The Brooklyn Museum has consigned a dozen works from its collections to Christie’s for auction, in the first significant example of a US museum taking advantage of loosened regulations on deaccessioning that were announced by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) in April. According to the new rules, which were introduced to help combat the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, over the next two years museums will not be penalised for deaccessioning artworks in order to cover ‘expenses associated with the direct care of collections’. The works earmarked for sale at the Brooklyn Museum include an oil panel by Lucas Cranach the Elder (the only work it holds by the artist), which is estimated to fetch $1.2m–$1.8m, as well as paintings by Corot and Courbet.
I visited Laila Muraywid’s studio in Paris, it is the kind of place that rearranges your inner geography. A Syrian artist working between painting and sculpture, she creates objects that feel at once intimate yet cosmic, like relics from ancient times that pulse with contemporary pain and splendour.