Restitution Reckonings and Museums on the Brink

A new profile in The Art Newspaper introduces Oleksandr Dubovyk, the Kyiv-born Ukrainian artist who turns 95 on 1 August. Filmed on video among works shown at the Dom Master Klass Cultural Centre in Kyiv, Dubovyk reflects a life threaded through Ukrainian history’s tragedies—his poet father was executed in 1941—and a career that moved from Realist art toward abstract symbols in the 1960s, leaving him a non-conformist outside official recognition. A first large-scale retrospective, Labyrinths of Meanings, opened at the end of June at the Ukrainian House exhibition hall on Kyiv’s central Khreshchatyk Street and runs until 2 August, organised by Stedley Art Foundation and curated by Kateryna Tsyhykalo.

A federal appeals court in New York has sided with Jeff Koons in a years-long dispute tied to his Made in Heaven series (1989–91). The Second Circuit ruling, released Tuesday, 21 July, affirmed a lower court’s February 2025 decision dismissing artist Michael A. Hayden’s copyright-infringement claim as time-barred. Hayden’s allegation centers on a coiled snake sculpture he created for Ilona Staller—also known as Cicciolina—that appears in several Made in Heaven works Koons made in collaboration with Staller, whom he later married. Hayden said he only became aware of the Koons works in 2019; he received copyright registration for his sculpture in January 2020 and filed suit in December 2021. The appeals panel didn’t rule on the merits, focusing on timing.

Across the Atlantic, Ecuador’s Museo Nacional del Ecuador—known as Muna—has selected a new design for its long-planned home in Quito after a fast-moving controversy. A team led by the Japanese architecture firm Sanaa won with “Living Strata,” alongside Caá Porá Arquitectura, Estudio A0, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Landscape. The planned museum is about thirty six thousand square meters and is expected to require around one hundred dollars million, aiming to relieve severe space limits that keep most of Muna’s 1.2 million objects out of view. The government annulled the earlier 6 July winner after social media backlash and resignations, then reopened the process: ten teams resubmitted, three finalists went to an online public vote worth 15%, and “Living Strata” was announced 19 July.

In Glasgow, the Glasgow School of Art says the cost to restore the Mackintosh Building destroyed in the 2018 fire is around £265 million—an amount the school calls “unaffordable.” The figure appears in a Business Case addendum prepared after settlement of a long-running insurance claim related to the June 2018 blaze. The landmark 1909 Art Nouveau building in Garnethill was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, the artist Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, and was nearing the end of a £35 million restoration after a previous May 2014 fire when the second disaster struck. The school says about £26 million has already gone toward maintaining the existing structure, and scaffolding in place since 2018 is due to be removed. Board chair Ann Priest says the school wants it rebuilt but can’t risk GSA’s financial sustainability.

ARTnews reports a restitution ceremony in Seoul on July 23, as the Kansong Art Museum returned two Qing Dynasty stone lion sculptures to China. Yonhap News Agency says attendees included Chun In-keon of the Kansong Art Museum, You Hong-june of the National Museum of Korea, Dai Bing, China’s ambassador to South Korea, and Rao Quan, head of China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration, with the return arranged at a meeting between the two countries in early January. The lions were bought in 1933 at an auction in Osaka by Jeon Hyeong-pil, the collector also known as Kansong. They’ve stood for decades at the museum entrance, each more than six feet tall and weighing over a ton. China plans to restore them and display them at a national museum within a year, and the museum will replace them with stone tigers.

Hyperallergic’s roundup “David Hockney’s Endless Scroll” digs into reactions to the late artist’s digital work at Serpentine Galleries. Writer Olivia McEwan describes the iPad as “a fascistic form of mark-making” while discussing the exhibition A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting, which presents more than 100 printed iPad paintings digitally “stitched” into a 295-foot composite scroll, “A Year in Normandie” (2020–21), wrapping around the gallery to encourage movement and close looking. The issue also notes Tate has named Jessica Morgan—who led the Dia Art Foundation in New York for over a decade—as its next director. And it spotlights Riverlines at David Nolan Gallery in New York, which tells an intergenerational story around Brazilian modernist Chico da Silva and Amazonian art, challenging the isolated-genius myth.

Hyperallergic also reports on a letter from Yuko Kikuchi, who resigned in January as head of academic programs at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. In a January 26 letter she shared with The Art Newspaper, Kikuchi wrote that alleged racist and culturally insensitive behavior—including pushback on her proposals, marginalization as the only person of color among senior staff, and microaggressions—affected her mental health, and she called for the V&A to address what she described as a culture of systemic racism. Kikuchi, a Tokyo-born researcher who has lived in the UK for over three decades, said she felt unwelcome from day one after joining in 2023. She also described proposing decolonization material for a design history MA run with the Royal College of Art, and encountering resistance. The V&A and RCA issued a joint statement committing to oppose unlawful discrimination and support a global, inclusive curriculum.

ARTnews, citing the Associated Press, reports that the United States has repatriated looted cultural artifacts to Indonesia, with a handover on July 22 in Jakarta during a meeting between Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto and FBI director Kash Patel. Indonesia’s culture minister, Fadi Zon, said the items—linked to Papua and the heritage of the Dani and Asmat tribes and Lake Sentani communities—were returned after cooperation between the FBI and the ministry, with provenance research concluding they had been smuggled out. Artifacts shown at the ceremony included stone axe heads, which Zon said carried meaning beyond utility: among highland groups like the Dani, such axes functioned as status symbols, currency, and heirlooms. The report also notes that earlier this month the U.S. embassy announced the return of two 8th-century bronze Avalokitesvara sculptures, repatriated after an investigation involving SDNY and Homeland Security Investigations.

ARTnews has also named the curators for Made in L.A. 2027, the Hammer Museum’s biennial, opening in fall 2027. The eighth edition will be co-curated by Hammer chief curator Michael Wellen and MOCA senior curator José Luis Blondet. Wellen joined the Hammer in April from Tate Modern, where he recently opened his last project there: a retrospective of Ana Mendieta. Blondet has been at the Museum of Contemporary Art since 2023 and previously worked at LACMA for 13 years, organizing exhibitions and performances across a wide range of artists. Wellen told ARTnews he approached Blondet about a month after arriving, calling him a respected curator with deep knowledge of LA. Blondet said curating Made in L.A. has long been a “secret dream,” and both emphasized starting with studio visits and responding to what artists are doing now.

ARTnews reports a Connecticut antiques dealer and auction house owner, David L. Johnson, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal money laundering charge connected to an alleged scheme totaling about two dollars million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut. Johnson, 66, of Greenwich, operated Stamford-based Antique Treasures and Greenwich Auction and had power of attorney over “W.L.,” described as an elderly, wealthy individual needing extensive medical attention. The scheme allegedly ran from November 2018 through April 2023; W.L. died in August 2020. The plea centers on Johnson allegedly cashing a federal tax refund check for the 2019 tax year, over four hundred thirty six thousand dollars issued to the estate in October 2020, then moving funds in ways prosecutors say concealed stolen proceeds. Johnson will be sentenced on October 30; filings say he has restituted one dollars million.

That’s the show for today—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for another download of the art world’s essentials, and until then, Chinga la migra.

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