Legal battle continues over Picasso painting at the Met

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Legal battle continues over Picasso painting at the Met | The lawsuit over The Actor (1904–05) by Picasso is to continue after the estate of Alice Leffmann filed an appeal in a federal court in New York against a recent ruling, The Art Newspaper reports. The case was dismissed by a lower court in February by a judge who questioned the estate’s claim that the painting had been sold under duress (while acknowledging ‘economic pressure’ as a factor). Leffmann’s husband, the German-Jewish collector Paul Leffmann, sold the work in Italy in 1938 for £13,200 after the couple fled from Germany. The Met has stated that it ‘stands by its conclusion that it is the rightful owner of this painting’, citing that the Leffmanns sold the painting on the open market. The painting was donated to the Met in 1952 by the American collector Thelma Chrysler Foy, who had bought it in 1941 for $22,500.

AIDS activists stage protest at the Whitney | AIDS activists protested at the David Wojnarowicz exhibition at the Whitney Museum on Friday evening, in response to what they perceived as the exhibition’s historicisation of the AIDS crisis. Members of ACT UP New York held up recent news articles addressing HIV/AIDS issues and a mission statement that read in part: ‘AIDS is not history. The AIDS crisis did not die with David Wojnarowicz.’ In a statement that can be read in full on ArtNews, the Whitney Museum comments, ‘we completely agree that the AIDS crisis is not history’ and has outlined the ways in which it is addressing the ongoing AIDS pandemic.

Historic England to celebrate local heroes in a new exhibition | An exhibition organised by Historic England at the end of the August will highlight the achievements of ordinary local heroes. The overlooked memorials that will be included have been nominated by members of the public. The exhibits will include the Bristol grave of Mary Carpenter, founder of a school for the poor and a campaigner for the abolition of slavery, and the men who died at Watford workhouse, remembered only by names and dates scratched on the building wall.

VR used to recreate artists’ studios at the State Tretyakov Gallery | The Moscow museum has recreated the studios of two 20th-century artists, Natalia Goncharova and Kazimir Malevich, which can now be accessed by visitors using a VR headset. The technology is provided by VRTech Group, a Dutch company that used photos and descriptions to recreate the studios.

Recommended reading | Zachary Small speaks to Matt Bonner about designing the Trump Baby balloon in Hyperallergic. On artnet, Tim Schneider discusses the possibility of galleries turning to crowdfunding platform Patreon.