Carsten Höller has installed four permanent spiral slides in Mexico City.
Carsten Höller has unveiled Mexico City Slides (2026), a permanent installation of four giant spiraling silver slides at Antara, an open-air shopping and mixed-use complex in Mexico City’s Polanco neighborhood. Commissioned by Arte Abierto and Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, the work is visible from Antara’s gardens, plazas, and pedestrian promenade. The slides range from 39 to 125 feet in height and 102 to 295 feet in length. All four are open to the public and launch from different points across the complex, including family-style restaurants, Google’s offices, the Rosewood Hotel, and the Arte Abierto art space. All four end at a single shared exit. Höller said he wanted the work to act as an “equalizer,” producing “voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind” in riders and viewers. The installation is the latest chapter in a series Höller began in 1998. Previous slides have appeared at Tate Modern in London (Test Site, 2006), the New Museum in New York (2011), the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein (2014), Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (2018), and the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen (2020).
“Forever Is Now” returns to the Pyramids of Giza with its first women-led edition.
Art D’Égypte’s “Forever Is Now” returns to the Pyramids of Giza for its sixth edition, led for the first time primarily by women artists. The annual exhibition, founded by Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, stages contemporary art across the 4,500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site and its surrounding plateau. It is the first and largest contemporary art exhibition of its kind held there. Through site-specific installations and monumental new commissions, the edition treats the pyramids as instruments of thought, exploring their geometric precision, alignment, and the ancient systems of knowledge that continue to shape how we build and measure today. Participating artists set modern materials and technologies alongside references to sacred geometry, cosmology, and traditional craftsmanship. Organizers frame the women-led lineup as a return to the site’s history, given how much of that history has gone unauthored. Like past editions, the exhibition aims to open the plateau to craftspeople, students, laborers, and international visitors alike, presenting contemporary art as a shared inheritance.
Phillips’ Geneva watch auction becomes the first live watch sale to top $100 million.
Over two days, Phillips’ Geneva Watch Auction XXIV brought in 92 million Swiss francs ($112.3 million) with all 217 lots sold, breaking the house’s own record set just six months ago. The sale drew 2,121 registered bidders from 69 countries, set 24 world records, and saw 17 timepieces sell for more than 1 million francs. The top lot was an F.P.Journe platinum Chronomètre à Résonance “Régence” with a hand-engraved pink gold dial, which sold for 8.68 million francs, a record for the watchmaker. Cartier’s 1924 Portico Mystery Clock No. 4, the only Portico clock with a hexagonal rock-crystal dial, fetched 4.82 million francs ($5.9 million), a record for any Cartier timepiece. Vintage Patek Philippe and Rolex, including a newly discovered “Stelline” model, posted multimillion-dollar results, while independents Philippe Dufour and Kari Voutilainen reached seven figures.
The Milwaukee Art Museum receives a $10 million gift for works on paper.
Sheldon and Marianne Lubar have committed $10 million to the Milwaukee Art Museum to establish the Lubar Family Center for Drawings and Prints. The gift provides long-term support for the research and care of works on paper, which make up more than half of the museum’s roughly 35,000-object collection. The gift endows a curator of drawings and prints, a paper conservator, and a fellow, as well as a dedicated exhibition program. Nikki Otten, who joined the museum in 2018, will lead the center as the Lubar Family Curator. “Because works on paper are sensitive to light, they can only be on view for limited periods before returning to storage to rest,” Otten said, adding that the gift supports the research and specialized care that make rotating exhibitions possible. The Lubars, both life trustees, have been involved with the museum for more than 50 years.
Bradford Shellhammer will succeed David Rosenblatt as 1stDibs CEO.
1stDibs has appointed chief product and marketing officer Bradford Shellhammer as CEO, effective January 1, 2027. David Rosenblatt, who has led the online marketplace since 2011, will become executive chair of the board, and Shellhammer will also join the board in January. Shellhammer, who joined 1stDibs last year, has already reset its relationship with sellers, rolling back policies that obscured dealers’ identities and lowering commissions in some categories. He has also overhauled its social media presence with informal vertical videos featuring dealers. He brings a background in both design and tech: he co-founded Fab.com and held roles at eBay, Reverb, and Rent the Runway after earlier stints at Dwell, Design Within Reach, and Blu Dot. Cost cuts under Rosenblatt helped 1stDibs reach adjusted EBITDA profitability, but the company has yet to post a net profit as a public company, and its stock has been largely flat since 2022. Shellhammer plans to court a younger generation of collectors, improve the platform’s digital infrastructure, and expand inventory in jewelry, watches, and handbags.
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