The Mission to Find Cleopatra's Tomb, Art Market Turmoil, and More: Crossroads Roundup
This month's news in art, archaeology, culture, and more.
Dr. Kathleen Martinez’s ongoing hunt for Cleopatra’s tomb has resulted in a major discovery…
If you’ve been reading the Roundups for a while, you may remember the story of Kathleen Martinez, a Dominican archaeologist who is on a mission to find Cleopatra’s final resting place. Her theory was that Cleopatra was buried not in a tomb, but in a temple. In 2022, her excavations at Taposiris Magna resulted in an extraordinary discovery: a massive tunnel beneath the temple stretching over 4,300 feet (roughly 1,310 meters). Sitting 43 feet (13 meters) underground with a height of over six feet (1.8 meters), the tunnel was called a “geometric miracle” by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Part of the tunnel is now submerged in the Mediterranean, due to medieval earthquakes that caused portions of the coastal area to collapse. Martinez believes that Cleopatra’s burial place could therefore be underwater.
She has since teamed up with Bob Ballard, the American oceanographer famed for his discovery of hydrothermal vents and finding the RMS Titanic. (Quite the dream team!) This month, they announced that their underwater excavations have unveiled a vast, submerged Egyptian port, which is connected to Taposiris Magna by the tunnel that Martinez discovered in 2022.
The researchers found columns and polished stone floors, as well as amphora and anchors that date to the reign of Cleopatra. Martinez believes that Cleopatra was carried through the tunnel, which leads out to the port, and buried in a location onsite. “I’m not going to stop,” she says. “For me, it’s a matter of time.”
“The Storm Hits the Art Market.”
On September 7th, Artnet published an engrossing article by Katya Kazakina that quickly made the rounds online. (Those of you active on Substack may have come across it there, too.) The subject was the turmoil that has characterized the art market over the past several years, in which inflated prices have scared off even the wealthiest of buyers, leading to a period of contraction. Doubled with sky-high real estate costs, many galleries are at risk of closure. Some, including the Clearing gallery, are gone for good:
[Clearing’s] Babin is far from the only dealer on the way out. The art world is in a precarious state as it heads into the second half of 2025. Not a week goes by, it seems, without a major gallery closing: Blum, Venus Over Manhattan, and Kasmin are other prominent summer casualties. Smaller galleries are exiting and downsizing discreetly. Each case is different, but many voice the same laments: Overheads are killing businesses. Sales are down. It’s no longer fun. Primary pricing is untenable. Major collectors have stopped buying art or significantly reduced their spending. The next generation isn’t there to take over from the old guard. The art world has become bloated, and there isn’t an easy way to cure the malaise.
We’ve discussed this issue here in Crossroads. The major shift of the late-20th and early-21st centuries was that art went from being an heirloom (to be treasured and passed down in families) to a mere investment (which encourages speculation and leads to the crazy prices that are now turning buyers away).
Some of this speculation allowed for the creation of plainly ridiculous sectors of the industry. Remember the NFT craze? This month, Christie’s quietly shut down its digital art department.
Kazakina’s entire piece is worth reading, as she breaks down different methods by which researchers can track what is otherwise a notoriously opaque industry. She also explores how younger gallerists are finding ways to limit their overhead, including orchestrating pop-up shows, keeping their staff small, and maintaining smaller gallery spaces in otherwise expensive cities.
One of those younger dealers, Sebastian Gladstone (36), told Kazakina, “More than anything, you are seeing a massive shift in the players. It’s really easy to be at a beach house in Malibu and not be in touch with what’s happening.” In his view, the new generation of dealers are “able to respond to the world in a way the older guard isn’t able to.”
A few more stories…
This month, several major collections hit the news. John Pritzker announced that he would be donating 188 Dada and Surrealist works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s will be auctioning a $400 million collection from the late Leonard Lauder of Estée Lauder, who during his life donated over a billion dollars worth of art to the Met. The collection includes works by Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, and Edvard Munch.
A Banksy mural of a judge attacking a protester with a gavel was found on the Queen’s Building in the Royal Courts of Justice complex in London. The mural has since been scrubbed, though the ghostly outlines of the figures remain—itself a poignant commentary on freedom of speech and assembly.
And severe droughts in Iraq have had one unexpected consequence: the unearthing of dozens of ancient tombs along the Mosul Dam reservoir. You can read more here.
Finally, 80 museum exhibitions to check out this fall:
ARTnews has compiled a fantastic list of shows from all over the world to check out this autumn. Highlights include a major exhibition on Renaissance master Fra Angelico at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, the Divine Egypt show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many Surrealist showcases, including the Whitney’s survey of 1960s Surrealism, the Tate’s Lee Miller retrospective, and the Palazzo Reale’s Leonora Carrington retrospective. And of course, fans of Impressionism will enjoy the Manet & Morisot exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
The list also includes many exciting contemporary shows—I’d encourage you to peruse them here to find events in your area.
