Art Market Moves, Museum Promotions, and a $35 Million Picasso Sale
A single week in the art trade has brought museum promotions, gallery signings, board changes, and a fresh layer of intrigue around a major Picasso sale. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has promoted Jennifer Thompson, after 25 years at the institution, to deputy director of collections and exhibitions, expanding her oversight to registration, installation, and exhibition planning.
The gallery world was equally active. Galerie Lelong added Magnus Plessen, the Berlin-based, self-taught painter who showed at the 2003 Venice Biennale and is known for work that moves between abstraction and figuration. Olney Gleason signed Alexander Tovborg, the Copenhagen-based artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance; his first solo exhibition with the gallery is scheduled for next year. Victoria Miro, meanwhile, now represents Clare Woods, whose still lifes of wilting flowers have become a recognizable part of her practice. Woods will debut new paintings at the Armory Show in New York in September, followed by a show at Miro’s London space in February 2027.
On the auction side, Freeman’s New York will stage a Vietnamese Modernist sale on July 21, with works by Lê Phổ and Vũ Cao Đàm among the highlights. The top estimate belongs to Lê Phổ’s Les Fleuristes (1983), which is expected to bring between $120,000 and $180,000.
The Studio Museum in Harlem also announced new board leadership. Sherrese Clarke, founder and CEO of HarbourView Equity Partners, and Jamila Justine Willis, a partner at DLA Piper, have joined the board. Anita Blanchard, who also serves on the boards of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art Advisory Board, was elected vice-chair alongside Damien R. Dwin and Carol Sutton Lewis. Kathryn C. Chenault became board chair last fall, after the museum’s building opened, while Raymond G. McGuire was named chair emeritus.
The week’s biggest market revelation remains Pablo Picasso’s 1963 painting Le peintre et son modèle dans un paysage, which Hauser & Wirth sold for $35 million at Art Basel. The consignor has now been identified as Leonard Feinstein, cofounder of Bed Bath & Beyond and once one of the world’s top collectors. Feinstein filed a UCC Financing Statement in New York in May listing the work as his property in an agreement with the gallery.
Taken together, the moves suggest an art world still recalibrating: institutions are tightening leadership, galleries are reshaping rosters, and the market continues to test its own assumptions about value and confidence.
