Pierre Frey to open its first furniture-only showroom in Paris.
Pierre Frey, the century-old French fabrics house, is opening Galerie 14 Mail in Paris, its first showroom dedicated entirely to furniture, marking a new chapter for the family-run firm’s fastest-growing category. Located opposite its historic showroom on Rue du Mail, the 5,382-square-foot space was designed by Sandrine Sarah Faivre as a sequence of adaptable, apartment-like salons, featuring rotating furniture presentations from collaborators including Constance Guisset, Christophe Delcourt, and Christian Haas, alongside artworks on loan from Triode Gallery. Beyond furniture, the gallery includes a materials library of fabrics, woods, and finishes for designers, plus an immersive lower level combining stone, lacquer, and mirrored surfaces.
Europe’s museum heist wave hits Spain with Bronze Age gold theft.
Thieves stole most of the Treasure of Villena, a collection of 66 bronze age gold artifacts considered Europe’s most significant prehistoric hoard, in a four-minute raid on a Spanish museum early Thursday morning. Discovered in 1963 in a dried riverbed, the trove includes 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, and other objects dating to around 1000 BC, some reportedly forged from rare meteoritic iron. The gold alone is valued at roughly €1.7 million. Archaeologist Mauro Hernández said the operation showed clear signs of advance planning. The theft adds to a wave of recent European museum crimes, including last October’s €88 million Louvre jewelry heist and thefts of Renaissance and Impressionist works in Italy.
A John Chamberlain retrospective opens at the Sotheby’s Breuer building this September.
“John Chamberlain: The Energy of Form,” a selling exhibition running September 18–27 in New York, brings together 19 works spanning three decades from the John Chamberlain Estate, all previously held in the artist’s personal collection. The show traces Chamberlain’s restless reinvention of material and form, from crushed automotive scrap metal to aluminum foil, across sculpture, photography, and works on paper. Eight sculptures anchor the exhibition, ranging from floor to tabletop scale and demonstrating Chamberlain’s signature manipulation of painted and stainless steel into unexpectedly fluid, energetic forms. Also on view are photographs revealing his sculptural eye applied to the camera lens, foils, and drawings that extend his exploration of color and space, and two rare examples from a limited series of 30 masks made from found metal. A couch on loan from Chamberlain’s Shelter Island studio, used as the setting for the Estate’s ongoing podcast series, will also be on display, with interviews continuing to be filmed on-site during the run.
Isamu Noguchi’s 41-ton granite fountain is moving to the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Isamu Noguchi’s 41-ton granite sculpture Mississippi Fountain will soon be installed at the entrance of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), following its donation by the Besthoff family. Completed by Noguchi in 1961–62 in collaboration with architect Gordon Bunshaft, the work was originally created for the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company’s downtown New Orleans headquarters, its tapering column and crescent form referencing the Mississippi River. The sculpture’s ownership shifted when local drugstore chain K&B acquired the building. Now, the Besthoff family is donating the piece in honor of Sydney Besthoff III, who established NOMA’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
Robert Indiana’s Maine estate goes up for sale as foundation shifts strategy.
The Star of Hope Foundation, established by artist Robert Indiana to protect his legacy, has listed his longtime Vinalhaven, Maine, home for sale, abandoning his will’s directive that the property become a public art museum. The foundation listed the Star of Hope, a 19th-century former Odd Fellows lodge, for $1.4 million, along with a smaller nearby building for $210,000. Indiana’s will, following his death in 2018, called for the property to be “restored to museum quality” for public visits, classes, and exhibitions. The foundation initially pursued that vision, stabilizing the structure and repairing its roof, but managing director Carole Martin said the goal of supporting artists is better served by converting the properties into “philanthropic capital” for Maine’s arts community rather than continuing as a property manager.
Attractive Distractions:
A storied Bel-Air mansion tied to old Hollywood glamour hits the market.
Inside La Casona, Patrón’s invite-only hotel hidden in the hills of Jalisco.
Hermès reimagines its Arceau watch with a silk-woven dial and 193 diamonds.
Gohar World’s Asics collaboration brings pearls and charms to the GEL-DS trainer.
