christie’s in early 2017. Rotter’s departure from Sotheby’s was part of a mass exodus that included a number of high-profile employees, including Cheyenne Westphal, who helmed the auction house’s contemporary art department alongside Rotter. Click here to continue reading. (via Bloomberg)

Collectible Design Shines at Design Miami/Basel
While Art Basel has spawned an array of satellite fairs, there’s nothing quite like Design Miami/. Launched in 2005, Design Miami/’s two fairs run alongside the Art Basel fairs in Miami each December and in Basel each June. Presenting furniture, lighting, and decorative objects from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Design Miami/ serves as the perfect complement to Art Basel’s smorgasbord of modern and contemporary art. Click here to continue reading. (via InCollect)