August 6, 2026
Your morning brew of art world media
Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is The Great Estate Rush That Is Reshaping the Art Market by Daniel Cassady for ARTnews. Estate sales and aging collectors are driving the art market’s recovery by bringing rare and high-value works back to auction.
The Art Newspaper
James Imam, Huge nuclear bunker in Italy is set to become a Cold War museum
Sophia Kishkovsky, Russian drone destroys unique 300-year-old wooden Cossack church in Ukraine
Vanessa H. Larson, Louvre to lend Islamic art treasures to the Smithsonian
Artforum
Jan Tumlir and Jeffrey Stuker, From Medusa to Nvidia: On the Algorithm’s Primal Scene
Susan Snodgrass, Monumental Ambition: On Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center Museum
Susan L. Alberth, When Mystical Abstraction Meets Political Tumult
From the Editors, Fra Angelico’s Earliest Altarpiece Returns to Fiesole after Repair and Cleaning
From the Editors, Tim Reeve Appointed Chief Executive of English Heritage
From the Editors, Flávia Almeida to Succeed Heitor Martins as President of Museu de Arte de São Paulo
From the Editors, CAM Raleigh is Selling Its Building and Reallocating Resources to Artists
Artnet
Min Chen, Is the Rauschenberg Foundation Selling Its Storied New York Home?
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Late Painter Sarah Cunningham Gets First Museum Show—and Other Art World Matters
Richard Whiddington, Long-Hidden Morisot and Bracquemond Paintings Make Public Debut
Richard Whiddington, Pollock and Rothko Works Help Explain a Decades-Long Scientific Mystery
Jo Lawson-Tancred, London’s National Gallery Convened a Citizens Assembly to Help Chart Its Future. It Made People Mad
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, White Cube Now Represents Tesfaye Urgessa, First Artist to Represent Ethiopia at the Venice Biennale
Harrison Jacobs, Wyoming Association of Archaeologists Sues Federal Government Over NAGPRA Regulations
Anne Doran, Australian Museum Returns 18 Ancestral Remains to Rapa Nui
Brian Boucher, Fra Angelico’s Restored Fiesole Altarpiece Returns to Its Original Church Home After Blockbuster Museum Show
Andy Battaglia, The Louvre Lends Islamic ‘Masterpieces’ to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
Tessa Solomon, The 10 Most Expensive Alberto Giacometti Works Ever Sold at Auction
EDITOR’S PICK - Daniel Cassady, The Great Estate Rush That Is Reshaping the Art Market: “There is no question that the recovery of the market at this moment is entirely being driven by these collections,” one market watcher said.
Daniel Cassady, Sotheby’s New Comms Chief, Freeman’s New Old Masters Head, and More: Industry Moves for August 5, 2026
BOMB
Osman Can Yerebakan, Vincent Valdez by Osman Can Yerebakan
Cultured
Jacoba Urist, Meet the Artist Couple Redefining Plein-Air Painting in East Hampton
Domenick Ammirati, High Altitude, High Expectations: 96 Hours at Aspen’s Close-to-Utopian AIR Festival
Sophie Lee, A Rare Leonardo da Vinci Painting Goes on View at the Met—With Remarkably Little Fanfare
Frieze
Terrence Trouillot, Alan Ruiz and the Politics of Light
Hyperallergic
Rhea Nayyar, Hundreds Demand Reinstatement of SAIC Professor Savneet Talwar
Anna Lee, Advocates Rally to Stop Sale of Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts
Eileen G’Sell, The Scent of Ancient Rome in St. Louis
Natasha Seaman, The Fruitless Search for Vermeer’s Personal God
Lisa Yin Zhang, Remembering Milan Knížák, Simone Forti, and Francisco Correa Cordero
Anna Lee, Drawings by Children in Texas ICE Facility Are a Cry for Help
Anna Lee, Art Orgs That Received More COVID-Era Funding Outperforming Others, Study Finds
The New York Times
Scott Schomburg, A Bat Lord Has Landed at the Cloisters. He’ll Be Its Caretaker.
Nina Siegal, Tarot Was a Courtly Card Game. How Did It Become a Tool for Divination?
Puck
Marion Maneker, Clause & Effect
Whitehot
James Salomon, Andrea & Wilma at the Ponderosa.
Noah Becker, A Conversation with Artist Raymond Salvatore Harmon
Kun Sok, Richard Estes: When Photographs Stand on Their Own
Carlota Gamboa, Naomi Livia’s Embodied Photo-Weaves
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