Daily Art Download — January 28, 2026

Leadership shake-ups in South America: The Art Newspaper reports that Rodrigo Moura will step down next month after just one year as artistic director of Argentina’s Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, widely known as Malba. His tenure coincided with the museum’s most significant institutional expansion in two decades, including the acquisition of the Daros Latinamerica Collection—more than one thousand two hundred works that doubled Malba’s holdings. Malba says incorporating Daros has created “a substantial change in institutional priorities,” prompting a restructuring that includes creating a new chief executive position focused on operational management and strategic planning. Founder and president Eduardo F. Costantini called it a “true re-founding of Malba” as it approaches its 25th anniversary.

Staying in the Americas, there’s a major restitution update. ARTnews reports that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is returning three looted sculptures to India. The decision follows provenance research that linked the works to looting and trafficking, leading the museum to determine they should be repatriated. According to the report, the objects are being returned to the Government of India, reflecting how museums increasingly act on provenance findings rather than treating them as purely academic. The story also underlines how internal research can reshape institutional policy—especially as public expectations rise around transparency, documentation, and accountability in collecting. It’s another example of the growing pressure on museums to review past acquisitions and to respond when ownership histories raise serious concerns.

Another United States story, but this time in the courts. The Art Newspaper reports that the City of Philadelphia is suing the US Department of the Interior and the National Park Service after the removal of a slavery exhibit at the President’s House site at Independence National Historical Park, tied to the former presidential homes of George Washington and John Adams. The exhibit—“The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation”—memorialised nine individuals Washington enslaved while living in Philadelphia. The city argues the NPS acted outside its authority and removed the display without required city approval, citing a 2006 agreement on equal final design rights. The lawsuit names interior secretary Doug Burgum and acting NPS director Jessica Bowron as defendants.

From public history to public labor: ARTnews reports that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is planning layoffs affecting over 30 staffers. The museum cited what it described as “an unsustainable deficit,” framing the cuts as part of a financial response rather than a one-off adjustment. The story focuses on the scale of the staffing reduction at a major museum and what that can mean on the ground—departures that can ripple through daily operations and public-facing work. ARTnews situates the news within a broader conversation about museum finances and the strain institutions face as they balance budgets, staffing needs, and program commitments. It’s the kind of move that can reshape a museum’s capacity in ways visitors may feel gradually, even if galleries stay open.

Now to New York’s art scene, where authorship and influence are under the microscope. Artnet News reports that rapper Lexa Gates is facing criticism for a performance at Jeffrey Deitch on January 15, 2026, with accusations that it mimicked a work by performance artist Miles Greenberg. The report describes the backlash as building online, with viewers comparing Gates’s actions to Greenberg’s performance practice and raising concerns about copying. Artnet frames the dispute as a question of originality and responsibility, particularly when performance imagery circulates quickly and comparisons spread via clips and posts. The controversy also draws attention to the role of venues in presenting live work—because when an event becomes a public spectacle, the institution hosting it can be pulled directly into debates over influence and attribution.

Zooming out to the digital art economy, Hyperallergic reports that Nifty Gateway is shutting down, calling it the latest NFT marketplace to quit amid a prolonged slump. The piece, by Valentina Di Liscia, notes that the platform had been “plagued with reports of user issues,” and positions the closure as another sign of contraction after the boom period when NFT marketplaces promised stable, mainstream infrastructure. Hyperallergic frames the news as part of a broader downturn rather than an isolated failure, underscoring how marketplace viability can evaporate when speculative demand cools. The closure also raises practical concerns implied by the story’s focus on platform fragility: what happens to users and digital holdings when a major storefront disappears, and how trust is affected when complaints go unresolved.

Hyperallergic also has an opinion piece by Rob Fields on how Donald Trump is jeopardizing the US art market. The argument centers on travel and border friction: if entering the country “requires surrendering your digital life and private information,” Fields asks how long it will be before artists and collectors decide not to come. The piece connects those conditions to the everyday mechanics of the art world—international visits, fairs, and cross-border participation that depend on people moving freely. Hyperallergic’s framing is less about a distant policy debate and more about immediate consequences: fewer arrivals can mean fewer transactions, fewer encounters, and fewer reasons for global art commerce to route through the US. It’s a reminder that markets don’t operate in isolation from immigration and surveillance climates.

Across the Pacific, the auction market is offering a bright data point. ARTnews reports that Sotheby’s achieved its highest sale total for modern and contemporary art in Singapore since 2023. The story also reports a 94 percent sell-through rate, emphasizing strong conversion of lots offered into lots sold. ARTnews frames this as a notable result for the Singapore market in particular, where auction outcomes are closely watched as indicators of regional confidence. The coverage highlights Pacita Abad among the notable results, reflecting continued interest in artists whose markets have been gaining wider attention. Rather than presenting the sale as a global trendline, the article treats it as a Singapore-specific milestone—one that helps Sotheby’s signal momentum in the city’s art ecosystem.

Staying in Asia, ARTnews reports that Shahzia Sikander’s animated film has been selected for the M+ Facade Commission in Hong Kong. The commission will put her work on the museum’s facade, and ARTnews describes it as being co-commissioned by M+ and Art Basel. The article focuses on the significance of the high-visibility facade format—work that plays at architectural scale and meets viewers in the city rather than only inside galleries. Sikander’s selection is presented as a major institutional platform for her moving-image practice, with the facade commission positioning animation and time-based work as a centerpiece of M+’s public-facing programming. It’s another reminder that museum commissions increasingly function as both artwork and cultural event—visible, scheduled, and designed to circulate widely.

Back to the United States for a culture-and-speech headline. Hyperallergic’s daily newsletter item titled “Nan Goldin’s Battle Against Censorship” highlights Goldin speaking out against censorship, while also flagging additional stories in the same roundup: “Street signs against fascism,” “Gabrielle Goliath’s lesson in resistance,” and “how Joan Miró fell in love with America.” The entry frames Goldin’s comments as part of a broader set of cultural responses to political pressure and attempts to control expression. Because it’s presented as a newsletter-style digest, the focus is on spotlighting Goldin’s stance rather than laying out a full chronology of her career. The takeaway is that Hyperallergic is grouping her anti-censorship message alongside other examples of artistic and civic resistance.

That’s your Daily Art Download for today—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more news, market moves, and museum drama, and until then: Chinga la migra

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