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A new exhibition sponsored by BP will bring over 70 masterpieces back to the UK after 234 years. The paintings, which originally hung at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, England during the 1720s, were part of Britain’s first Prime Minister Robert Walpole’s collection. The exhibition includes works by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1591-1644) and Rembrandt (1606-1669), which will hang in their original positions in Houghton Hall.

The show opens on May 17, 2013 and has been met with some criticism. Many of the works on view are on loan from the Hermitage Museum and other Russian institutions as well as the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Critics feel that BP’s involvement is meant to benefit its relationship with Russia and that the company chooses its sponsorship events based on business rather than its interest in the art.

After Walpole’s death, his illustrious collection was sold to Russia for $61,355 and was sent from Britain 1779. Houghton Hall is currently owned by Walpole’s descendants and contains the furniture, bronzes, and antiquities that once belonged to the former Prime Minister.

After losing a major court case, Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky will sell a limited edition print of former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin by Andy Warhol (1928-1987). Berezovsky hopes that the sale of Red Lenin (1987) will help him pay off legal bills stemming from the failed court case.

In 2011, Berezovsky brought a civil case in the UK High Court against Roman Abramovich, the owner of the Chelsea Football Club. Berezovsky was a former business associate of Abramovich’s and helped him acquire control of the Russian oil company, Sibneft, in the 1990s. Berezovsky accused Abramovich of blackmail, breach of trust, and breach of contract and claimed that he was threated and intimidated to sell his stake in Sibneft in 2011 for less than its actual value. Berezovsky was seeking $4.5 billion in damages.

Red Lenin will be sold as part of Christie’s Old Master, Modern & Contemporary Prints auction on March 20, 2013 in London. The brightly colored screen print is expected to garner $45,000 to $75,500.

Next fall doors will open to Paris’ Parsons the New School for Design for the second time. Frank Alvah Parsons, who founded the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now Parsons), initially opened a French branch in 1921. The Paris location closed temporarily during World War II and when Parson merged with the New School for Social Research in 1970, the Paris branch was included. The New York and Paris campuses continued to grow apart until their association was no more than a technical one. In 2010 the Paris institution changed its name to the Paris College of Art and the New School could return to Paris using the Parsons moniker.

The new campus will be announced on November 29 at the Palais de Tokyo. Located on the Rue Saint-Roch, the Paris School of Art and Design will accommodate 300 to 500 students, who will be able to begin their studies there or in New York. Parson also has associated campuses in Shanghai and Mumbai. The school will offer bachelor’s and master’s programs in multiple art disciplines, fashion, design, and business.

Longtime supporters of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Sam and Helen Zell, donated $10 million to the institution on behalf of the Zell Family Foundation. It is the second substantial gift the museum has received in less than seven months.

Business and publishing magnate, Sam Zell, and his wife, Helen, hope to create “The Zell Fund for Artistic Excellence” through their sizable gift. Helen served as the chair of the museum’s board from 2004-2008 and has served on various other museum committees. She is currently chairman of the collection committee.

Madeleine Grynsztejn, the museum’s director, said, “The museum is extremely grateful for this generous gift.” Grynsztejn plans to use the money to help underwrite programs like the museum’s outdoor summer plaza series, exhibitions, and artist residency programs, expand its education lectures and programs, and to help pay off debt stemming from the museum’s mortgage on its building at 220 E. Chicago Ave.

The museum received another $10 million gift in April of this year from Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson. Edis, a trustee since 1981, and Ms. Neeson are longtime supporters of the museum.

Christie’s announced this week that it has named Doug Woodham the president of Christie’s Americas. Woodham has spent the last 20 years working in finance, technology, and business, holding jobs at UBS Wealth Management and Moody’s KMV, an analytics company that helps capital markets and credit risk management professionals worldwide.

Christie’s former president, Marc Porter, is now the international head of private sales and will continue to serve as the chairman of Christie’s Americas. Woodham, who will report directly to Christie’s CEO Steven Murphy, will be responsible for the overall management of the company in the Americas.

Woodham’s art world experience includes a two-year stint as the co-chair of the American Fellows patron program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He played a pivotal role in developing a financial plan for funding the Whitney’s new building; a Renzo Piano designed the $750 million structure that will open in New York’s meatpacking district in 2015.

Two years after opening a Paris branch, Larry Gagosian will open a large gallery space in Le Bourget on the grounds of an airport. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning French architect, Jean Nouvel, the space is located in a former 1950s hangar boasting 17,760 square feet. The inaugural exhibition at the two-level gallery will be by German painter and sculptor, Anselm Kiefer.

Gagosian, proprietor of the world’s largest commercial gallery network, planned for the Le Bourget opening to coincide with the annual Foir Internationale d’Art Contemporair (FIAC) in Paris, a contemporary art fair that brings in a hefty crowd of international art collectors.

Kiefer’s exhibition will feature five paintings and a huge field of handmade wheat stalks surrounded by a rust-colored steel cage. Titled Morgenthau Plan, the work refers to a plan devised in 1944 by U.S. Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, to disarm Germany by shutting down its industry and converting it to a strictly agricultural state. The hugely expansive space allows for such monumental installations. Nouvel, who designed the gallery in four months, put up four partition-like walls inside to create a central interior space and then used the area outside the walls and beneath the high ceilings to create display rooms and mezzanines.

France is home to some of the world’s top art collectors including chief executive officer of PPR, Francois-Henri Pinault, and French business magnate, Bernard Arnault, making it a prime destination for art dealerships. The new Gagosian Gallery will open on October 18 and Kiefer’s exhibition will run through January 2013.

Just a month after a major leadership change at art market database company Artnet, a serious threat of takeover comes from major shareholder Redline Capital Management. The Luxembourg-based finance company said that will try to buy out Artnet, likely with an offer proposed at the next shareholder meeting. Currently, Artnet is controlled by the Neuendorf family, who retain a 26 percent stake in the company.