Recently unearthed hoard of Norman coins reveals medieval tax scam, says British Museum

Our daily round-up of news from the art world 

Recently unearthed hoard of Norman coins reveals medieval tax scam, says British Museum | The largest ever collection of coins unearthed from the immediate post-Norman conquest period contains an early example of tax avoidance, experts at the British Museum have said. Most of the 2,528 coins discovered in January in the Chew Valley in Somerset depict either Harold II or William the Conquerer. Several, however, have been identified as ‘mules’, which bear the image of one king on the head and another on the tail, suggesting the moneyer was attempting to avoid paying tax on an up-to-date design. The hoard was discovered by Lisa Grace and Adam Staples, a couple from Derbyshire who were teaching friends how to metal detect.

Atlanta’s High Museum of Art receives significant Impressionist and Post-Impressionist donation | An extensive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting is heading to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, after the institution recently received one of the most significant donations in its 114-year history. The gift contains works by Monet and Renoir, as well as paintings by Matisse and Sisley, two artists previously unrepresented at the museum. Doris and Shouky Shaheen, the Atlanta-based philanthropists who offered up the group of 24 paintings from their personal collection, will have a gallery at the museum named in their honour.

Planning permission granted for major arts project in Sheffield | A flagship arts project that will transform the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield has been given planning permission by the city council. The Park Hill Art Space, which has been designed by award-winning architects Carmody Groarke, will feature one of the largest contemporary art galleries in the north of England, artist studios and workspaces for creative businesses, in addition to outreach studios, accommodation and facilities.

Turner Prize-hosting Nerve Visual Gallery to close | The Nerve Visual Gallery in Ebrington Square, Londonderry, which hosted the 2013 Turner Prize, will close its doors permanently on 6 September due to low visiting numbers. The gallery, which has hosted 13 exhibitions on a project-by-project basis since it re-opened in 2016, said it had not received any core funding in the past three years. In addition to the 2013 Turner Prize, which was won by Laure Prouvost, the gallery has shown work by Colin Davidson, Anne Tallentire, and an exhibition documenting Londonderry’s role in the global civil rights movement.

Werner Kramarsky (1926–2019) | Werner Kramarsky, the collector, arts patron and public health official, died on 22 August at the age of 93. Born in Amsterdam in 1926 to a father who was a banker and art collector, Kramarsky emigrated to the United States with his family in 1939 before assembling one of the largest private collections of work on paper. Kramarsky donated more than 2,000 of these works to institutions including the MoMA in New York, the Harvard Art Museums in Massachusetts and the Seattle Art Museum, and with his wife Sarah-Ann he operated a non-commercial art space, Fifth Floor Foundation, in Manhattan from 1991 to 2006.