Jeff Koons Cashes in $100 M. Art Collection to Christie’s, Damien Hirst Makes Case for Wearable Art Ahead of New Barrie Cashmere Collection, and More: Morning Links for October 5, 2026

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

Good morning!

• Jeff Koons is quietly selling about $100 million of his art collection at Christie’s.
• Damien Hirst makes his case for art as “anything done well,” ahead of a new capsule collection collaboration with cashmere brand Barrie.
• A suspect attempted and failed to rob the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris Saturday night.

The Headlines

KOONS RAISES CASH. Jeff Koons is quietly selling about $100 million of his art collection at Christie’s, The New York Times revealed. Nine paintings spanning 500 years, including Pablo Picasso’s Le Baiser (1969) valued at about $40 million, will head to auction in New York in November. The Times said two auction experts with inside intel disclosed the identity of the “distinguished private collector” behind the artworks. Other artists represented in the sale include Edouard Manet and Dutch Golden Age painter Cornelis van Haarlem. Koons, whose market has dipped since a 2019 peak sale of a stainless-steel rabbit sculpture for $91.1 million, did not comment.

HIRSTORY’S ART AND FASHION. “Anything done well is art,” says Damien Hirst, speaking to Vanity Fair on fashion’s overlap with art. He has good reason to feel that way. Hirst just announced a collaboration with luxury cashmere brand Barrie. The new capsule collection includes 100 limited-edition pieces adorned with Hirst’s signature dots and butterflies. Fashion “is art that you can wear,” Hirst argues. “I come from a museum world where people go, ‘don’t touch it.’ In the art world, we all believe that art is a sacred thing.” Not so for Hirst, who has spent much of his career playing with the notion of art as a commodity. In The Currency project, Hirst produced over a thousand versions of his signature spot paintings; meanwhile, he has also faced accusations of backdating his formaldehyde artworks made by assistants. Yet, Hirst explains that to him, art made in a factory, or even as “merch,” has real value that should not be dismissed. For the clothing line, “I really want to make sure that people wear this and don’t put it into dusty storage,” he said.

The Digest

A suspect attempted and failed to rob the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris Saturday night, after an alarm system successfully deterred him, according to Paris police, who have launched an investigation. [Le Parisien]

Luhring Augustine gallery is closing its branch in Tribeca at 17 White Street, according to sources close to the gallery, while their website continues to list the space as open “by appointment,” and the gallery itself has not confirmed its status to reporters. [Artnet News]

What do the changing views of the Young British Artists, a “symptom of their moment,” indicate about our art world today, and where it is headed? [ARTnews]

Artist Florentina Holzinger has inaugurated the season at Berlin’s Volksbühne theater by rappelling down its façade in the nude, and scrubbed the building clean, to ‘make room for new ideas.’ [dpa]

Sound-inspired Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui discusses his life, career, and forthcoming project for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall (while careful not to reveal any details), and we’re all ears. [The Guardian]

The Kicker

FEMALE-FOCUSED. The new president of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Annick Lemoine, talked to Le Monde about her plans for the 19th-century art museum and how she hopes to make its program “more female-focused.” Lemoine also curated an exhibition devoted to painter Eva Gonzalès at the Petit Palais in Paris, a museum she left for the Musée d’Orsay job in February. This week, a major Mary Cassatt exhibition opens at the Musée d’Orsay as well, marking two major women Impressionist exhibitions in the French capital. In 2028, Lemoine plans several initiatives centered around women artists, both at the museum and around the country, including a “major social-history exhibition addressing the question of women in modernity,” she said. She also noted the museum has acquired 530 works by women artists over the last 15 years. Lemoine’s emphasis on women is part of a larger effort aimed at highlighting social issues that are relevant to contemporary audiences. “I would like us to become a museum of debate, a civic museum that, while being a place of delight, builds critical thinking, especially among young people.”