Lisa Jardine (1944–2015)

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Lisa Jardine (1944–2015) | Historian and Renaissance specialist Lisa Jardine has died of cancer, aged 71. Jardine, the eldest child of science historian Jacob Bronowski and sculptor Rita Coblentz, held many prestigious positions in her four-decade career, and was known equally as an engaging broadcaster, notably for the BBC. Tributes have flooded in from peers and well-wishers alike.

Export Licence Application for Rembrandt Portrait Could be Withdrawn | Auction house Sotheby’s has revealed that the potential overseas buyer of Rembrandt’s Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet is considering a long-term loan to a UK institution, reports The Guardian. The news comes in the wake of an export bar placed on the work in order to give UK institutions time to raise funds for a rival bid.

Wojciech Fangor (1922–2015) | Polish Op Artist Wojciech Fangor has died aged 92. Fangor, who escaped communist Poland in 1961, made a name for himself as a painter in the USA, where he taught at institutions including Harvard University. According to The Art Newspaper, the Mayor Gallery is thought to have sold four of his works for a reported $300,000 apiece at this month’s Frieze Masters fair. The artist was the subject of the inaugural exhibition at de Pury de Pury, Mayfair, last year (reviewed here).

Broad Museum Engineers File $6.9 million Suit Against Eli Broad | Controversy at LA’s newly opened Broad Museum, where engineering firm Seele Inc. has filed a lawsuit against founder and patron Eli Broad, reports Artnet News. The trouble reportedly stems from a dispute over materials, and follows a suit filed by Broad himself last summer.

Prado Aims to Expand Exhibition Space by 16% | Madrid’s Prado Museum has just obtained ownership of a part of the Palacio del Buen Retiro once occupied by Spain’s Army Museum, reports El País. The space, which has been empty since the Army Museum was moved to Toledo in 2009, will grant the Prado a further 16% of exhibition space. The museum hopes conversion work will be complete for the its bicentenary in 2019.

Melik Ohanian Wins Duchamp Prize | Congratulations to artist Melik Ohanian, who has been awarded the 2015 Marcel Duchamp Prize. The prize, which was founded in 2000, grants €35,000 to the winner, as well as a further €30,000 to put together an exhibition at Paris’s Centre Pompidou.

Lead image: used under Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 4.0; original image cropped)