WORLD’S LARGEST REMBRANDT COLLECTION MAY BE FRACTIONALISED, OWNER REVEALS
Thomas S. Kaplan is in advanced discussions regarding the fractionalisation of his Leidan Collection, which is the world’s largest private collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings, and the launching of it as an IPO (initial public offering). Kaplan, a billionaire philanthropist, financier, and collector, shared with The Art Newspaper, “To my mind the best way to evangelise for Rembrandt is by giving millions, maybe tens of millions, of ordinary people the opportunity to own a Rembrandt.” Already dubbed Project Minerva, the platform is still awaiting finalising. The collection itself includes two hundred and twenty works, including seventeen Rembrandts and what is believed to be Vermeer’s last work, alongside other pieces by Gerrit Dou, Jan Lievens, Jan Steen, and Frans van Mieris. Kaplan built the collection with his wife Daphne and initially loaned the works anonymously to museums, before sending masterpieces on tour across the globe to major institutions such as the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage Collection in St. Petersburg, and the Long Museum in Shanghai. Regarding his choice to fractionalise the collection, Kaplan has explained that it provides him with a succession plan and direction for the future of his collection. Describing himself as a Rembrandt “evangelist,” Kaplan has explained, “If we can allow people to take an ownership interest in Rembrandt, they will, by definition, take interest in Rembrandt, and that's how I guarantee that Rembrandt remains one of the most important artists of all time.”
(from left to right) Thomas S. Kaplan, Rembrandt's Minerva in her Study (1635)
NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE WILL HOST SOUTHEAST ASIA’S LARGEST EXHIBITION OF FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST ART STARTING NOVEMBER
The National Gallery in Singapore have announced the opening of Into the Modern: Impressionism From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, later this year in November. The exhibition will be presenting over a hundred Impressionist works by artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. Organised in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the show will mark the first time these works have been shown in Southeast Asia. Of the works that will be shown in Into the Modern, seventeen are by Monet and feature some of his quintessential subjects such as grain stacks and poppy fields. The exhibition will run from 14 November 2025 until 1 March, 2026 at the Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery at the National Gallery in Singapore.
Claude Monet, Cap Martin, near Menton, 1884
$40 MILLION FRIDA KAHLO PAINTING LIKELY TO BREAK RECORD FOR A WOMAN ARTIST AT AUCTION
Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait El sueño (La cama) (1940) will be going up for auction in New York in November. The painting will be part of Sotheby’s Exquisite Corpus sale, a private collection sale featuring more than 80 Surrealist works. The context within which El sueño was painted was that of personal upheaval in the wake of grief; Kahlo’s lover Leon Trotsky was assassinated in 1939, followed by her divorce from the artist Diego Rivera in 1940. Anna Di Stasi, senior vice president at Sotheby’s, noted, “In this composition, Kahlo fuses dream imagery and symbolic precision with unmatched emotional intensity, creating a work that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant. It is an enduring testament to her genius, and its appearance on the market presents an unparalleled opportunity to acquire a cornerstone of Surrealism.” Having been out of public view for nearly thirty years, the painting will be shown in London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Paris before the preview exhibition in New York. Kahlo’s current record sits at $34.9 million for Diego y yo (1949), which sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2021. Kahlo’s self-portrait is also set to challenge the current record for a work by a woman artist at auction, currently held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1(1932) which sold for $44.4 million at Sotheby’s New York in 2014. Across the Exquisite Corpus auction, there will be a number of works by prominent women Surrealists, including Dorothea Tanning’s Interior with Sudden Joy (1951) and Kay Sage’s The Point of Intersection (1951-52).
Frida Kahlo, El sueño (La cama), 1940
A LOOK AT THE 2025 TURNER PRIZE SHOW – AND THE ARTISTS VYING FOR THE U.K.’S TOP ART AWARD
The Turner Prize has returned with an exhibition of the four nominated artists at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, opening on September 27, 2025. Nnena Kalu, Mohammed Sami, Rene Matić, and Zadie Xa, each tackle different themes but all provide an expansive space for contemplation. The exhibition will run until February 22, 2026, and the winner of the award will be announced on December 9 at the nearby Bradford Grammar School. First prize will include £25,000, while £10,000 will be given to each runner up. The Turner Prize encourages the conversation around art in the UK and recognises artists both born in and working in Britain. The nominated artists include Nnena Kalu, a Glasgow-born, London-based artist who crafts sculptures of found material such as VHS tape, rope, paper, and fabric. Kalu is the first learning-disabled artist to be nominated for the Turner Prize, and uses studios run by the charity ActionSpace. In addition, Kalu had her first solo international museum exhibition this year at Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway. Another artist to be nominated is Mohammed Sami, whose evocative compositions draw from his memories of the Iraq war and his experience immigrating to Sweden as a refugee in 2007. In 2023, Sami had his first solo institutional exhibition at Camden Art Centre in London and has featured in recent group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Pinault Collection in Paris, and Whitechapel Gallery in London. Next on the list is Rene Matic, an artist who incorporates photography within multimedia installations that include sculpture, sound, text, and moving image elements. The artist’s exhibit for the Turner Prize explores their “own queer milieu against echoes of wider societal and systemic violence, in particular the rise of the far-right.” Finally, the last nominated artist is Zadie Xa, a Korean Canadian artist who lives and works in London. Xa was selected for her immersive exhibition Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything, that was inspired by Korean shamanism.
Zadie Xa's presentation at the Turner Prize 2025 exhibition
MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ EXHIBITION TRANSFORMING ENERGY AT GALLERIE DELL’ACCADEMIA DI VENEZIA
Marina Abramović will be the first living woman artist to be honoured with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice during the 61st Venice Biennale Arte in 2026. Transforming Energy will also mark Abramović’s eightieth birthday and is curated by Shai Baitel, the Artistic Director of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai. Crafting a dialogue between the artist’s performance art with Renaissance masterpieces that have influenced Venice’s cultural identity. This integration of Abramovic’s practice into the cultural landscape of the city is further emphasised through the layout of the exhibition across both the museum’s permanent collection and its temporary exhibition spaces. Transforming Energy examines the past and the present, material and immaterial, body and spirit. Iconic works such as Rhythm 0 (1974), Imponderabilia(1977), and Carrying the Skeleton (2008) will be presented alongside projections of earlier works and an interactive series titled Transitory Objects that encourages visitors to lie on stone structures embedded with crystals. Another highlight of the exhibition is Pietà (with Ulay) (1983), which will be placed in dialogue with Titian’s Pietà (c.1575-76). Placing Abramović’s evocative practice within the Venetian context, the act of looking shifts from passivity as the viewer becomes an active participant in the exhibition.
Marina Abramović
