🍎🐍 Art As A Consequence #15
🌐 Happy Mother's Day, let's catch up on the best art and crypto moments. Meet you in the email body.
Welcome to the fifteenth edition of the ART AS A CONSEQUENCE weekly briefing. A special Sunday today as we celebrate Mother’s Day, let’s dive into some of the most fascinating stories including Kelly Crow’s reporting on the murder case of Brent Sikkema. Also, a few strong features on NFTs this week. Enjoy the bonus video with Lyn Alden - a true treasure of knowledge. Grab a snack 🍎 and happy scrolling.
Lol (lots of love),
Dimitria
Notable news from the art world 🦋✨
🍎 My most scrumptious read of the week was Kelly Crow’s investigation on Brent Sikkema’s murder case “A Broken Marriage, a Big Inheritance and the Murder of an Art Kingmaker” published on the WSJ 🍿. Incredibly sad, this story feels out of the movies!
The most important 🗝️ points
For those not familiar with Brent Sikkema, he had a significant impact on the New York art scene, promoting women and diverse artists, including Kara Walker and Mark Bradford.
Sikkema moved to Rio de Janeiro seeking solace during an emotionally taxing divorce. He shared a tumultuous relationship with Daniel Sikkema, including accusations of drug use, cheating, and financial disputes.
On January 13th 2024, Sikkema was found brutally murdered in his home in Rio, stabbed 18 times. The murder weapon, a santoku knife, was found in the kitchen, and the killer was identified as Alejandro Triana Prevez, a delivery driver who had recently moved to Brazil from Cuba.
Prevez initially denied involvement but later confessed, alleging that Daniel Sikkema, Brent's husband, had hired him to commit the murder, stating that he offered Prevez $200,000 and lodging in Rio in exchange for killing Brent.
🍎 The New York Times published a great article on art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld who died at 99 years of age last month. It was remarkable to find out so many interesting aspects of his life and some of my highlights include:
His friendships with living artists at the time including Alberto Giacometti, who drew many portraits of him, and Sam Francis, who lived and worked at Kornfeld’s home for extended periods.
Kornfeld purchased Kirchner’s home in Davos, restored it and opened as a museum.
He donated his entire Rembrandt collection, including over 100 etchings, to the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2006.
Lastly and most importantly, the legal battle and disputed provenance of artworks from the Fritz Grünbaum that Kornfeld sold which were associated with Nazi looting and confiscation.
🍎 “Kenny Schachter Reveals a $200 Million Basquiat Sale, the Best Work at Auction Next Week, and a Whole Lot More” highlighted Ken Griffin art collecting and profits. Griffin is the founder of Citadel, who “continues to make record-breaking profits, with $74 billion in returns since 1990 and $4.1 billion in 2022 alone.”
Griffin purchased Yusaku Maezawa's Jean-Michel Basquiat head painting for $200 million, nearly double its previous price.
He previously bought another Basquiat painting for $100 million in 2020.
Rise and shine moments in the crypto space 🚀
🍎 Art Basel published an interview with Sasha Stiles on how technology renews our relationship with storytelling. Stiles is a first-generation Kalmyk American poet, artist, and AI researcher, who collaborates with AI to explore new forms of expression. She incorporates narration in English and Mongolian, representing Kalmyk, an endangered dialect spoken by some of her family members and ancestors. Stiles's work prompts reconsideration of assumptions about language, technology, and human-nature relationships, questioning biases inherent in modern systems.
"The tools we use shape the way we think, and language technologies continue to shape the world we live in – and how we live in it."
—Sasha Stiles
🍎 Madeleine Pierpont, Web3 associate for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), spoke to CoinDesk about the role of NFTs in revitalizing the art industry and sparking interest in digital art. She stated that NFTs are a defining moment in art history, despite the young age of the NFT ecosystem. NFTs offer a medium of exchange that facilitates stronger connections between patrons and creators while increasing transparency in the art market. Read the rest here.
🍎 Collector’s Vault: Punk6529 Shares 10 Notable Pieces in His Collection
🍒 Bonus: watch Lyn Alden blow your mind
That’s all frens! 👋 toodeloo
See you next Sunday - if there is a next Sunday.
Visit artasaconsequence.net to discover more about my work in the art industry. You can contact me over email or find me on social media: Instagram | X | LinkedIn
