French Galleries Demand Compensation Over Art Basel Paris Closure

By Tom Whitfield

French galleries representing more than a quarter of Art Basel Paris exhibitors have demanded "appropriate compensation" after the fair closed two days early in October without consulting them, according to a letter sent to fair director Karim Crippa.

The complaint, reported by Monopol, comes from the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d'Art (CPGA). Art Basel Paris canceled the weekend of October 24 and 25 — the fair's final public days — citing safety concerns ahead of planned Saturday protests. The CPGA's letter disputes both the process and the reasoning.

Galleries "had not been consulted" about the decision, the letter states. It calls the Sunday closure "far less justified," noting that the exhibition "Cézanne et nous" remained open that day on the opposite side of the Grand Palais, the same building that hosts the fair.

What does this change for smaller exhibitors?

Plenty, according to the CPGA. Its members include many smaller galleries that rely on weekend sales more than their larger multinational competitors. The letter describes the fair's handling of the early closure as "a sign of disrespect, indeed, of contempt." No compensation figure has been named, and Art Basel Paris has not publicly responded. That silence is the part to watch.

Mucem workers plan strike over president's return

Workers at the Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem) in Marseille said they will strike November 3 to protest the return of the museum's president, Pierre-Olivier Costa, who resumed his post November 2, Le Figaro reports.

A government investigation examined accusations of sexual and moral harassment and of putting Marseille's only national museum "at risk." Costa, suspended for four months, told AFP on Sunday that government officials had never questioned him. His suspension has expired, he said, "that also means they don't have much, or have nothing to hold against me." No findings have been publicly released — an absence Costa now treats as exoneration and his staff plainly does not.

In brief

• The District of Columbia and Virginia filed suit Saturday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to stop President Donald Trump from building a "flagrantly unlawful" 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, NPR reports.
• The European Commission plans to lower its money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk rating for the art market from "high" to "moderate," citing "limited EU evidence," despite a rash of museum thefts across Europe, the Financial Times reports.
• Lawyers for Representative Joice Beatty (D-Ohio) claim records show the administration wants to close and renovate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to conceal financial decline and mismanagement since Trump took it over, the New York Times reports.
• Spanish artist Miquel Navarro, known for uniting architecture and sculpture, has died at 81, Ara reports.
• Northern California's Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, dedicated to designers Ray and Charles Eames, unveiled plans for a museum on Birkenstock's former campus in Novato, while facing scrutiny over financial ties to billionaire Airbnb cofounder and Trump official Joe Gebbia, the San Francisco Standard reports.

Austria presses its constitutional attack on the HEAR Act

The Republic of Austria, Vienna's Albertina Museum and the Leopold Museum Foundation filed a response Friday to amicus briefs from two US senators, arguing the updated Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act violates the US Constitution and the Tenth Amendment, ARTnews reports.

The three parties are defendants in a suit brought by Timothy Reif, a descendant of Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish performer and collector killed in a Nazi camp in 1941. Reif seeks the return of several Egon Schiele works he says were seized by Nazis. The defendants dispute that account and the HEAR Act's constitutionality. The filing counters briefs submitted last month by the Department of Justice and Senators Richard Blumenthal and John Cornyn defending the act. "This was an opportunity for my clients to respond and explain why they respectfully disagree…," the defendants' attorney, William L. Charron, told ARTnews.

The court's eventual ruling on the HEAR Act could reshape how American law handles Nazi-era restitution claims.