Benjamin Sutton

Benjamin Sutton is the Editor, Americas of The Art Newspaper.

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Cost of Québec City museum’s Jean Paul Riopelle pavilion nearly doubles

The original budget for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec’s Espace Riopelle addition was $42.5m, but now as construction begins it has ballooned to $84m

Auction of 1,400 African art pieces halted by last-minute bankruptcy filing

The court-ordered sale of objects that had been stored for years at the expense of taxpayers in Houston was called off the night before

Artist Mary Miss sues US art centre to block demolition of her Land art environment

Municipal officials recently approved the Des Moines Art Center’s plans to demolish “Greenwood Pond: Double Site”

Art forger who duped collectors with fake Renaissance woodblock prints sentenced to more than four years in prison

Earl Marshawn Washington had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud this past summer

Portland Art Museum’s $111m expansion will open in late 2025

The institution is more than 86% of the way towards its capital campaign’s fundraising goal

Prizesnews

$500,000 Getty Prize grant goes to juvenile justice non-profit the Arts for Healing and Justice Network

Artist Mark Bradford said he picked AHJN for the grant because of its work to "transform young people’s lives through the power of arts education”

Florida museum receives gift of nearly 700 prints, from Rembrandt to Henry Moore

The Norton Museum of Art’s holdings of prints have increased by almost 40% thanks to a massive gift from the real-estate developer Jonathan “Jack” Frost

Donald Judd’s foundation sues Kim Kardashian for trademark and copyright infringement

The lawsuit centres on minimalist tables and chairs in Kardashian's company's offices

The Broad museum in Los Angeles reveals $100m expansion plans

The institution has re-enlisted the architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro to create a new wing that will expand its gallery space by 70%

Prizesnews

Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama wins inaugural Sam Gilliam Award

The prize, established by Dia Art Foundation and the Sam Gilliam Foundation, comes with a $75,000 gift and public programme at Dia

Crime news

Inigo Philbrick, art dealer who went to prison for fraud, is free

In 2022, Philbrick was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to an $86m fraud

New York museum's former chief financial officer claims in lawsuit she was fired for raising concerns about director’s expenses

Denise Lewis claims she was fired “without cause or warning” after she complained about the Museum of Arts and Design's director's alleged use of the institution’s funds for personal expenses during a vacation in Mexico

‘Met Museum, you’re complicit’: artists and activists take over museum’s front steps with giant pro-Palestine quilt

A two-hour rally at the New York museum drew many supportive cheers and honks, plus a handful of antagonistic shouts

Crime news

Ex-husband of murdered gallerist Brent Sikkema arrested in New York

Daniel Sikkema has been accused of planning and paying for his ex-husband’s murder in Rio de Janeiro

The 2024 Whitney Biennial in five key themes

The Whitney Museum’s flagship contemporary art showcase turns on questions of identity, authenticity and mutability, which play out across more than a handful of interrelated topics

Neon work in Whitney Biennial features unexpected ‘free Palestine’ message

The biennial’s curators were unaware of the statement in a work by Demian DinéYazhi’ prior to the exhibition preview

Developer’s $325m gift will help create new museum in Seattle

Richard Hedreen is donating a collection valued at $300m and $25m cash to create an art museum at Seattle University

New York Times art critic Roberta Smith retiring after 32 years at the newspaper

The publication’s co-chief art critic, Smith has penned more than 4,500 essays and reviews for the Times

Two climate activists charged for pouring red powder on National Archives display of the US Constitution

The Valentine’s Day protest was carried out by members of the environmental group Declare Emergency

Net art pioneer Shu Lea Cheang wins $100,000 LG Guggenheim award

The Taiwan-born interdisciplinary artist’s work spans coding languages, hacking tactics, gaming engines and more

In pictures: meet Frieze Los Angeles's menagerie of animal sculptures

From irreverent fish to ceramic snakes, the animal kingdom is well represented at this year's fair

‘You have to come in knowing your taste and trusting your instinct’: Emilia Yin's survival guide for fairs

The owner of Hollywood’s Make Room gallery describes how her love of Surrealism informs her curatorial work, and offers Los Angeles newbies her top tips

'I held onto a box of Sylvie tiles that composed a psychotic, abstract cat': John Rubeli on his artful bathroom

The music executive and his wife, Stacy, are fixtures of Los Angeles’s art scene, collecting works by emerging artists and serving on boards of museums and non-profits

New satellite fair to launch at New York’s Estonian House during Frieze

The new fair, Esther, is being launched by New York’s Margot Samel and Tallinn-based Olga Temnikova

California love: Dr Dre helps to kick off Frieze Week Los Angeles in style with star-studded charity auction

The hip hop legend worked with the record executive Jimmy Iovine and Sotheby’s to put on the event, which also featured performances by the producer Timbaland and the singer Andra Day

‘The most unusual place I've installed a piece? Forty feet up in a tree’: John Quinn on his inside-out approach to art

The high-flying lawyer, who lists contemporary art as one of his passions, has opened a Los Angeles outpost of Croatia's Museum of Broken Relationships

Dozens of Los Angeles galleries will mount science-related shows for the Getty’s next PST Art programme

More than 40 galleries in the city will stage shows that resonate with PST Art’s focus on the intersections of art and science

13 shows to see in and around Los Angeles during Frieze

From important shows of Korean and Japanese contemporary art, to major surveys of Paul Pfeiffer and Joan Brown, and more