Secret Trial of Artist Gao Zhen Begins in China, Trump’s Design for White House Ballroom Critiqued, and More: Morning Links for March 30, 2026
ARTnews’s “Morning Links” for March 30, 2026 reports that three artworks—Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Les Poissons (The Fish)” (1917), Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la terrasse (Odalisque on the terrace)” (1922), and Paul Cézanne’s watercolor “Tasse et plat de cerises (Cup and plate of cherries)” (c. 1890)—were stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation’s villa near Parma on the night of March 22, with police saying four masked burglars forced a door and fled within minutes. The roundup also says a secret trial for detained Chinese artist Gao Zhen, 69, was scheduled to begin in Hebei Province, with Gao facing up to three years in prison under China’s 2018 slander law for sculptures authorities claim mocked Mao Zedong; his brother and collaborator Gao Qiang said the process is politicized, and Gao Zhen was arrested in 2024 while visiting family in China. Additional items include Israeli artist Amir Fattal closing a König gallery exhibition in Mexico City early after vandals spray-painted swastikas and Stars of David, and a New York Times report that architects criticized President Donald Trump’s proposed large White House ballroom as impractical and lacking public review. The digest further notes that France’s newly appointed culture minister Catherine Pégard said the Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance plan would continue but should be amended with greater emphasis on security and safety.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Masterworks Stolen, Restitution Wars Escalate