Christie's
The Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection achieves nearly €40 Million across 59 lots in a landmark sale
An auction-house signal from this week's sales calendar.
Weekly · Art Intelligence
A sample smArt brIef. Delivered every Friday morning.
Get the next Friday brief free — no card, unsubscribe in one click
Sample Issue · Week of September 25, 2026
smArt brIef — week of September 25, 2026
Your Friday-morning 5-minute art-world catch-up. This edition draws signals from 6 of the 10 fixed sources.
01
Market & Auctions
Christie's
Christie's Hong Kong Chinese Paintings Auctions Feature Exceptional Works from Distinguished Private Collections
An auction-house signal from this week's sales calendar.
Artforum
Buoyed by $105 Million Sale, Christie’s Inaugurates Pop Culture Division
Blue-chip auction house Christie’s on September 23 revealed the launch of a new division focused on sales of pop culture memorabilia, Artnews reports.
Artnet
What Can Buyer’s Fees Tell Us About the Market’s Weirdness Right Now?
Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams have all hiked auction fees this year.
Sotheby's
RM Sotheby's Sealed September 23–30 September 2026
An auction-house signal from this week's sales calendar.
Christie's
Christie's Presents Herbert Lust: Collector, Scholar, Friend
An auction-house signal from this week's sales calendar.
02
Museums & Institutions
Artforum
Getty Acquires Long-Lost Velázquez Painting
An institutional move noted in this week's art-world news.
Artforum
Jonathan Abbott to Lead Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, has named Jonathan Abbott as its new director and CEO.
Artnet
The Getty Scoops Up Newly Discovered Velázquez Painting
The painting is the first work by the Spanish master to enter the museum's collection.
Hyperallergic
The Met to Present First Major Felix Gonzalez-Torres Show in NYC in Decades
Scattered across the museum's permanent collection galleries, "The Spaces Between" brings together more than 40 works from the late conceptual artist.
Artnet
In Surprise Move, MOCA Los Angeles Taps Media Exec for Top Job
Jonathan Abbott, who ran the nonprofit GBH, will be the museum’s new director.
03
Criticism & Reviews
Hyperallergic
What Can Photographs Say in a World Full of Images?
An exhibition at the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College examines how artists utilize serial configurations of pictures and text to prompt questions about seeing.
ARTnews
At Spring/Break’s First Edition in the Old CBS Newsroom, (Almost) Everything Is Political
The fair's highlight is The People's Newsroom , a live installation in CBS News's former recording studio, staged with the Slow Factory.
04
Openings & Fairs
ARTnews
When It Comes to Armory Show Sales, Can Slow and Steady Win the Race?
The fair’s date change to the end of September brought a quieter opening morning, but dealers reported sales ranging from a few thousand dollars to well into six figures.
Hyperallergic
The Polish Pavilion Dissolves You in the Politics of Sound
At the Venice Biennale, whale songs become a means for communication, opening up a dialogue on accessibility.
Get this in your inbox every Friday.
Get the next Friday brief free. No card, no account. One click to unsubscribe. Paid plans below open the full archive.
Or subscribe and open the whole archive
One charge for the period and nothing auto-renews: $9 for a month, $80 for the year. If you leave inside 7 days we refund it in full; nothing is kept.
Monthly
$9/mo
Start monthly · $9 →
Annual
Best value · ~26% cheaper$80/yr
Start annual · $80 →