“OMA denies it committed any of the unlawful actions alleged in the Amended Counterclaim and denies De Groft is entitled to any of the relief sought,” reads the museum’s court filings, as first quoted by the Orlando Sentinel.

In August 2023, the OMA filed suit against De Groft, accusing him of introducing a series of paintings falsely attributed to Jean-Michael Basquiat for personal profit. The works were exhibited in the now-notorious show “Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat,” which opened in early 2022 and shuttered that June after an FBI raid of the premises.

The works were seized by authorities amid the revelation of a years-long investigation into their origins. The museum also sued the owners of the artwork, however all defendants but De Groft were later dropped from the suit.

De Groft countersued the OMA in November 2023, claiming wrongful termination and defamation. According to him, the former board chairwoman of the OMA, Cynthia Brumback, and an outside legal team for the museum had given the green light for the exhibition, despite being dealt an FBI subpoena in July 2021 for any documents related to the 25 mixed-media paintings.

He is seeking $314,246.40 plus additional expenses as part of his claim of breach of contract, in addition to unspecified compensation for his defamation claim by the OMA, per court documents. De Groft’s defamation case is supported in part by public statements made by Mark Elliott, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees.

“He abused his position of trust, lied to anyone who questioned the provenance of the artwork, created an environment of fear and hostility amongst the staff, and brought great shame to our community by mounting an exhibition of forged works in which he had a hidden financial interest, as discovered by the investigation commissioned by the OMA Board of Trustees and detailed in our Complaint,” Elliott said earlier this year, as published by local media. “At a time when authenticity and provenance are increasingly questioned, we must continue to stand against those like De Groft, who would abuse the process for personal gain.”

According to the museum, the “statements made by Mark Elliott are true and/or based on truthful information. In the alternative, at the time the alleged defamatory statements were made by Mark Elliott, he believed the statements to be true.”

THE HEADLINES

STRINGS ATTACHED. The Orlando Museum of Art has asked a Florida court to change spending restrictions on a $1.8 million donation it received from the Margaret Young estate, as it wrangles with a financial crisis, including legal fees related to its fake “Basquiat fiasco,” reports The New York Times. The Young bequest was given on the condition it be used for the museum’s “Permanent Collection Fund and to add to their permanent collection,” states the trust, rather than operating expenses. In its filing, the museum denies it would use the funds to shore up depleted finances and is asking to use the money for “general purposes” in service of its permanent collection. The institution also notes it doesn’t have a specifically titled, “Permanent Collection Fund,” making the donor’s original purpose “impossible.” However, other lawyers have said creating a new fund for the donation was simple, and that the museum has other funds for acquiring art that are simply called something else. Meanwhile, other museum donors have expressed concerns their gifts could be used for operating costs, which critics say a modification to the Young bequest could facilitate.

SWIFTIE ART TRAIL. A moss-covered piano sculpture, a mural, tie-dye and other craft workshops, are just some of the featured art installations being set up along the forthcoming “Taylor Town” exhibit that will run through Liverpool to celebrate Taylor Swift’s three sold-out June concerts in the city, reports the BBC. Swift fans (aka Swifties) will be able to wander through 11 installations in venues around town, each representing a Swift album, as part of an initiative organized by Liverpool Council’s culture team and social enterprise Make CIC. Featuring “incredible art” was the “right thing to do,” for the mega-star’s arrival, said Claire McColgan, Liverpool’s Director of Culture. As for the participating artists, some of those who were selected said they’ve all but joined the Swiftie global phenomenon since working on their projects. “I’m definitely a super Swiftie now. I wouldn’t say I was one before,” said featured artist Rachel Smith-Evans.

THE DIGEST

Abstract painter Yvette Achkar passed away on May 12, age 96. Born in Brazil to Lebanese parents in 1928, she was recently included in the traveling exhibit “Taking Shape: abstraction from the Arabe World, 1950-1980,” of works from the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah. [ArtAsiaPacific]

Alex Fortescue, managing partner of the equity firm Epiris, which owns Bonhams auction house, has died at age 55, following a reported “incident while cycling.” [The Art Newspaper]

About 100 workers in Argentina’s film industry are demonstrating at the Cannes Film Festival in France against “chainsaw” budget cuts to the country’s culture sector, under far-right President Javier Milei. “The current government has embarked on a crusade against culture, science and education,” Argentinian film producer Clara Massot told reporters. [France 24]

Pixar animation studios is firing 14 percent of its staff, or 175 people, announced Pixar president Jim Morris in an internal memo seen by The New York Times. The studio will also stop making original shows for Disney+ and will “return to our focus on feature films.” [The New York Times]

A painting by Alfred Sisley and another by Auguste Renoir were restituted to 11 legal heirs of the Jewish galleries Grégoire Schusterman in a ceremony in France last week. Their sale in 1941 was forced by Nazi occupiers in France, and the paintings were among thousands of “orphan,” or ownerless artworks brought back to France from Germany after WWII. [Le Monde]

The Town of Vail in Colorado said they would rescind their Art in Public Places (AIPP) residency offer for Native artist Daniel See Walker due to her art piece, G is for Genocide (2024). “AIPP’s mission is to create a diverse and meaningful public art experience in Vail, but to not use public funds to support any position on a polarizing geopolitical issue,” stated the AIPP. [Hyperallergic]

The Basel Social Club art fair, with some 60 participating galleries, will hold its upcoming edition from June 9 to 16 outdoors, on 72 hectares of farmland about 10km south of the main Art Basel event. “This year we are telling people to come to come to the fields, drink a beer and enjoy art within nature,” said Robbie Fitzpatrick, co-founder of the fair. [Financial Times]

The artists William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton have founded a new Zero Art Fair in Elizaville, upstate New York. They designed the fair for artists who want to clear out storage spaces by giving away artworks under specific, contracted terms, where ownership of the work is transferred after five years if it hasn’t sold, during which time it remains sellable by the artist. Plus, after ownership is transferred, the artist is entitled to 50 percent of sale profits. [Artnet News]

THE KICKER

RESTORING LAS MENINAS. It’s been 40 years since the saga over the controversial cleaning and restoration of Diego Valázquez’s 1656 masterpiece, Las Meninas by a non-Spaniard.Now, El Pais is recalling the tale. Reporter Ana Marcos spoke to another restorer at the Prado Museum, where the painting is housed, who witnessed it all, and had a hand in its final touches. The British specialist, John Brealy, who worked at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, was chosen for the job in 1984, but the fact that he was not Spanish led to a national debate. At one point, at the sounds of screams from an angry professor and his students who demanded the restoration stop, Brealy even fled the Prado in fear for his life. “The expert got scared, he thought they were coming to lynch him, he stopped his work for the day and left,” writes Marcos. “I was condemned in advance. Before they knew what I was going to do,” recalled Brealy in a past interview with El Pais. But his methods ended up setting a precedent for restoration at the museum, and despite the pressures of a nation and the heavy workload itself, Brealy offered his services free of charge.

Born in France and raised in Niger, Africa, Claeysen-Gleyzon has been with the OMA since January 2018, and has variously held the positions of associate curator, curator, and, more recently, interim head of the collections and exhibitions department.

At the museum she has organized exhibitions such as its centennial retrospective (on view through May 5) and “Visual Conversations: Expressions of Individuality and Community,” from 2020. She’s worked overseas extensively, including stints as the gallery director of the Third Line Gallery in Doha, Qatar, and as an independent art adviser in Beirut, Lebanon. 

Claeysen-Gleyzon assumes her new role as the OMA continues to navigate the fallout of the FBI raid on a show of paintings attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat but whose authenticity unraveled as more details of the nine-years-long FBI investigation were publicized. In April of last year, a former auctioneer admitted to helping create and sell the works.

The headline-grabbing raid commenced an exodus of museum leadership, including former OMA director Aaron De Groft, who was ousted only days later and has since been sued by the museum for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and conspiracy. (De Groft has countersued the museum for wrongful termination, defamation, and breach of contract.) The former chair of the board of trustees, Cynthia Brumback, also departed amid allegations that she and De Groft had withheld knowledge from colleagues that the museum had been served a subpoena prior to the opening of the contested exhibition, titled “Heroes & Monsters,” in February 2022. 

That same April, the museum named Cathryn Mattson as its new executive director and CEO. Mattson succeeded interim director Luder Whitlock, who replaced De Groft; Whitlock resigned after less than two months on the job. The museum has attempted to recommit itself to the Orlando community, launching initiatives such as commissioning the Orlando-based Akerman law firm to investigate the circumstances of the Basquiat scandal.

In a statement, Mattson praised Claeysen-Gleyzon’s “deep relationships within the Orlando arts and cultural community and beyond,” and added that she looks forward to collaborating with the curator as they “lead OMA into its next chapter.” 

TEMPLE ATOP CONTENTIONS. Today India’s PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a controversial Hindu temple to Ram, a Hindu deity, in the city of Ayodhya, replacing a three-domed, 16^th-century mosque torn down by mobs in 1992. The incident ignited riots at the time, leading to the death of some 2,000 people. The inauguration is seen as political calculation on the part of Modi, to informally launch his campaign for this spring’s general election. Some opposition leaders boycotted the proceedings, while individual Muslims residing in the city, who are part of India’s largest minority, told the BBC they feared for their safety. About 80 percent of India’s population is Hindu.

SCHIELES FOR SALE. Two Egon Schiele works restituted to the family of Austrian Holocaust victim, Fritz Grünbaum, will go to auction. The paintings on paper were returned to Grünbaum’s legal heirs on January 19, in a restitution ceremony at the Manhattan DA’s office, and have been consigned to Christie’s auction house. Portrait of a Man (1917) and Girl With Black Hair (1911) had been in the collections of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Ohio’s Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, respectively. Grünbaum was a Jewish cabaret performer, murdered in the Dachau concentration camp in 1941 after his art collection was seized by Nazi officials.

The Digest

A US Air Force cyber analyst named Devin Alan Rhoden was arrested for allegedly plotting to hype the value of NFTs. He is accused of implementing the so-called “rug-pull” scheme, or falsely promoting NFTs to investors, before quickly putting an end to the whole endeavor, or “killing the project,” after having cashed in some $80,000 believed to be linked to their investments. [The Art Newspaper]

The role of dealer Yves Bouvier is dissected in the ongoing Accent Delight International v. Sotheby’s trial, despite him not being included in the proceedings. ARTnews Senior Reporter Daniel Cassady sheds light on how opaque art deals can lead to the astronomical prices, and the current lawsuit, brought by Russian billionaire Dimitry Ryboloviev. Meanwhile, Rybolovlev, who nevertheless made hefty profits by reselling at least some of the contentious artwork acquired through his relationship with Bouvier, appears to be looking to sell his stake in the AS Monaco Football Club. [ARTnews and Bloomberg]

At the annual FOG art fair in San Francisco, dealers blame the art market at large for dips in sales, not the tech milieu, undergoing a recent economic squeeze. [Cultured Mag]

The Orlando museum has narrowed its focus in their Basquiat lawsuit, to focus on its former director Aaron De Groft, due to financial troubles. [ARTnews]

The Jack Shainman Gallery opens in the historic NYC clock tower, a stunning Italian Renaissance Revival building in Civic Center, south of Tribeca. [Hyperallergic]

The Headlines

A SPLASHING CONTROVERSY. An icon depicting Matrona of Moscow, a Russian Orthodox saint born without eyes and blessing Joseph Stalin has sparked tensions in Georgia, the birthplace of the Soviet dictator who killed millions. On 6 January the glass-covered icon, which was recently installed in the capital Tbilisi, gained attention after a dissident priest posted about it on Facebook. Three days later, blue paint was splattered on it. The following Wednesday, protesters including priests from the far-right Alt Info movement, known for attacking gay pride parades, surrounded the home of Nata Peradze, an activist who said she threw the paint on the icon and is waging a social media campaign for its removal. Georgian police have launched a petty hooliganism investigation into the paint splattering, The Art Newspaper reports. 

BACK TO EARTH. Space shuttle Endeavour’s giant orange fuel tank, which weighs about 65,000 pounds and is 154 feet long, was lowered back to Earth early Saturday at its final resting place at the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. Crews had worked 14 hours over the last two days. Completion of the move marks the fourth of seven steps in the ultimate goal of stacking and displaying Endeavour upright in what will be the new 20-story museum, an expansion of the California Science Center. The retired space shuttle, that had been on display at center in a horizontal position from from October 2012 through New Year’s Eve 2023, will be configured in a full-stack arrangement, pointing toward the stars as if ready for launch. It flew 25 missions in space before its final flight in 2011.   

The Digest

The Darb 1718 center was destroyed, including the artworks in it, to make room for a highway expansion. The building sat in the centuries-old area of Cairo, where many of the city’s last traditional craftspeople remain. Its demolition had been announced in September, as part of an expansion project of Cairo, which is home to more than 20 million residents. For 15 years the center had drawn artists and art lovers. [Beaux Arts]

Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the oldest art school and museum in the United States, the first to have welcomed women, including Mary Cassatt and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, will close its college in 2025. The museum will remain open. Officials cited an annual deficit of $3 million and a sharp decline in enrollment as behind the cessation of the degree program. [Artforum]

The Orlando Museum of Art, which presented a major Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition of works that were later exposed as forgeries, is facing a large financial shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars seeking help from government and individuals to keep it afloat and facing public calls for leadership changes from a former volunteer, interim director, and trustees. [The New York Times]

Rockbund, a $1bn development project that includes the restoration of a dozen 1930s buildings, has become a social media sensation. It was led in Shanghai by British architect David Chipperfield who talked about the highs, lows and many risks of building for China. The architect seemed particularly uncomfortable with the branch of the Pompidou Center, aka the West Bund Museum, which he completed in 2019. “We did all the drawings to get planning permission, then nothing happened…” [The Guardian]

AD provided a roundup of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who is primarily known for public buildings such as the Guggenheim or the Marin County Civic Center. This may be “the greatest way to experience the architect’s genius.” According to him, good design should enrich people’s lives, and perhaps nowhere is that more important than the places where we rest our heads at night. [Architectural Digest]

The Kicker

ROYAL CAR FOR SALE. King Charles’ 17-year-old Land Rover Discovery 3 is schedule to go on sale. Specialists Classic Car Auctions (CCA) predict the luxury car will sell for a whopping £20,000 at least. Other royal cars have sold for eye-watering amounts, including Queen Elizabeth‘s 2004 Range Rover which was snapped up for £132,750 at an auction. Last year, CCA’s sister company Iconic Auctioneers sold two 4x4s for well over their market value. “This is surely one for a serious Royal family collector and with the Prince Charles now King Charles, the vehicle has a double royal provenance, adding to its future value”, said CCA auctioneer Simon Langsdale. [The Sun]

Last August, the OMA sued De Groft and the owners of a series of paintings included in the scandal-ridden 2022 show “Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat.” The museum alleged that De Groft and others used the show and the museum’s reputation to legitimize a group of 25 paintings they claimed were by Basquiat so that they could be sold after. However, the show was shuttered in June 2022 after several reports doubting their status as bonafide Basquiats, which culminated in the FBI seizing the paintings. A subsequent FBI investigation provided evidence that the works were not by Basquiat, with Los Angeles-based auctioneer Michael Barzman admitting in a plea deal to helping paint and sell the works himself.

The case figures to be a complicated one. Akerman LLP, the law firm representing the museum, said in the case-management report that it expects to depose 50 “art scholars and museum directors” for the case. Further, a representative for the firm told the Sentinel that the lawsuit could cost the museum $500,000. That’s in addition to the more than $100,000 OMA has already paid Akerman since June 2022, according to the Sentinel, when the FBI raided the museum and seized the allegedly phony paintings.

Further delay in the suit could be caused by a series of countersuits against the OMA. DeGroft filed a countersuit against the OMA in November claiming wrongful termination, breach of contract, and defamation. In the countersuit, DeGroft claimed he is being made a scapegoat as part of the OMA’s media strategy for dealing with the scandal. He alleged that Cynthia Brumback, the OMA’s former board chair who resigned in the wake of the Basquiat scandal, and an outside legal team, had approved of the exhibition, even after it was clear the FBI, which subpoenaed the OMA for records regarding the paintings a year before they were seized, was investigating claims of forgery.

Additional countersuits for defamation are expected from defendants in the case, including the group of artworks’ owners called the Basquiat Venice Collection Group/ who claim “that the value of the Basquiat works of art has been tremendously devalued by OMA’s statements to various outlets, including but not limited to the filing of this lawsuit,” according to the court documents. 

De Groft and the owners of the supposed Basquiats have denied wrongdoing and maintain that the pieces are real.

There have been reports that mediation and a settlement could resolve the dispute between museum and DeGroft, though, according to court documents, “certain parties” have entered into negotiations and “appear to be far from settlement,” however they have agreed to a neutral mediator.

Per the Associated Press, De Groft filed court papers in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday that claimed the former board chairwoman of the Orlando Museum of Art, Cynthia Brumback, and outside legal team for the museum had greenlit the exhibition, even after being dealt an FBI subpoena in July 2021 for any museum records related to the paintings. The show, titled “Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat”, opened in early 2022, but closed abruptly that June following an FBI raid of the premises.

De Groft claims that he is being positioned as a scapegoat for the considerable fallout of the headline-grabbing raid, in which all 25 purported Basquiat paintings were seized. Further, he has claimed that the museum’s lawsuit against him is a public relations strategy. According to the court filings, the outside attorneys told De Groft and Brumback that the museum would not be jeopardized by cancelling the show. 

“These two statements fortified Defendant’s belief that the 25 paintings were authentic Basquiats,” De Groft wrote, as quoted by AP.

He is seeking over $50,000 for wrongful termination, defamation, and breach of contract.

In August, the museum filed a fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and conspiracy lawsuit against De Groft and the group who collectively owned a series of paintings contentiously attributed to Basquiat, claiming it suffered a severe financial and reputation hit due to their actions. The suit claims that De Groft leveraged the museum’s reputation to legitimize and increase the value of the fake paintings for a later profit. The museum has not specified the sum in damages it is seeking. 

The museum’s lawsuit “seeks to hold responsible the people the museum believes knowingly misrepresented the works’ authenticity and provenance,” said the museum’s current board chair, Mark Elliott, in a statement.

De Groft and the paintings’ owners introduced the works to the public in February of 2022, saying that they were created around 1982 by Basquiat while he lived and worked in Los Angeles. According to their story, the works were sold directly to a private collector, who forgot them in a storage unit for decades. The FBI affidavit, however, provided evidence to the contrary and, in a plea deal earlier this year, Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman admitted to making the fake Basquiat paintings. O’Donnell and De Groft maintain that Barzman lied in his plea deal to avoid jail time.

Earlier this week, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the museum and defendants were negotiating a potential settlement in its case against the defendants. The court filing indicated that the museum will not pursue a jury trial if a settlement can be reached. 

ARTnews has reached out to both parties for comment, but has yet to recieve a response.

According to the filing with the Orange County circuit court, in August the museum sued De Groft and the group who collectively owned a series of paintings contentiously attributed to the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The museum has alleged that the two parties leveraged the show to lend legitimacy to the works so they could be sold afterwards, despite well-publicized doubts to their attribution. De Groft has been accused of working out a deal to pocket a cut if the works found buyers. 

De Groft and defendant Pierce O’Donnell, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, have not yet filed a formal response to the lawsuit. In the latest court filing, the museum states that it had allowed the defendants more time to file a response because several individuals, including De Groft, were still seeking Florida legal counsel. Last week, the museum and the defendants petitioned for a postponement of the pre-trial conference with the case’s presiding judge, Judge John E. Jordan, originally scheduled for Tuesday; the postponement was granted.

De Groft and the owners of the supposed Basquiats have denied wrongdoing and maintain that the pieces are real.

In its lawsuit, the museum has claimed significant financial and reputation damage due to its hosting of the 2022 show “Heroes & Monsters”, which was shuttered early in June that year when FBI agents seized its contents—25 paintings attributed to Basquiat—from the premises in view of visitors. De Groft was ousted by the board of trustees only four days after the raid. 

De Groft and the paintings’ owners unveiled the paintings to the public in February of 2022, claiming that the works were created around 1982 by Basquiat while he lived and worked in the Los Angeles residence of dealer Larry Gagosian. Per their story, the works were sold without Gagosian’s knowledge to a private collector, who forgot them in a storage unit for decades. An FBI affidavit provided evidence to the contrary, including an interview with the purported original owner of the paintings who swore he had never patronized the famed artist.  

Additionally, California auctioneer Michael Barzman admitted in a plea deal earlier this year to working with a partner—identified only as “J.F.”in the court filings— to create and market the paintings.

“J.F. spent a maximum of 30 minutes on each image and as little as five minutes on others, and then gave them to [Barzman] to sell on eBay,” reads the plea agreement. “[Barzman] and J.F. agreed to split the money that they made from selling the Fraudulent Paintings. J.F. and [Barzman] created approximately 20-30 artworks by using various art materials to create colorful images on cardboard.”

O’Donnell and De Groft maintain that Barzman lied in his plea deal to avoid jailtime; he received probation and a fine at his sentencing.

The most recent court filing indicates that the museum will not pursue a jury trial if a settlement can be reached. In explaining his reason for granting the postponement of the trial, the judge stated: “The parties are currently engaged in settlement negotiations, the outcome of which has the potential to dispose of further litigation proceedings.”

Neither the museum nor De Groft and O’Donnell responded to a request for comment at press time.

The case was related to the saga surrounding a 2022 exhibition about Basquiat held at the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida. That show touched off an FBI raid, the firing of the museum’s director, and legal action that is still ongoing.

Included in the show were a group of works that the museum’s director at the time, Aaron De Groft, claimed had been produced in 1982 while the artist lived in Los Angeles. He said that after that, they were left in a storage unit, then forgotten. De Groft claimed they were major rediscoveries.

But doubt started to emerge after the New York Times ran an investigation that questioned these works’ authenticity. One expert on branding seized on the FedEx typeface that appeared in one of these paintings. He said the shipping company hadn’t started to use that typeface until 1994, more than a decade after these works were allegedly produced.

After the FBI investigated the 25 paintings, seizing them in a dramatic raid that made headlines around the world, Michael Barzman, the auctioneer who today was sentenced to probation, was interviewed by federal agents. Speaking to them in 2022, he claimed he had no role in the production of the works.

Then, in 2023, he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about this, further saying that he had built out a false provenance for the paintings. That provenance was intended to act as documentation for the storage unit narrative. De Groft, along with two co-owners of the paintings, has stated that Barzman is not telling the truth.

LA prosecutors had been seeking the sentence Barzman ultimately received. According to the New York Times, which first reported the news, Barzman “had a difficult life, physically and emotionally,” and suffered from “substance abuse and financial difficulties.”

His sentence involves three years of probation, 500 hours of community service, and a fine of $500. Barzman’s lawyer told the Times that the auctioneer is “never going to reoffend.”

Meanwhile, the investigation into the faked Basquiats continues—as does the legal intrigue. Earlier this week, the Orlando Museum of Art sued De Groft, whom it fired not long after the FBI raid in the summer of 2022. The museum alleges that De Groft had made efforts to profit from putting the Basquiats in the exhibition and that he was attempting to do something similar with paintings by Titian and Jackson Pollock that were not in the show. He has denied wrongdoing.

The Headlines

A NEW LEGAL FRONT. In the New York Times, Brett Sokol and Matt Stevens report that the Orlando Museum of Art has slapped its former (ousted) director, Aaron De Groft, with a lawsuit alleging he had worked out a deal to pocket a cut if disputed Jean-Michel Basquiats shown at the museum in 2022 found buyers. The F.B.I. has been investigating those works, and an auctioneer admitted in a plea deal earlier this year that he actually helped to create the possible forgeries. De Groft and the owners of the so-called Basquiats, who were also named in the suit, have denied wrongdoing and maintain that the pieces are real. The former OMA leader told the Times that he had only talked to the owners about steering a gift to the museum. The OMA has not yet specified damages it is seeking for what it says amounted to fraud, conspiracy, and more.

THE NEW NORMAL. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is joining the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the $30 ticket club, Sam Whiting reports in Datebook, hiking its general admission price from $25. That price had been in effect since the unveiling of its 2016 expansion. Those between 19 and 24 will have to pay $23, and seniors $25. Visitors under 18 are free. The new pricing structure takes effect on October 14, the day SFMOMA opens a major Yayoi Kusama show. That said, you can pay $30 now by selecting the ticket that also offers access to Ragnar Kjartansson’s video masterpiece The Visitors (2012).

The Digest

Philanthropist Joan Kaplan Davidson, a former chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts who helped start Westbeth Artists Housing in Manhattan while working at the National Endowment for the Arts, died on Friday at 96. [The New York Times]

It took a year of negotiations, but more than 500 workers at the Art Institute of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago have approved a contract that will see them get raises between 12.25 and 16.25 percent. The minimum wage there will now be $17 an hour. [The Art Newspaper]

Mitra Abbaspour was named curator of modern and contemporary art at the Harvard Art Museums. She is coming from the Princeton University Art Museum, where she holds the same title. At Harvard, she will also oversee that department, whose purview—fun fact—is art from 1901 to the present. [The Harvard Gazette]

Artist and art dealer John Riepenhoff, who co-owns the Green Gallery in Milwaukee, was named executive director of Sculpture Milwaukee, the annual outdoor art show in Cream City. He is also the curator of its current edition, which runs through next October. [Press Release]

A retired political science professor, Lawrence Gray, 79, was arraigned in Manhattan on charges that he stole luxurious jewelry while moving in the upper echelons of East Coast society, selling some through a Manhattan auction house. “He didn’t do it,” his lawyer said. [New York Post]

Claire Armitstead penned an essay about hidden, “deliberately obscure” art. It “isn’t sellable or even necessarily classifiable as art, but it has an energy and an integrity that touch you if you’re lucky enough to find it,” Armitstead writes. [The Guardian]

The Kicker

TOURISTS BEHAVING BADLY. A video is making the rounds that shows a woman climbing onto Rome’s beloved Trevi Fountain and . . . wait for it . . .  filling up a water bottle, Insider reports. The video was shot last month, and it is not clear what became of her after being confronted by a guard. The viral footage comes after a spate of incidents in Italy that have seen people behaving inappropriately at important monuments—carving into the stone of the Colosseum, for instance. When a man swam in the Trevi Fountain last month, a city official declared it “pure barbarism.” [Insider]