The Museum of Modern Art took some significant steps forward this week in increasing its engagement with cutting-edge art, while wealthy collectors flocked to FIAC in Paris and Egypt tried to win back Nefertiti. Read on for ArtWeLove’s news digest, now also available in email form—bringing a comprehensive roundup of the week’s art developments to your digital doorstep. If you aren’t signed up, click here. As always, we welcome your feedback at editorial@artwelove.com.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: FIAC COSTS A FORTUNE, MONA LISA GETS ANOTHER NEW NAME, & RICHARD PRINCE CONTROVERSY CONTINUES

Following Frieze in London, the FIAC art fair in Paris showed slower sales than its edgier counterpart—which is understandable considering the price tags involved. At the FIAC’s new Modern Project section alone, buyers had claimed a $24 million Picasso and a $30 million-plus Mondrian. Meanwhile, a painting in Paris that was not for sale, the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, was subject to a new scholarly hail Mary last week when an art historian proposed that da Vinci’s portrait does not depict the Florentine merchant’s wife Lisa del Giocondo—by whose name the painting is universally known in France—but Pacifica Brandani, a mistress of Julien de Médicis.

Another French study released last week on a more contemporary question is also sparking conversation. According to the survey, people who use the Internet every day, far from being trapped in a virtual world, actually go to more cultural events, visit more museums, and read more books than people who go online less frequently. Speaking of books, the controversy over Richard Prince’s underage Brook Shields nude that had to be removed from Tate Modern’s “Pop Life” show may also force the institution to destroy 12,000 catalogues from the exhibition, leading to at least an estimated $524,000 loss.

Then in China, the government is demanding that museums around the world allow inspectors to examine 1.5 million Chinese artifacts to see if any were looted from the country. Continuing in its similarly nationalism-driven campaign to reclaim antiquities, Egypt—stung after its culture minister was snubbed out of a UNESCO post—has added the return of Nefertiti’s bust from the newly reopened Neues Museum in Germany to its list of demands. Iraq is also pressing German for the return of the Babylonian Gate of Ishtar.

MODERN TIMES: A NEW P.S. 1 DIRECTOR, MORE WOMEN AT MOMA, & A CONTRACTED EXPANSION STALLS

Change can be slow to come to MoMA, but when it arrives the reverberations run deep. Since merging with the cutting-edge P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens in 2000—and then pushing out storied P.S. 1 founding director Alanna Heiss in 2007—the Modern has taken its time in finding a new director to define the center’s next phase. Now that the museum has announced the job is going to Klaus Biesenbach, a longtime P.S. 1 fixture who most recently ran MoMA’s new media and performance art department, it's possible to glean some clues about the future of P.S. 1, which has historically been an important laboratory for avant-garde art.

During his tenure at the Modern, Biesenbach has curated expertly (and highly) produced shows of contemporary art—like Olaful Eliasson survey and the Pipilotti Rist installation—that have brought the museum some much-needed zip while also being incredibly crowd-friendly and popular. He instituted a stellar performance series, too, while simultaneously organizing ambitious Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jonathan Horowitz shows at P.S. 1. Now that he can devote all his energies to the Queens center—while remaining a chief curator at large at MoMA—we can expect to see more polished, rigorous destination shows there and more multimedia and performance art, though perhaps fewer of the rough-and-ready, experimental shows that P.S. 1 was known for.

Meanwhile, over at the Modern proper, recently-hired paintings and sculptor head curator Ann Temkin has been shaking things up as well. In a step to free the museum’s peerless collection from its institutional mold, she has liberated the paintings from the minimal wooden frames that have long held them, allowing viewers to experience the raw canvas more intimately. She’s also featured more women artists in the permanent collection, replacing a Jackson Pollock with a Louise Bourgeois at the entrance to the fourth-floor galleries, and displaying an excitingly large amount of work that is neither painting nor sculpture. Together with Biesenbach's posting at P.S. 1, the changes present an updated identity for MoMA that shows the influence of Kathy Halbreich, who joined the museum in 2007 to intensify its engagement with art being made today. Now if only they can figure out what to do with that planned Jean Nouvel expansion.

ODDS AND ENDS: ENTREPRENEURIAL DEALER LANDS BIG INVESTMENT, MATTHEW MARKS GOES TO L.A., & RYAN TRECARTIN GETS AWARDED

In assorted news, Herzog & de Meuron have unveiled their design for the new Miami Art Museum. New York dealer Jen Bekman has won an $800,000 investment from venture capitalists for her 20x200 project, which sells limited-edition prints and photographs over the internet for as little as $20—and to date has sold about 50,000 of them. Blue-chip gallerist Matthew Marks plans to open a new gallery in West Hollywood, adding to the booming Los Angeles art scene. As for prizes, architect Richard Rogers, as famous for his feud with Prince Charles as he is for his sleek, modernist buildings, won the RIBA Stirling Prize, the Britain’s top architectural honor. Finally, Ryan Trecartin, the highly original young artist and dystopian futurist, won the $150,000 first prize in Philadelphia’s Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts.

Related Articles:

"P.S. 1 Appoints Former Curator as Its New Director" [via the New York Times]

"At MoMA, ‘Permanent’ Learns to Be Flexible" [via the New York Times]

"Big stall over MoMA tower" [via the New York Post]

"The art market: French flair" [via the Financial Times]

"$40 Million Mondrian Reserved as Art Collectors Mull Purchases" [via Bloomberg]

"A “NEW” MONA LISA THEORY" [via artforum.com]

"IMPACT OF INTERNET ON CULTURE" [via artforum.com]

"Tate Modern May Lose Thousands on Catalog" [via the New York Times]

"China to study British Museum for looted artefacts" [via the Telegraph]

"When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns" [via the New York Times]

"Herzog & de Meuron, Miami Art Museum" [via artdaily.com]

"Art E-Commerce Maven Jen Bekman Raises $800K From Investors" [via lindsaypollock.com]

"Whitney Gets Works by William Eggleston" [via the New York Times]

"Prince Charles Adversary Richard Rogers Wins Stirling Prize" [via Bloomberg]

"28-Year-Old Wins New Art Prize" [via the New York Times]