Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Organisers of more than 40 art fairs, including Art Basel, Frieze and Tefaf, have pledged to halve their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in a new alliance formed by Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). The commitment coincides with Climate Week NYC, the largest annual event of its kind (to September 29).Data provided by GCC found that, for a typical, midsize commercial art gallery, one-third of annual carbon emissions related to activities around art fairs. Air travel (of art and people) accounts for the bulk, while these pop-up events, many held in temporary structures, have specific issues of their own, including single-use materials and energy consumption.“Fairs aren’t directly responsible for all the emissions involved, but, as hosts, they have a shared responsibility to encourage exhibitors to reduce them,” says Heath Lowndes, director of GCC. He suggests incentivising galleries to use road or sea transport by, for example, offering such shipments priority access to events, while the fairs themselves could assess their own energy efficiency. A toolkit for environmental responsibility, devised by GCC, notes that this year’s Glastonbury music festival had a renewable energy source — a 28-metre-high wind turbine created by Octopus Energy — and asks: “Could you introduce something similar at your fair?”It is a rare moment of collaboration between the major franchises but, Lowndes says, “it’s not just about the big events”, with smaller fairs such as Copenhagen’s Chart and the new Stage fair in Bregenz among the signatories. Not included yet is The Art Assembly, a group that runs three fairs in Asia (in Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo). Co-founder Magnus Renfrew says that the business has been working with a specialist sustainability consultant and has taken several measures over the past few years, including “moving to energy-efficient LED lighting as standard”. Now, he says, “we are in a position to explore joining GCC to deepen and improve our existing efforts.” One climate-change incentive already in the bag for the art market comes via international insurance underwriter AXA XL and mega-broker Marsh, which are offering lower rates to clients that “demonstrate environmental sustainability in their risk management strategies”, a company statement says. The product, called Specie Balance, offers coverage for up to $500mn of high-value assets, including fine art, and was developed in collaboration with Rokbox, a business founded in 2014 that specialises in reusable shipping crates. Use of its 15-hub network, called Rokbox Loop, qualifies as sustainable practice, the insurer says. Exact rate reductions vary with each collection but will be “compelling”, says Rokbox founder Andrew Stramentov.A copper engraving by Albrecht Dürer that was found in a rubbish tip in 2011, sold at auction in Staffordshire in the West Midlands for £26,500 (£34,476 with fees) on September 18. Identified as an impression of Dürer’s master print “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513), the framed picture was originally spotted by the then 11-year-old Mat Winter, who recently decided to get an expert assessment. Jim Spencer, director of Rare Book Auctions, says that, on seeing the print: “I knew it was right. I rang the British Museum within minutes.” With the museum’s help, Spencer identified that the work is closest to a version that is in New York’s Frick Collection — it has a similar scratch across a horse’s head, which disappeared from later editions — though Winter’s work is pasted on a mount, so it is not possible to see if it has the watermark that normally authenticates a Dürer print. Its condition otherwise is generally good, Spencer says: “For a piece of paper from the 1500s, it hasn’t fared too badly.” The print was offered via a timed, online auction for between £10,000 and £20,000 and was bought by a bidder from Germany.The Sydney and Singapore gallery Ames Yavuz will open its first European outpost in London next year. The move by the specialist in work by indigenous artists from Australia and south-east Asia is about making them “part of the conversation” around international contemporary art, founding director Can Yavuz says. The opening exhibition, planned for February 2025, will be the first London show for Filipino husband-and-wife duo Isabel & Alfredo Aquilizan, with works relating to “belonging, identity, journeys and displacement”, Yavuz says. He confirms that forthcoming solo exhibitions will include indigenous Australian painter Vincent Namatjira, whose characteristically subversive portrait of Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart stirred controversy earlier this year. According to press reports, Rinehart initially wanted this removed from an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, though to no avail.London’s Amar Gallery this week opens an exhibition dedicated to the largely overlooked Italian-American abstract artist Lawrence Calcagno (1913-1993), a collaboration with 203 Fine Art in Taos, New Mexico.Having served in the US Air Force during the second world war, Calcagno — with the help of the 1944 GI Bill that supported war veterans — later enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts, where he was taught by Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. Calcagno then moved to Paris where he began a long-term relationship with African-American painter Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), at a time when same-sex sexual activity and interracial marriage were both illegal in much of the US. Calcagno returned to the US and had success in his lifetime, including biennial and museum shows, but “was overlooked largely due to his sexuality and championing of artists of colour”, says gallery founder Amar Singh. The solo show, Calcagno’s first in the UK, comprises paintings ($30,000-$120,000) and works on paper ($9,500-$18,000). Singh says sales have already been made to private buyers as well as a US museum (Redux, to November 3).Find out about our latest stories first — follow FTWeekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
