Appointments & departures

Art marketcomment

Leadership shuffles show auction houses and mega-galleries rethinking the trade

In a stubbornly stagnant market, the big players are searching for new ideas that will bring sustained growth

Executive director Nicole Berry leaving The Armory Show for senior development role at Los Angeles's Hammer Museum

Frieze's search to replace Berry, who has led The Armory Show since 2017, is already underway

Italy’s embattled junior culture minister resigns amid scandals

The critic, curator and commentator Vittorio Sgarbi was being pressured to resign amid multiple investigations into his conduct

Second curator of Indigenous art departs the Art Gallery of Ontario amid ongoing scandal

Taqralik Partridge, an associate curator of Indigenous art since 2022, has stepped down while the Toronto institution is still reeling from the sudden ouster of Wanda Nanibush

Iwona Blazwick stands down as Istanbul Biennial curator—event postponed until 2025

A row erupted last summer over transparency issues concerning her appointment

Friends of the Louvre chair forced to step down

Louis-Antoine Prat, a French art historian and Old Master drawings collector, has been accused of slandering a respected art dealer with antisemitic stereotypes in his new book

Phillips chief executive Stephen Brooks steps down after two years

Brooks, who joined the company in 2021, has left for personal reasons

There is no end to the museum exodus

Higher salaries are a major reason why mid-level museum workers are leaving for commercial gallery jobs, but instability caused by the Covid pandemic is also a factor

Italian museums undergo mass leadership reshuffle with Eike Schmidt out at the Uffizi

The Florence museum chief has been named director of Naples's Capodimonte with new leaders also appointed in Milan and Rome as part of right-wing government strategy

Five curators join Whitney Biennial team for the 2024 edition

The additional staff will programme sound art, film and performance events

Gasworks contemporary art centre in London appoints Robert Leckie as new director

Former Turner Prize judge replaces Alessio Antoniolli who has been in post for 18 years

UK's Royal College of Art appoints Christoph Lindner as vice-chancellor

The new president's previous roles have included a focus on the climate crisis

Director of Restore Trust, campaign group putting pressure on National Trust, steps down from role

Zewditu Gebreyohanes said she had made the decision six months ago, and that it was not connected to members rejecting the group's councillors and resolutions at the weekend's general meeting

International outcry at dismissal of prominent Polish museum director

Leaders of foreign museums have joined Polish colleagues in condemning the removal of Joanna Wasilewska from her role at Warsaw’s Asia and Pacific Museum

Barbicaninterview

Shanay Jhaveri—the Barbican Centre’s first non-British head of visual arts—reveals his plans for the London institution

The Indian curator, appointed a year after a racism dispute at the centre, hopes to diversify audiences and expand the presence of art across the Brutalist complex

Curator chosen for next Istanbul Biennial was told it is ‘not the right time’ for her to organise the show

Defne Ayas has spoken to the online Turkish newspaper T24 about being rejected in favour of Iwona Blazwick

Barrister Hannatu Musawa is appointed Nigeria's culture minister

The lawyer and activist may play a key role in negotiating the return of Benin bronzes

Art dealer chosen to curate Turkish pavilion at next Venice Biennale resigns

Esra Sarigedik Öktem’s Istanbul gallery represents the artist exhibiting in Venice in 2024

Curator Eva Respini joins Vancouver Art Gallery at transformative moment for the institution

Respini, previously the chief curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, comes to the Vancouver museum as it plans a major building project

Art Basel names new director for Miami Beach fair

Bridget Finn, a partner at a Detroit-based gallery and co-founder of one of Brooklyn's legendary DIY spaces, will oversee North America's most important art fair

American Women’s History Museum founding director Nancy Yao withdraws from role

Yao, who was picked to lead the new Smithsonian museum through design and construction, said she needs to prioritise her family

Elena Filipovic announced as the new director of the Kunstmuseum Basel

Filipovic joins from the Kunsthalle Basel and will replace Josef Helfenstein

Reina Sofía Museum and Whitworth Gallery appoint new directors

The art historian Manuel Segade will join the Madrid institution while Tate international art curator Sook-Kyung Lee takes the reins in Manchester

French curator Nicolas Bourriaud appointed artistic director of 15th Gwangju Biennale

The South Korean exhibition has come under fire for its Park Seo-Bo art prize which has now been abolished

MoMA PS1 hires Hammer Museum curator Connie Butler as its next director

Butler made a similar cross-country move in 2006, when she left the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles for a job at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Tate Modern announces new director as Oslo museum chief Karin Hindsbo

Pressing challenges include maintaining visitor numbers and developing the institution's climate response

Marina Loshak steps down as director of Moscow’s Pushkin Museum in latest high-level Russian departure

The well-respected director has been replaced by Elizaveta Likhacheva, the current head of the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture

Moscow museum director removed after complaint against institution’s lack of ‘traditional Russian spiritual and moral values’

Zelfira Tregulova, who has headed the State Tretyakov Gallery since 2015, will be replaced by Elena Pronicheva, who has links to Vladimir Putin