Nanne Dekking appointed chair of TEFAF

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Nanne Dekking appointed chair of TEFAF | Dutch entrepreneur and former art dealer Nanne Dekking has been named as the new chair of TEFAF. Dekking, who is based in New York, ran his own art consultancy and gallery in the city between 1996 and 2001, before serving as vice chair of Wildenstein & Co. and later Sotheby’s New York (where he also acted as worldwide head of sales). Most recently, he co-founded Artory, a company that advocates art-market transparency through research and cataloguing initiatives. The appointment, effective immediately, comes at a point of change for TEFAF, which is seeking to build on the success of new ventures in New York, and recently announced a number of new appointments to its board of trustees and New York advisory board. Willem van Roijen, the former chair, will stay on as a member of the board.

Sadiq Khan appoints 50 design advocates for London | Mayor of London Sadiq Khan last night announced the appointment of 50 architecture and design experts to provide guidance to London councils and City Hall, with the aim of fostering a principle of ‘good growth by design’ across the capital. The list of ‘mayor’s design advocates’ (MDAs) includes high-profile figures such as Ghanaian British architect David Adjaye, former RIBA president Sunand Prasad, and Paloma Strelitz of Turner Prize-winning architecture collective Assemble. As well as seeking to develop a ‘socially and economically inclusive’ sustainable city, the group ‘aims to tackle the under-representation of women and minority groups in the design, architecture and construction industries’ through the inclusive representation of women and BAME advocates on its board, Dezeen reports.

Painting at centre of Nazi loot claim pulled from Düsseldorf exhibition | The heirs of Jewish art dealer Max Stern, who lost the majority of his collection during the Nazi regime, have filed an ownership claim for a painting by 19th-century Düsseldorf artist Andreas Achenbach. The painting Sicilian Landscape (1861) was supposed to go on display in an Achenbach exhibition that opened at the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf last week, but was pulled from the show following the restitution claim, the Art Newspaper reports. The work’s current owner, private collector and Achenbach specialist Wolfgang Peiffer, has said that he believes Stern sold the painting in a ‘perfectly normal gallery transaction’, and is taking steps to have it removed from the lost art database on which it is currently listed.

Architects shortlist announced for London’s Centre for Music | The international shortlist of architects competing to design the future home of the London Symphony Orchestra has been announced. The project, led by the Barbican, is set to transform the site currently occupied by the Museum of London, which is moving to a new home at Smithfield Market. The list of candidates shortlisted to design the new ‘world-class’ concert hall includes architectural superstars Frank Gehry, Amanda Levete, Renzo Piano and Norman Foster – all figures with extensive experience designing major cultural centres around the world.

UNESCO inscribes ice age caves on world heritage list | Six caves in the Swabian Jura in southern Germany, home to some of the oldest art in the world, have been added to UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites, currently under review as part of the meeting of its heritage committee. The caves, first excavated in the 1860s, have since revealed items dating from 33,000 to 43,000 years ago, including a carved figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels and other depictions of animal and human forms.

$81 million pay-out ordered in Knoedler art fraud case | Glafira Rosales, the Long Island art dealer who in 2013 pleaded guilty to multiple charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion and is currently the sole person detained in the Knoedler art forgery case, has been ordered to pay $81 million to victims of the fraud, Artnet News reports. The restitution order, filed on 5 July in New York’s Southern District Court, follows Rosales’s sentencing in January of this year to nine months of house arrest and three years of supervised release.