Sotheby’s to Open a Gallery in Beverly Hills, and Other News

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Sotheby’s plans to open its first public West Coast exhibition space in Beverly Hills. 

The new storefront location will open in a 1941 modern building on Camden Drive, an affluent stretch that’s home to Gagosian and Christie’s. “We’ve had a presence in L.A. for a while,” Mari-Claudia Jimenez, Sotheby’s chairman, managing director, and head of business development, tells the Hollywood Reporter. “Our locations have never been on a street front, where you could drive by and see what’s in the window of Sotheby’s. This is an exciting way to engage the public in a much more open way in the middle of Beverly Hills.” When it opens on October 14, the space will showcase nine works from an upcoming auction of the Macklowe Collection, which is expected to yield $600 million when it occurs in November. After that, expect a “mirrored-room installation” by The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti.

Cops sue Tesla after a drunk driver hit them while using the oversold Autopilot feature.

In February, a drunk driver behind the wheel of a Tesla Model X using the vehicle’s autopilot system crashed into a group of police officers who were conducting a traffic stop near Splendora, Texas. Those police are now suing Tesla for damages, describing the crash as “reasonably foreseeable” and aiming to hold Tesla accountable for overselling the Autopilot feature despite knowing about its defects. The case likely won’t hold up—Electrek points out that “Autopilot is a level 2 driver-assist system and not designed to avoid every possible accident, hence why drivers need to stay attentive, which you can’t do when you’re drunk,” and that it “also simply boils down to you can’t blame Autopilot for a drunk driver.”  

Busts of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor go on display in a New York City park.

The artist Chris Carnabuci has unveiled busts of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor—two icons of the Black Lives Matter protest movement after they were killed by police in 2020—as well as of late congressman John Lewis at Union Square in Manhattan as part of an exhibition called Seeinjustice. Each painted bronze bust is based on photographs of the subjects converted into more than 200 individual layers cut on a CNC machine. “I wanted to capture a moment in time that was historic and significant,” Carnabuci told Artnet News. “I want the art to provide an environment for civil discourse where we can discuss our differences and maybe even come to an understanding of each other’s perspectives.” 

El Salvador has started mining bitcoin using energy harnessed from volcanoes.

El Salvador has mined 0.00599179 bitcoin—approximately $269—using power harnessed from a volcano. President Nayib Bukele tweeted a teaser video about the country’s maiden voyage into volcano-powered bitcoin money, which included shots of a shipping container full of bitcoin mining rigs and aerials of an energy factory near a volcano. It makes good on Bukele’s announcement that he instructed a state-owned geothermal electricity company to offer facilities for Bitcoin mining with cheap, renewable, zero-emissions energy using volcanoes. The foray into mining shortly follows El Salvador declaring bitcoin as legal tender.

Only a few of New York’s residential supertalls have completed building safety tasks.

Many of the new residential supertalls across Billionaire’s Row in Manhattan are technically considered active construction sites. This is because most properties are missing final signoff from the Department of Buildings on safety-related requirements involving elevators, plumbing, fire sprinklers, and standpipes. Temporary certificates of occupancy (TCOs) allow these buildings to be occupied without final approval—a system that has been in place for decades. The city won’t issue TCOs if a building has structural problems, but the unprecedented influx of residential supertalls are exposing gaps in the city’s enforcement strategies that may pose unprecedented safety risks. 

“Endless TCOs are the scam by which unsafe occupancy is perpetuated throughout NYC,” former Department of Buildings plan examiner John Young told the New York Times. “It’s how people avoid completing the job until someone raises hell.” The revelation comes shortly after the condo board at 432 Park sued the building’s developers for $125 million in damages over design and construction defects. 

RIOS unveils a sprawling mixed-use complex near Chinatown in Los Angeles.

The local firm has revealed visuals for a mixed-use development within an eight-acre property near Los Angeles State Historic Park. Called Buena Vista and the product of a joint venture between Lincoln Property Co. and S&R Partners, the project will introduce retail, public space, and nearly 1,000 apartment units across two towers—one 22 stories, the other 26—that will become the tallest buildings in Chinatown. Aspects of the original design are likely to be revised in coming years, but the first phase is scheduled to conclude in 2026 while the other half will wrap up three years after. 

Today’s attractive distractions:

Indulge in a cathartically canine dinner party at Brooklyn’s Invisible Dog Center.

Recent research finds that falling into a black hole may turn you into a hologram.

The sordid saga of Eileen Gray’s E-1027 inspires a new exhibition in Pasadena.

Street artist Taquen adorns a 115-foot-tall water tower with visuals of local birds.