[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Auctioneer-Adrien-Meyer-sells-Jackson-Pollocks-Number-7A-1948-the-top-lot-of-Masterpieces-The-Private-Collection-of-S.I.-Newhouse-for-181.2-million-2.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
To receive\u00a0Morning Links\u00a0in your inbox every weekday,\u00a0sign\u00a0up\u00a0for our\u00a0<\/em>Breakfast with ARTnews\u00a0newsletter<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tGood morning!<\/p>\n BULLISH MARKET COMEBACK?<\/strong>\u00a0There was plenty to write home about from\u00a0Christie\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0blockbuster evening sales on Monday, with record-breaking sales that included an 11-foot-wide\u00a0Jackson Pollock<\/strong>\u00a0drip painting that went for $181.2 million, a gilded bronze head sculpture by\u00a0Constantin Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i<\/strong>\u00a0fetching $107 million with fees, and a $98.4 million\u00a0Mark Rothko<\/strong>\u00a0abstraction from 1964,\u00a0No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)<\/em>. But as\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>\u00a0reports, those works were expected to do well. Perhaps just as intriguing, the sale revealed more about the market below $20 million, which saw deep bidding that has been missing from auctions in recent years. Also of note, most of the action came from US buyers, while European and Asian clients stayed mostly on the sidelines or within lower price points. \u201cCollectors have a lot of capital to play with,\u201d secondary-market dealer\u00a0Evan Beard<\/strong>\u00a0told\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>. \u201cThey\u2019ve psychologically adjusted to higher interest rates. The stock market is at record highs and feeling frothy, and the art market has reset to more inviting levels the past few years. The bullish art market is back (but not for young, emerging artists).\u201d<\/p>\n GUERNICA\u00a0<\/em>LOAN? WHO\u2019S ASKING?<\/strong>\u00a0For the first time,\u00a0Reina Sof\u00eda Museum\u00a0<\/strong>director\u00a0Manuel Segade<\/strong>\u00a0publicly addressed a simmering\u00a0controversy<\/strong>\u00a0over the Basque government\u2019s request to borrow\u00a0Pablo Picasso\u2019s\u00a0Guernica<\/em><\/strong>, reports\u00a0El Pa\u00eds<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0His surprising reasons for not doing so before highlight the politically charged nature of the debacle. \u201cI hadn\u2019t spoken about it before for a very basic reason: this museum hasn\u2019t been asked for the piece,\u201d the director told an audience gathered to celebrate International Museum Day. The request, explained Segade, was only ever made to Spanish President\u00a0Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/strong>\u00a0and culture minister\u00a0Ernest Urtasun<\/strong>. However, \u201cin principle, a president can\u2019t lend it. Basque politicians accused the museum of being politicized based on a technical report,\u201d which determined that moving the painting could damage it, he said. \u201cTaking [their loan request] outside the museum and turning it into a matter of state policy, makes me rather sad.\u201d In another news-making event, Segade spoke in public alongside\u00a0Prado\u00a0<\/strong>director\u00a0Miguel Falomir<\/strong>\u00a0for the first time in 40 years. The duo addressed their historically frosty relationship, which they hope to continue improving via mutual cooperation, and the endless problem of museum funding. \u201cWe compete in the Champions League of museums with budgets from the second division,\u201d Falomir told the crowd.<\/p>\n \n\tUK\u2019s shadow culture secretary\u00a0Nigel Huddleston<\/strong>\u00a0has called for the Arts Council to investigate allegations of antisemitism directed at\u00a0Southbank Center<\/strong>\u00a0chairman\u00a0Misan Harriman<\/strong>, and to review funding for the institution. [Times of London<\/strong>]<\/p>\n \n\tThe new\u00a0Centre Pompidou Hanwha<\/strong>\u00a0museum in Seoul opens June 4 with a major exhibition on Cubism, but some locals question whether Korean culture will be overshadowed by a foreign-branded initiative. [Korea JoongAng Daily<\/strong>]<\/p>\n \n\tGuatemala\u2019s cultural ministry is formally requesting the repatriation from Mexico of a Maya stone lintel by the so-called \u201cMichelangelo of the pre-Columbian era,\u201d the artist\u00a0Mayuy<\/strong>, that was mistakenly thought to be Mexican. [The Art Newspaper<\/strong>]<\/p>\n \n\tThe Paris-founded CiaciaLevi Gallery is moving it\u2019s Milan gallery to a new, experimental space: an apartment in Turin\u2019s\u00a0Bottega d\u2019Erasmo<\/strong>\u00a0building, near the landmark\u00a0Mole Antonelliana<\/strong>. It\u00a0will open in September with works displayed in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom where the gallery owners also live. [Artribune<\/strong>]<\/p>\n Tate Britain<\/strong>\u00a0has unveiled its new garden project for its first participation at the\u00a0Chelsea Flower Show<\/strong>, offering a preview of its planned\u00a0Clore Garden<\/strong>\u00a0public space set to open in 2027. [London Now<\/strong>]<\/p>\n SKY\u2019S THE LIMIT<\/strong>. British makeup artist and designer\u00a0Isamaya Ffrench<\/strong>\u00a0has launched\u00a0Studio Iron<\/strong>, a gallery and concept store in London that invites artists to create design objects and sculpture, that dissolve boundaries between genres, reports\u00a0WWD<\/em>. The first exhibition is a pop-up at Saatchi Yates until June 7, which will later head to permanent digs in Soho. The show includes designs, installations, sculpture, and paintings by\u00a0Gary Card, Paul McCarthy, Kelly Wearstler, Anne Imhof, Marina Abramovi\u0107<\/strong>, and emerging talents such as\u00a0Atelier Formenta, Andu Masebo<\/strong>, and\u00a0Manon Wertenbroek<\/strong>. For some, it was their first foray into design. Ffrench tells\u00a0WWD<\/em>\u00a0she hopes the space will challenge the hierarchies and labels she finds too narrow in the art world. \u201cCreativity is creativity. It\u2019s all magic,\u201d she said. As such, the objects on view \u201csit in the liminal space between art and function and design.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/christies-auction-us-market-strength-morning-links-may-19-2026-1234786077\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Auctioneer-Adrien-Meyer-sells-Jackson-Pollocks-Number-7A-1948-the-top-lot-of-Masterpieces-The-Private-Collection-of-S.I.-Newhouse-for-181.2-million-2.jpg?w=1024″] To receive\u00a0Morning Links\u00a0in your inbox every weekday,\u00a0sign\u00a0up\u00a0for our\u00a0Breakfast with ARTnews\u00a0newsletter. Good morning! Christie\u2019s blockbuster evening sales on Monday point to a bullish market for historic works. Reina Sof\u00eda\u2019s director says Basque leaders never asked the museum for a\u00a0Guernica\u00a0loan, and Spanish politicians technically have no authority in the matter. The UK\u2019s culture secretary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1946770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1946770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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