September 29 | Met cuts down its staff once again

The move by the museum is part of larger financial restructuring that saw the departure of several senior executives and the voluntary buyout of 57 employees who were approaching retirement this year. The aim of the restructuring is to reduce the Met’s deficit by $30 million. More via The Art Newspaper.

The Kunstmuseum Stuttgart Foundation announced yesterday that a jury has named Tino Sehgal the winner of the 2016 Hans Molfenter Prize, which is awarded to artists with a connection to Germany’s southwestern region. As well as receiving a financial prize of $18,000, Sehgal will create a project in the Stuttgart area, the completion date of which is yet to be confirmed. More info on Artforum.

The exhibitor list for the 2016 edition of UNTITLED Miami Beach art fair (November 30 — December 4) was announced yesterday. The fair is tipped to be the largest UNTITLED in Miami Beach yet, boasting an expanded floor plan that will accommodate a large number of exhibitors and will make for larger individual booths. 128 galleries hailing from 20 countries will be features in the fair, with 37 newcomers to UNTITLED among them. Find the full exhibitor list on ArtNews.

Phillips, the global platform for buying and selling modern and contemporary art and design, has announced in a press release that Cecilia Laffan is joining the company as a regional representative for Mexico. Laffan was previously the Art Director for the TAE Foundation A.C, and also worked as a manager and director of Christie’s Mexico office for several years. Her appointment is part of Phillips’ large-scale expansion scheme, which is responding to the exponential growth in auction sales that the company’s Latin American Art department has experienced from 2009 onwards. Further details on Art Daily.

Jackson Pollock’s canvas Blue Poles, which has left its long-term home in the National Gallery of Australia to become the star-attraction in a new exhibition of abstract expressionist art at the Royal Academy in London, is now worth around $350 million, a 300-fold increase of the $1.3 million paid for it by the Australian government in 1973. The canvas, created by Pollock using his “drip and pour” technique in 1952, was insured for $258 million last year, however for the painting’s move overseas this was upgraded to $350 million. The RA exhibition will run until January 2, 2017. The Financial Review has more.

In a press conference held yesterday between the Serpentine’s longstanding artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist and the newly appointed CEO Yana Peel, the gallery announced a new series of programs and partnerships for the coming season. Artists will have a greater hand in running the institution, which has appointed artist Lynette Yiadom Boakye and award-winning architect David Adjaye to the board. Obrist and Peel are also setting up an artist-led “Congress of Ideas,” which will bring together artists with powerful people in the business and political spheres in order to address the major issues of today. More on artnet News.