Depp makes £3mn from paintings; pickle stuck to ceiling is $10,000 artwork; Met acquires Indian art earlier rejected over origins

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

Flung pickle: Artist asks $10,000 for McDonald’s burger ingredient

A NZ$10,000 artwork consisting of a single slice of pickle plucked from a McDonald’s cheeseburger and flung on to the ceiling of an Auckland art gallery is a deliberately “provocative gesture” designed to question what has value, the artist’s gallery says. The work, titled Pickle, belongs to Sydney-based Australian artist Matthew Griffin, and is one of four new works in Fine Arts, Sydney’s exhibition in Auckland hosted at Michael Lett Gallery. Some fans are relishing the work, calling it “genius” and “brilliant”; others have called it “moronic”. The Guardian reports.

 

Johnny Depp makes £3m in hours through sales of his art

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has made about £3m in just a few hours through a sale of his debut art collection. Depp sold 780 pieces through Castle Fine Art\’s 37 galleries, including in London\’s Covent Garden, within hours of announcing the sale on Instagram. The Friends And Heroes collection depicts people who have inspired him. Depp\’s post on Instagram, captioned only \”NOW AT #CASTLEFINEART\”, prompted a rush of traffic to the gallery\’s website causing it to crash. In a press release, the gallery described the actor\’s work as existing \”at the intersection of pop art and street art\” and as \”pop art with feeling\”. BBC tells you more.

 

Indian art collection previously rejected over provenance finds home in Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced last week that it had acquired almost two-thirds of abstract British painter Howard Hodgkin’s personal collection — the same collection that was reportedly rejected last year by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford over provenance concerns. The Met’s acquisition comprises 84 Indian paintings and drawings and will be accompanied by a long-term loan of the remainder of Hodgkin’s collection. Together, 122 works spanning the 16th through 19th centuries — including those representing the Mughal, Deccani, Pahari, and Rajasthani styles of painting — will make their way to the Met, where they will be exhibited in 2024. Hyperallergic has all the details.

 

International art trafficking: 2 archaeologists detained 

French archaeologists and heritage curators Jean-François Charnier and Noëmi Daucé have been detained by French authorities in connection with an international art-trafficking sale. The art pieces in question are two stolen Egyptian antiquities worth millions, that were sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, US and the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The two stolen antiquities are part of an international investigation going on over the sale of US $56 million worth of antiques to both museums between 2013 and 2017. The investigation has already led to the suspension of famed Louvre Paris director Jean-Luc Martinez. Read further on DailyO.