ARTnews

2 days ago | artnews.com | Karen Ho |Daniel Cassady

On Monday night, Christie’s kicked off its spring marquee auctions with back to back auctions that brought in a combined $489 million with fees. The Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works sale, composed of 39 works from the late Barnes & Noble founder and his wife, leaned heavy on Surrealism, modernism, and Minimalism. Almost all of that collection sold amid uncertainty, but not without confidence—thanks in part to a house guarantee across the board.

2 days ago | artnews.com | Taylor Michael

Since British colonial officers confiscated the Ngadji drum in 1902, the Pokomo people in southeastern Kenya have witnessed a significant percentage of their community convert to Christianity or Islam. They can no longer perform certain traditional ceremonies. Prior to British colonial rule in Kenya, beginning in 1895, Pokomo artists crafted these wooden drum for calls to worship or to celebrate the start of a king’s reign.

2 days ago | artnews.com | George Nelson

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines IN MEMORIAM. Koyo Kouoh, the celebrated, Cameroonian-born curator appointed to lead the 2026 Venice Biennale, has died unexpectedly at the age of 57, reports ARTnews. When she was appointed in December of last year to curate the storied exhibition in Venice, Kouoh became the second African-born curator to take on the job.

5 days ago | artnews.com | Maximilíano Durón |Harrison Jacobs

Two big New York art fairs—NADA New York and Independent, at Chelsea’s Starrett-Lehigh and Tribeca’s Spring Studios, respectively—kicked off this week, joining an already-busy week that also includes Frieze and TEFAF. It’s been a few years since the spring had a fair week this busy, but if the recent downturn and the compressed schedule had dealers and collectors worried, it wasn’t apparent at either fair.

5 days ago | artnews.com | Angelica Villa

TEFAF brings an air of prestige to three fairs it operates—one in the Dutch city of Maastricht, two in New York—and so it has accrued a special following with established collectors and high-ranking curators. The ritzy European vibe of TEFAF New York is in some ways what differentiates this fair from the others opening this week. But Will Korner, TEFAF’s Netherlands-based head of operations, said he also wanted to change that reputation.