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#ArtnetNews: A trove of works by the Norwegian Expressionist painter and printmaker Edvard Munch has been gifted to Harvard Art Museums by the late collectors Lynn Straus and her husband, Philip Straus, who graduated from the famed university in 1937. The Strauses, described as two of the institution’s most generous benefactors in a news release, donated 62 prints and two paintings by Munch, as well as a print by Jasper Johns titled Savarin (1982), which significantly expands Harvard’s holdings of Munch’s work. Read more: https://bit.ly/40JV72p Article by Adam Schrader _______ Pictured: Edvard Munch. Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones) (1906-1908). Photo courtesy of Harvard Art Museums Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait (1895). Photo courtesy of Harvard Art Museums Edvard Munch. Vampire II. Photo courtesy of Harvard Art Museums

#ArtnetNews: Kate Middleton has launched a new interactive trail at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London that is intended to support the social and emotional development of young children. The project will be overseen by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood and the museum, which the Princess of Wales has been patron of since 2011. The Bobeam Tree Trail was inaugurated yesterday, with the royal visiting the NPG to meet pupils from All Sounds C.E. Primary School, who were the first children to take part. The trail will remain open to the public until March 16 for nursery and kindergarten school groups and families with young children. Participation is free and related activities can be completed at home via the NPG’s website. Read more: https://bit.ly/4jFJ8vD Article by Jo Lawson-Tancred _______ Pictured: Kate Middleton, The Princess of Wales joins a group of four and five-year-old school children at the National Portrait Gallery to launch a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood aimed at supporting young children in the development of crucial social and emotional skills. Photo: Andrew Parsons, courtesy of Kensington Palace.

#ArtnetNews: Justin Sun, the crypto bro art collector who spent millions on Maurizio Cattalan’s banana artwork late last year, has filed a lawsuit against entertainment mogul David Geffen to reclaim a sculpture by the artist Alberto Giacometti that he claims was stolen. Sun, 34, filed the lawsuit against Geffen, 81, in Manhattan federal court over the sculpture Le Nez. He alleged that a former employee named Xiong Zihan Sydney stole it from him and sold it to Geffen without his knowledge. In court documents, the Tron blockchain founder said he bought the statue with Xiong’s assistance at the Sotheby’s New York auction of the Macklowe collection in November 2021 for $78.4 million. Giacometti conceived the work in 1947–49, and it was cast in 1965. The Giacometti Committee has confirmed its authenticity. Continue reading: https://bit.ly/4gpqTI1 Article by Adam Schrader ______ Pictured: Alberto Giacometti, Le Nez on view at Sotheby's in New York, 2021. Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images.

#ArtnetNews: Beijing-born, New York-based artist Lyn Liu has orchestrated an environment of subtle intrigue for her solo exhibition which opened at Kasmin at Casa Siza, in Mexico City, yesterday. Liu’s latest paintings are anchored in a linguistic curiosity—the phenomenon of “H-dropping,” where the pronunciation of the letter “H” is omitted in certain dialects. Having studied French while living in Paris, where she attended l’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Liu became fascinated by the linguistic phenomenon of H-dropping. For her latest project at Casa Siza in Mexico City, she revisits the topic to incorporate her experiences of the past two years. In 2022, right after graduating with an MFA from Columbia University, Liu became the youngest addition to Kasmin’s roster. As she navigated a period of transition from school to a fast-paced, highly competitive contemporary art scene in New York, she found herself having to adjust and achieve a balance between what she called “successology” and “nihilism.” Continue reading: https://bit.ly/3Q6Amt2 Article by Leo Yuan ______ Pictured: Portrait of Lyn Liu in her studio. Photo by Charlie Rubin Lyn Liu, Art school (2024) © Lyn Liu. Courtesy of the artist and Kasmin, New York Installation view “Lyn Liu: H-Dropping,” at Kasmin at Casa Siza, Mexico City, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Kasmin. Lyn Liu, Eyes wide shut (2024) © Lyn Liu. Courtesy of the artist and Kasmin, New York

#ArtnetNews: A collection of drawings and correspondence between Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne, illustrator E.H. Shepard, and publisher Frederick Muller, sold last month at British auction house Fieldings after a man found them stuffed in a plastic bag in his late father’s attic. Simon Smith told the BBC that he was “gobsmacked” to discover the archive while going through the estate of his father, Leslie Smith, at his home in Malvern. The elder Smith had worked as the head of advertising and publicity for George Allen & Unwin and managed press for the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved Lord of The Rings trilogy. “We were just clearing out the attic and found a plastic carrier bag full of letters,” Smith told the BBC. Continue reading: https://bit.ly/4hJfxj3 Article by Adam Schrader ______ Pictured: An Illustration of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. Photo courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers.

#WorkofTheWeek: Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire (1827), a radiant mountainscape with a lake in the foreground and a tiny fisherman in a bright red sweater at its bottom edge, set a record for the Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole at Christie’s on January 23. It sold for just over $1.6 million as part of a single-owner auction, “American Sublime: Property From an Important Private Collection.” The early Cole painting was last sold at auction 30 years ago, when it made $277,500 at Sotheby’s. The latest sale price does not suggest a major market shift for Cole, but it is the first new auction record for the artist in over two decades. Cole’s previous auction high was set at Christie’s in 2003 for Catskill Mountain House (1845–47), which sold for just under $1.5 million. (Adjusting for inflation, that would be more than $2.5 million today.) According to the Artnet Price Database, only two of the more than 100 other works by Cole that have appeared at auction have surpassed $1 million—one in 1997 and another in 2009. Read more: https://bit.ly/3WMVckO Article by Eileen Kinsella _______ Pictured: Thomas Cole, Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire (1827). Image courtesy Christie's

#ArtnetNews: Last year, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Bonhams made bullish investments in Hong Kong, opening new headquarters even as demand for art in China flagged. This was in keeping with tradition. Business-friendly Hong Kong has long been the preferred base of operations for Western auction houses and galleries looking to serve the world’s second-biggest art market. Since operating in mainland China entails navigating greater cultural differences, potential censorship, and bureaucratic hurdles, Western firms have tended to engage there only via art fairs, local sales representatives, and museum collaborations. All four mega-galleries—Gagosian, Hauser and Wirth, David Zwirner, and Pace—have locations in Hong Kong, but none has a branch in mainland China. The rare Western galleries with physical footprints on the mainland lean European, with Lisson Gallery, Perrotin, and Almine Rech being the most notable examples. What has drawn them there, and how are they making it work? Continue reading: https://bit.ly/3WKf7Rm Article by Kaiser Ke _______ Pictured: Shanghai in 2023. Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images

#ArtnetNews: “When I begin to paint, it’s like leaping suddenly into deep waters, and I never know beforehand whether I will be able to swim,” the German Expressionist artist Gabriele Münter remarked in a 1958 interview. What Münter, who was in her early 80s by then, evoked in her energetic words, was the rapidity and instinct that had defined her lifetime of art-making, a spontaneous graphic sensibility that paired with her joyful sensitivity to color. Münter charted a rebellious and wonderful path for a woman of her time, establishing herself as one of the most consequential Expressionist painters of the turn of the century. A founding member of Der Blaue Reiter, the influential German Expressionist art movement active from 1911 to 1914, she was celebrated for her vibrant portraits and landscapes. A home she purchased with inheritance from her late parents in the quaint German town of Murnau became a hub for artists of her day—and it was there, where she lived with her partner, the art historian Johannes Eichner, and where she died in 1962 at the age of 85. The time has come for Münter’s work to be celebrated on its own terms. Two major museums are devoting exhibitions to Münter this year. In Madrid “Gabriele Münter: The Great Expressionist Woman Painter” is now in its final week at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, then in November, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in New York will open “Gabriele Münter: Into Deep Waters.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/d64rPhFd Article by Katie White ______ Pictured: Gabriele Münter, Lady in an Armchair, writing (1929). The Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Múnich Gabriele Münter, A Little Girl (1898-1900). The Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Múnich Gabriele Münter, Future (Woman in Stockholm) (1917). Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland/ Gabriele Münter, Still Life on the Tram (After Shopping) (1909–1912). The Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Múnich. Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter Painting at the Easel in the Open Air, Kochel (1902). Courtesy of the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Múnich

#ArtnetNews: President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders since returning to the White House is shaking up the art world. Restrictions on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives are already directly affecting national institutions including the Smithsonian, while other orders could lead to further challenges for artists seeking grants, sourcing materials, and looking to collaborate or exhibit across borders. These changes won’t necessarily stop artists from making work or museums and galleries from showing work, but they could be forced to rethink how they operate. Below, we break down the biggest impacts. This list will be continually updated. Read here: https://bit.ly/3EmJpDD Article by Adam Schrader ________ Pictured: The National Museum of the American Indian, with the Smithsonian castle and the Washington monument in the background. Photo: Getty Images.

#ArtnetNews: For only the third time this century, an original painting by renowned Renaissance great Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) is coming to auction. The diminutive oil-on-panel Saint Mary Magdalene, painted circa 1503, when the artist was just 20 years old, could be yours as a little as $2 million to $3 million according to the estimate from Sotheby’s New York, which is offering the painting during its upcoming Old Masters sales. The painting last came up at auction in May 2000, fetching $611,000 at Christie’s New York. (At the time, the figure was identified as Saint Mary of Egypt.) The panel is actually two-sided, with a circular roundel on the back featuring an almost kaleidoscopic swirl of color. Read more: https://bit.ly/3ElZwRH Article by Sarah Cascone ________ Pictured: Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael, Saint Mary Magdalene (ca. 1503). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.