Pinault to Install 106 Works at Palazzo Grassi in Permanent Show

François Pinault will install a permanent exhibition of 106 works from his collection at Palazzo Grassi, one of his two museums in Venice, he told Le Monde. The announcement marks a structural shift for a collector who has long favored temporary exhibitions across his Venetian venues, and it comes from a holding that numbers over 10,000 artworks.

Pinault framed the decision in personal terms. "My collection is eminently subjective and very often built on instinct, passion, or even anger in the face of the violence of the present," he said.

He told Le Monde that years of temporary shows gave only a fleeting sense of the collection. A permanent display would let visitors experience more of the works that have deeply marked him.

"A permanent display makes it possible to set works from different periods and generations side by side and to show how … certain questions endure. It is in no way a matter of freezing the collection or offering a definitive reading of it," he said.

What does this change for Venice? A fixed display at Palazzo Grassi gives the city one more permanent modern and contemporary art destination alongside the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and it converts part of the Pinault holdings from rotating loan material into a stable public resource.

The Louvre speeds up its security overhaul

Olivier Goupil, a former police commissioner now in charge of security at the Louvre in Paris, told Le Figaro he is accelerating a "culture of safety and security" at the institution.

The measures range from new cameras and detective devices on artworks to new security checks at entrances. "Everything is urgent, but everything is moving forward," Goupil said.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool liner failed in at least 85 places

An inspection report commissioned in August found that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool liner failed in at least 85 places, far more than previously known, according to The Washington Post. The report attributes the failures to a rushed renovation job and the use of improper materials, with no mention of any harm done by vandalism.

Also in the news

• Artists say they feel silenced by new laws in Turkey prohibiting the depiction of LGBTQI+ symbols in art and culture, including the rainbow. [Taz Newspaper]
• Sculptors face a materials crisis after the USG Corporation in Blaine County, Oklahoma, said it will stop producing Hydrocal plaster, a key sculpture-making material. [The New York Times]
• A previously unknown Canaletto pen and ink drawing, dated 1746 to 1755 and depicting an overgrown arcade in ruins, heads to auction at Mallams in the UK on October 21 with a high estimate of $79,000. [Artnet News]
• Mexico's military has put on hold plans for a massive military museum complex proposed for Mexico City and part of the Bosque de Chapultepec park. [The Art Newspaper]

Arts scenes rise in red-voting states

Writing for the Financial Times, reporter Melanie Gerlis visited several red-voting "flyover" states and found buzzing arts scenes that have attracted a rising cohort of creative talent and market professionals.

The Ostillo Art Foundation, a free nonprofit in Austin, Texas, backed by collector René Campos, opened last month.

In nearby Houston, "market activity is stepping up," Gerlis writes. She spoke to Michael Slenske, director of the young Untitled Art: Houston fair, about the city's philanthropic culture and its growing number of established artists moving in, like Rick Lowe, Mark Flood, and JooYoung Choi. Slenske said Houston has "a rising tide of [cultural] ambition."

The pattern extends to Atlanta, where Kelly Freeman of fair producer Art Market Production said: "If you want to be part of the community, there are so many people excited to talk to you. It's not exclusionary, it's 'come on in and learn.'"

The Pinault display in Venice and the Texas openings point in the same direction: institutional infrastructure is spreading beyond the traditional coastal and European centers, and collectors are choosing permanence over rotation.