Criminal justice fund established with Lichtenstein sale

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Criminal justice fund established with Lichtenstein sale | Agnes Gund, art collector, patron and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, has donated $100 million from the sale of a Roy Lichtenstein painting to establish a fund supporting criminal justice reform, it was announced today. The new Art for Justice Fund, which will be administered by the Ford Foundation, aims to end mass incarceration in the United States through strategic investments supported by the sale of art. Gund has confirmed to the New York Times that the 1962 painting Masterpiece was sold for $165 million including fees, making it one of the 15 most expensive known artworks sold to date.

Isaac Julien wins Royal Academy’s Charles Wollaston award | Isaac Julien is the winner of this year’s Charles Wollaston award, presented annually to the contributor of the ‘most distinguished work’ at the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition. The £25,000 prize goes to Julien for his 2007 multi-screen film Western Union: Small Boats, which explores the journeys of refugees crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe.

Rome mayor wins appeal against Colosseum archaeological park | The Italian government’s plans to create a new archaeological park incorporating the Colosseum and the surrounding historic sites have been halted following a successful appeal by Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi. The decision to uphold the appeal was announced last Wednesday by the Lazio regional administrative court (TAR), ruling that ‘the State cannot act unilaterally on the capital’s heritage’. This latest development underscores ongoing tensions within the cultural sector in Italy between regional officials and the state’s culture ministry, led by Dario Franceschini.

Mauro Malang Santos (1928–2017) | Filipino artist Mauro Malang Santos, commonly known as Malang, died on Saturday aged 89. The painter, cartoonist and illustrator was famed in the Philippines for creating the country’s first English-language daily comic strip, Kosme the Cop, Retired, before turning to painting – particularly abstraction – in his later life.