In this installment of the OLD NEWS, we talk missing Cady Noland artwork, the protests in Paris and their effect on Art Basel there, Libbie Mugrabi’s back-rent debt, and Canada Gallery’s shrinking staff. 

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FIND THE NOLAND! OOZEWALD WANTED POSTER by greg

<https://tinyurl.com/57esk39v>

The important news from Cady Noland’s new exhibition at Gagosian in London is that an edition of Oozewald has been stolen, and the artist wants it back.

According to the STACK OF WANTED POSTERS WHICH CONSTITUTE A WORK IN THE SHOW, ed. 3 of 4 of Oozewald (1989) was last seen in September 1995 at Paula Cooper Gallery. No information on the circumstances of its disappearance, the 31 years of silence about the theft, or whether the complications of broken provenance might affect the work’s authenticity.

….

Oozewald is, according to its original label, 6 x 4 1/2 feet by 3/8 inches of aluminum with flag. Which does not include the bracket, or the Coca-cola drinking cup which was mentioned only on the sculpture’s appearance at MMK Frankfurt. In case you find a different Oozewald.

For any information, the poster says, contact OOZEWALD@CADYNOLAND.INFO

There is, the poster says, a reward, as if the work wasn’t enough. _greg.org

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ART BASEL’S ‘CYCLICAL DOWNTURN.’

Following months of heated negotiations, Art Basel will hold onto its spot in Miami through 2031, thanks to a new deal with city officials that reduces the annual rent paid by the fair to the city from nearly $1 million to $500,000, plus additional city credits for police, fire, and EMT services, reports the New York Times. To convince officials that the art fair deserved a rent reduction, Art Basel chief executive Noah Horowitz reportedly gave a far less flattering picture of the company’s finances and the art market as a whole. He also threatened to abandon Miami Beach for Las Vegas, or another city. Horowitz said that recently reported profits for the fair’s parent company, MCH, followed years of “extraordinary losses in which MCH almost faced insolvency,” which led them to take “in a large investment from James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems family office to stabilize the business.” All Art Basel fairs were “currently facing a cyclical downturn, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the launch of Art Basel Miami Beach in the early 2000s,” he said. Meanwhile, galleries are limiting fair participation or shuttering in response to a slower market, he added, which is why Art Basel Miami Beach will host 250 galleries this December, instead of 283 last year.  _ARTnews

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NEW YORK’S MASSEY KLEIN GALLERY CLOSES

New York’s Massey Klein Gallery will close its doors after nine years, saying that after initial success, the numbers no longer add up to pay for its showroom on the Lower East Side and support the dealers’ family and the gallery’s artists.

Husband-and-wife team Garrett Klein and Ryan Massey felt called by their Christian faith to open the gallery, and say they’ll continue on with nomadic projects.

“Our relationship with God has informed what we want the gallery to feel like,” said Klein in a phone interview. “We’re all accustomed to feeling uninvited at galleries. We wanted to create a place of warmth.”  _ARTnews

LANDLORDS DEMAND NYC SOCIALITE SELL HER $30M BASQUIAT TO PAY DEBTS

<https://tinyurl.com/ypsxybx4>

The owners of a posh New York City pad are demanding embattled art world socialite Libbie Mugrabi hawk her multimillion-dollar Jean-Michel Basquiat painting to cough up the massive pile of back rent she owes.

The landlords of The Park Mansion, a stunning Beaux-Arts building at 320 E 82nd St. in Yorkville claim that Mugrabi — the ex-wife of billionaire art dealer David Mugrabi — owes them $2.3 million in unpaid rent that she was first ordered to fork over in 2023.

Libbie Mugrabi lived in the luxurious $28,000-per-month condo for less than a year between 2019 and 2020. While her lease expired in November 2020, she stopped paying rent that April, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

She was first court-ordered to pay $1.8 million in 2023, but her landlords sued her again in June to pay them with 9% interest.

Now, they are nudging her once again to pay up — this time by trying to force her to sell her Untitled 1982 Basquiat.  _NYPost

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NY’S CANADA GALLERY FACED THREAT OF DISSOLUTION AFTER BACKER’S LAWSUITS

<https://tinyurl.com/mr362a42>

Canada, an esteemed New York gallery, faced the threat of closure last year after a backer filed two lawsuits against the space’s founders.

A New York court ruled that the gallery could remain open, and neither lawsuit appears to be active, with the most recent filings for both posted at the start of this year.

However, in the year and a half since the lawsuits were filed, three of Canada’s partners—including one of the gallery’s founders—left the operation. Five artists have also exited the gallery

Jean Lignel, a French collector, filed his lawsuits in February 2025 with the New York County Supreme Court. One of his lawsuits sought the dissolution of Canada, while the other alleged that the gallery’s other partners had improperly withdrawn more than $3 million, something that they denied in a counterclaim against Lignel.

The Canada partners’ counterclaim was discontinued earlier this year. Though Lignel’s lawsuits have gone through a series of appeals, neither seems to be currently ongoing.

Lignel began conversations with the gallery in 2008 as a recession wrought havoc upon the New York art market and the global economy. A 2008 document submitted alongside the lawsuit shows that Canada founders Sarah Braman, Suzanne Butler, Phil Grauer, and Wallace Whitney agreed to bring on Lignel as a backer. According to the agreement, Lignel paid $150,000 in exchange for a 50 percent ownership stake in the gallery.

In one of his lawsuits, Lignel alleged that, between 2009 and 2023, Canada’s founders “withdrew” more than $3 million, which he claimed ran “in violation of the operating agreement.” In their counterclaim, the Canada founders said that Lignel “knew that the Founding Members were being compensated for the services,” and that the “compensation for their services is well below market—the going rate for partner salaries for New York art galleries comparable to the Gallery is between $350,000 to $395,000 per year.”

In May 2025, a judge quickly denied the motion to dissolve Canada, saying that Lignel had failed to prove that the gallery couldn’t operate according to the terms of the agreement he signed. Moreover, the judge said, Lignel “concedes that the gallery has recently hired additional managers, who are not LLC members, thereby demonstrating that the gallery is a functioning business.”

“CANADA’s four founding members—Phil Grauer, Sarah Braman, Wallace Whitney and Suzy Butler—were deeply disappointed that Mr. Lignel, their Paris-based business partner, did not support the Gallery as it expanded its operations, including during a challenging period in the art market, and subsequently sought its dissolution through litigation,” a lawyer for the Canada partners told in an email. “However, as the Court’s decision confirmed, the Gallery remains fully operational and continues its artist-run, community-focused programming and mission. While CANADA regrets that the members’ dispute involved court intervention, the Gallery remains hopeful that it can work collaboratively with Mr. Lignel in the future.”

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