[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2160632201.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 MONEY OVER ART.<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0Financial Times<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>has argued that the astronomical prices of top modernist paintings are less about intrinsic artistic value than wealth, scarcity, and the concentration of buying power among billionaires. Works once regarded as marginal or difficult have been transformed into ultra-expensive trophies as wealthy collectors compete for a limited supply of canonical art. The result is a market where price itself reinforces status: the more expensive a painting becomes, the more desirable it can be to the ultra-rich. The broader point is that extreme wealth has reshaped the art market, turning certain modernist works into financial and social assets as much as cultural objects. As\u00a0Sotheby\u2019s Europe\u00a0<\/strong>chair\u00a0Oliver Barker\u00a0<\/strong>put it: \u201cA billionaire class with deep, deep pockets is now pursuing names as if they are brands.\u201d<\/p>\n RED SPARROW<\/strong>. In an interview with exiled Russian news channel that\u00a0Port Media<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0published on Monday, former\u00a0Pussy Riot\u00a0<\/strong>member\u00a0Rita Flores<\/strong>, real name\u00a0Margarita Konovalova<\/strong>, said Russia\u2019s\u00a0FSB<\/strong>\u00a0tried to recruit her as an informant in 2023, threatening her family and pressuring her to report on other artists. Flores alleges she was ordered to target anti-Kremlin<\/strong>\u00a0artists, including street artist\u00a0Philippenzo<\/strong>\u00a0and performance artist\u00a0Pavel Krisevich<\/strong>, and claims she was offered 3 million rubles ($35,000) to lure Pussy Riot co-founder\u00a0Pyotr Verzilov<\/strong>\u00a0to Serbia, where Russian agents planned to abduct and kill him. Flores says she ultimately escaped Russia with help from her lawyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEight costumes spanning the career of the late Queen frontman,\u00a0Freddie Mercury<\/strong>, are going on display at the\u00a0V&A\u00a0<\/strong>in London. [Guardian]<\/p>\n Taylor Swift\u00a0<\/strong>was interviewed at the\u00a0Grammy Museum<\/strong>\u00a0in LA, and she opened up about her \u201ccountry roots.\u201d [Billboard]<\/p>\n V&A<\/strong>\u00a0staff have voted overwhelmingly for strike action, with 95 percent backing walkouts over pay and working conditions. [Museum Association]<\/p>\n \n\tNewly appointed peer\u00a0Ruth Mackenzie<\/strong>\u00a0is reportedly set to oversee the UK culture ministry\u2019s relationship with museums, libraries and\u00a0Arts Council England<\/strong>. [The Art Newspaper]<\/p>\n TOO WOKE?<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>reported that the\u00a0US State Department<\/strong>\u00a0has removed\u00a0Kehinde Wiley<\/strong>\u2019s painting\u00a0Young Artists After Siamesas 1960<\/em>\u00a0(2013) from the\u00a0American Embassy in the Dominican Republic<\/strong>, with officials branding it \u201cwoke\u201d and \u201caesthetically terrifying.\u201d They also indicated that they may sell it. Commissioned with public money in 2013, the painting depicts four Dominican art students. The move marks a dramatic reversal for the\u00a0Art in Embassies<\/strong>\u00a0program, which awarded Wiley its Medal of Arts in 2015 and commissioned the work as cultural diplomacy. Critics say its removal contradicts the program\u2019s founding mission and longstanding curatorial principles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/morning-links-august-25-2026-1234795732\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2160632201.jpg?w=1024″] To receive\u00a0Morning Links\u00a0in your inbox every weekday,\u00a0sign\u00a0up\u00a0for our\u00a0Breakfast with ARTnews\u00a0newsletter. Good Morning! The\u00a0Financial Times\u00a0has argued that billionaire wealth, not artistic value, is driving modern art\u2019s astronomical prices. Ex-Pussy Riot member Rita Flores said Russia\u2019s FSB tried to recruit her as an informant in 2023. A Kehinde Wiley painting has been removed from […]<\/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-2113956","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\/2113956","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=2113956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2113956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2113956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2113956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\t\tGood Morning!\t<\/h2>\n
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