Art World News: August 7th!
If it wasn't looted, stolen, plagiarised or broken before last week, then it won't have made it into our top 5 of art world news stories this week. So take a break, grab a cup of coffee, and start the week off with a bang!
Five antiquities dealers arrested surrounding the Hobby Lobby scandal
Authorities arrested five antiquities dealers in Jerusalem last week surrounding the illegal trade of looted artifacts from the Middle-East. The scandal first unfolded in 2011, when a package containing ancient cuneiform tablets from Iraq was intercepted by US customs.
The artifacts were purchased by Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts supply chain based in Oklahoma, for $14,000 whilst being declared for only $1,435. Overall, Hobby Lobby purchased over $20 million worth of smuggled goods from the dealers, who are currently facing charges of tax evasion, tax fraud and money laundering.
The Hobby Lobby case was settled by the US Department of Justice last month, requiring the company to forfeit all objects and pay a $3 million fine.
Example of a tablet with Cuneiform inscription, Anatolia, circa 1875-1840 B.C., clay, 5.08 x 4.45 cm, courtesty of LACMA.
MET turns over another potentially looted artifact
Following the removal of a 2300-year-old vase from their Greco-Roman galleries last week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has just turned over another potentially looted relic to the authorities.
This time, it concerns an ancient bull’s head that was bought from a London art dealer in 1996 and then sold to an American dealer who lent it to the museum. Researchers at the MET fear that it might have been looted from a Lebanese storage facility in the 1980’s, during the Lebanese civil war.
The Beierwaltes family, who originally bought the head, are suing the Manhattan prosecutors as well as the antiquities directorate in Lebanon, arguing that neither has provided sufficient proof that the bull’s head was in fact stolen.
The item itself was excavated from the Temple of Eshmun in Sidon in 1962 and is believed to be of Greek origin.
Ancient marble sculpture of a Bull's head, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum, courtesty of William and Lynda Beierwaltes.
The longest restitution case comes to an end
In slightly more optimistic art world news; the world’s longest running restitution case came to an end last week when the municipality of München announced that they had finally settled with the heirs of Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers, the rightful owner of Paul Klee’s Swamp Legend (1919).
The painting is just one of sixteen paintings by avant-garde artists including Klee, Kandinsky, Arp and Schwitters that Sophie Lissitzky- Küppers loaned to the Hannover Provinzialmuseum in 1926, before they were removed by Nazi’s during the 30’s, deemed to be “Entartete Kunst”.
Many “rejected” artworks were later burned by the Nazi’s, but most of them made their way to Switzerland where they were sold to collectors from all over Europe. The München Lenbachhaus museum acquired Swamp Legend at an auction in 1982, following which the Lissitzky heirs took action.
According to reports, the painting will remain at the museum, but the family is set to receive a compensation of something in-between € 1-2 million. Even the German newspapers are calling it a “shamefully long battle”. 
Paul Klee, Swamp Legend, 1919, München Lenbachhaus.
Abramovic & Ulay reunited
Two of the world’s most famous performance artists and former lovers Marina Abramovic and Ulay were reunited again at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art this summer.
The last time the pair was seen together in public was during Abramovic’s The Artist is Present performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2010, a tearful meeting to say the least.
Their career as a couple had already ended in 1988, after an epic performance in which they walked towards each other on the Great Wall of China.
This most recent reunion was staged in light of the recreation of the 1977 joint performance Imponderabilia in Louisiana, at which Abramovic and Ulay looked happy and relaxed.
Marina Abramovic & Ulay, Relation in Time, originally performed in 1977 at Studio G7, Bologna.
The Hague citizens are growing tired of Mondriaan
The city of The Hague is celebrating 100 years of Mondriaan and De Stijl this year, but some of its inhabitants are starting to grow a little tired of the over-the-top displays of his artworks everywhere you look.
Aside from the larger gestures such as the coloured blocks in the pond opposite the government building, everything from shop windows to fast food packaging is being transformed using the signature blue, yellow and red patterns.
Two The Hague designers, Menno de Bruijn and Max Lennarts, created an Instagram account titled rip_mondriaan that is currently being used to vent by many citizens.
De Bruijn and Lennarts are definitely Mondriaan fans, but they argue that there is very little of De Stijl remaining in all of this Mondriaan-merchandise.
One of the many uploads by rip_mondriaan.
Check in with us every Monday afternoon for more art world news!
