Bart Drenth News Today

"Normalise criticism of the Quran and the Prophet.”

The Dutch managing director of the important international art and antiques fair, TEFAF, has suddenly resigned. Bart Drenth confirmed his resignation in a conversation with ANP, but he did not want to state his reasons for resigning. Media outlets outside of the Netherlands recently linked him to prior messages he published on Twitter, which are no longer public, and which generated criticism against him.

Plus: Ilya Kabakov (1933–2023), and the rest of the week’s art news

This week, a postmortem of spring's most pivotal (and disappointing) sale, a buzzy new project space on Henry Street, and much more.

The move comes just days after a column on this site revealed Drenth’s history of tweeting about Muslims, leftists, and “woke” culture.

Drenth has also been criticised online by Tefaf managing director Charlotte van Leerdam for speaking about her private battle with breast cancer in the Dutch press

Art Fairs TEFAFs Global Managing Director Bart Drenth Has Resigned Following an Artnet News Report on His Provocative Anti-Woke Tweets ... | May 31, 2023

Bart Drenth, global managing director of TEFAF, has stepped down following reports on his tweets decrying 'woke' culture.

Plus, what artwork did Spike Lee buy this week? Which legacy art publication is rumored to be restructuring?

This week: May auction numbers decoded, the fresh faces of the Guggenheim Young Collectors Coalition, and much more.