Our daily round-up of news from the art world
Newly discovered sketch of Leonardo to go on display | The head of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection has discovered a rare contemporary sketch of Leonardo da Vinci – it is the just the second known portrait made during the artist’s lifetime. The image of a man with a light, flowing beard was drawn by an assistant soon before Leonardo’s death in 1519. The sketch will go on view later this month as part of ‘Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing’ at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace.
Photo London cuts ties with hotels owned by Sultan of Brunei | After receiving criticism over a partnership with a luxury hotel group owned by Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, Photo London is ‘currently undertaking urgent steps to exit from this contract’. The kingdom recently declared extramarital sex and gay sex punishable by death by stoning; banks and businesses are also boycotting the Sultan’s properties.
Nigel Prince appointed director of Artes Mundi | The Artes Mundi prize has appointed as its new director and curator Nigel Prince, currently director of the Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver, in Canada. The Artes Mundi foundation is best known for its biennial award to an artist working with social and political themes. Past winners include John Akomfrah and Xu Bing.
Artist sells bootleg paintings at ‘Christy’s’ | In advance of the Post War and Contemporary Art auction at Christie’s this month, artist Eric Doeringer is debuting ‘Christy’s’, an exhibition at High Line Nine gallery offering ‘bootleg’ versions of works by Warhol, Rauschenberg, and Koons for $1,000 apiece. ‘They’ll fool you from a distance. They won’t fool you close up,’ Doeringer said. Alex Rotter, chairman of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, said the auction house was ‘flattered’ by the imitations.