Zeitz MOCAA Enters Post-Koyo Kouoh Era, Sotheby’s Lands $450 Blaquier Collection, And More: Morning Links for August 12, 2026

Good Morning!

• Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town has appointed Elvira Dyangani Ose as its next artistic director.
• Sotheby’s has landed a $450 million tranche of works from the collection of Argentine industrialists Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier.
• An anonymous group has launched a search engine called The Last Museum, with the goal of eventually “index[ing] all museum art in the world.”

The Headlines

NEW ZEIT-GEIST. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MoCCA) in Cape Town has appointed Elvira Dyangani Ose as its next artistic director, with her tenure beginning October 1, ARTnews reported. She succeeds the late Koyo Kouoh, who led the museum from 2019 until her death in May 2025. Dyangani Ose currently spearheads the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial and headed MACBA in Barcelona from 2021 to early this year. Her previous roles include positions at The Showroom in London, Creative Time in New York, and Tate Modern in London. A specialist in modern and contemporary African and diasporic art, she has curated major exhibitions featuring artists including Bouchra Khalili, Betye Saar, Ibrahim El-Salahi, and Carrie Mae Weems.

DEATH, DIVORCE, DEBT. Sotheby’s has landed a $450 million tranche of impressionist and post-impressionist works from the collection of Argentine industrialists Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier. Artnet News reported that the haul is expected to include major works by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Degas, Pissarro, and Renoir, including a van Gogh that could fetch up to $200 million and a Cézanne estimated above $120 million. Sotheby’s reportedly secured the collection with a substantial guarantee after beating Christie’s, which had previously handled several Blaquier works. The consignment comes as the family’s heirs begin selling the collection following the deaths of the Blaquiers.

The Digest

The UK’s National Motor Museum has been told its lease will not be renewed when it expires in 2030, leaving its 250-plus vehicles and $2.5 million in artefacts in search of a new home. [Magneto]

More than 290,000 artists across 4,903 museums representing 304 cultures and nationalities are now only a click away thanks to The Last Museum, a new art search engine billed as the world’s largest. [This Is Collosal]

Archaeologists using drones have uncovered previously hidden standing stones in Carnac, France, offering new clues to the builders behind its ancient megaliths. [The Art Newspaper]

The Kicker

VARIOUS MUSINGS. In Monday’s Breakfast with ARTnewsnewsletter, I mentioned Peter Schlesinger, the artist and former lover of David Hockney, who no longer wants to be remembered as the late painter’s muse. However, another Hockney muse seems rather happier to be known for posing for him. Betty Freeman, a Los Angeles patron and collector, became the subject of his monumental 1966-67 portrait Beverly Hills Housewife and remained close to Hockney for decades. A new book explores their relationship, though the Financial Times questions how deep their bond really was.