Frank Gehry’s monumental “Icehenge” desk sells for auction record.
A desk designed by architect Frank Gehry, nicknamed “Icehenge” for its resemblance to towering shards of ice, sold last week for $243,200, above estimates from auction house Freeman’s and a new record for a Gehry-design object. Weighing more than seven tons, the piece features smooth, translucent green cubes and mirrored cabinets as legs, supporting two desktop surfaces beneath stacked, irregular forms reaching six feet tall. Gehry designed the desk in 2013 as a security station for the lobby of Chicago’s Inland Steel Building, in which he held an ownership stake from 2005 to 2007. He conceived the idea in 2012 after encountering a glass piece on another project and envisioning stacked, angled blocks translated into furniture.
Eugenio Viola returns home to lead Naples’ Madre Museum.
Italian art critic and curator Eugenio Viola has been appointed director of the Madre Museum in Naples, a homecoming of sorts, as he previously served as curator-at-large at the institution from 2009 to 2016. Viola most recently acted as artistic director of MAMBO, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá in Colombia.
Humanscale brings a Niels Diffrient Lounge chair design to the market.
The Diffrient Lounge is a new chair decades in the making. Conceived by industrial designer Niels Diffrient, the design has been revived by Humanscale and put into production with a dual-purpose premise: a lounge chair suited for both relaxing and working. The chair transitions between modes via a motorized backrest and headrest that recline. Beyond its function, the chair’s aesthetic stands out: rather than resembling a task chair, it is comfortable, inviting, and cocoon-like.
Tiffany & Co. debuts Peter Marino-designed 15,000-square-foot flagship in Costa Mesa.
Tiffany & Co. debuted its reimagined South Coast Plaza flagship, designed by Peter Marino. The store introduces Tiffany’s global retail concept, first unveiled at The Landmark in New York in 2023, to Costa Mesa. The interior pays homage to the house’s heritage with a textured hammered-metal façade inspired by techniques once used by Tiffany silversmith Edward C. Moore, alongside a custom light sculpture by architect Hugh Dutton highlighting signature collections including HardWear, Knot, T, Lock, Bird on a Rock, and Sixteen Stone. At the entrance, digital screens by artist Oyoram project sweeping coastal views inspired by Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, an extension of Tiffany’s longstanding ocean conservation efforts through its 1837 Tiffany Blue and Love for Our Ocean initiatives. California’s influence continues through archival objects on display, including a Mesa Grande morganite specimen shown for the first time at any Tiffany location, on loan from a private collection, alongside kunzite pieces tied to the gemstone’s California origins.
Guggenheim New York has announced 2026 Poet-in-Residence Patrick Rosal’s new programmatic series, The Water Listeners.
The Guggenheim New York has announced The Water Listeners, a series of public programs by 2026 Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence Patrick Rosal, running July through December as part of the museum’s annual Poet-in-Residence initiative. Structured as what the museum calls a contemporary poetic liturgy, the season centers on water, memory, ancestry, and cultural exchange through readings, participatory installations, and public ceremony. Programming opens July 28 with the first public reading of Rosal’s poem “Brooklyn Antediluvian,” followed by a conversation with poet Ross Gay.
Studio Waldemeyer made the Sagrada Familia’s last sculpture glow without a visible light.
The art world turned out for the Parrish Art Museum’s midsummer gala, A Night in the Clouds, as well as its Afterglow Party.
Environmental artist Patrick Dougherty’s twig sculptures are a four-decade love letter to nature.
The Watermill Center’s Summer Festival, themed “Limitless Time” and presented in partnership with Van Cleef & Arpels, will spotlight summer 2026 resident artist Asher Liftin.
