TIME Magazine has designated 2011 the year of the “Protester”, and the art world proved no exception, from picketing Teamsters, to an outspoken Chinese activist, to artists fighting for their resale rights. With sales fluctuating at auction, art forgery scandals, and rediscovered masterpieces - this year proved to be very provocative!

MutualArt.com presents our summary of this year’s top news stories that grabbed the headlines, followed by major award-winners, humanitarian nods and a special In Memoriam section.

Uprising at Sotheby's: Art Handlers Lockout
In July the company failed to reach an agreement with its unionized art handlers over their new contracts; after repeated threats to strike, Sotheby’s locked out its 43 handlers and replaced them with temporary workers. The union stepped up its response, picketing outside the New York branch. By October the rallies had only grown stronger and louder, as the Occupy movement took over the cause. At Sotheby’s November Contemporary art sale, eight angry protesters were arrested; still, inside the saleroom, it was business as usual and collectors hardly seemed to notice the commotion. But both sides want to resolve the matter, as the dispute reportedly has cost Sotheby’s nearly $2.4 million and soon the handlers’ health insurance will expire. Yet tensions remain high, as only a few weeks ago NY Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend threatened to resign from Sotheby’s board if the Teamsters get their way...One thing is for certain, this debacle will go down as the longest lockout in Sotheby’s history.

Ai Weiwei
First his Shanghai studio was demolished in January; then on April 3rd he was arrested at the airport and held in secret police captivity for over 2 months. The arts community rallied around the high-profile artist, with everyone from museums to Anish Kapoor calling for his release and staging protests. After his release, the artist was charged $2.4 million in back taxes; luckily donations poured in from fans. His defiant return to Twitter and new pornography allegations have kept the artist in the spotlight. Ai Weiwei’s outspoken activism earned him the number 1 spot on ArtReview’s annual Power 100 list, the third spot on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year list, and the #1 Hero of the year in Time Out Hong Kong, to name a few accolades. At least with all this media attention, his touring Zodiac Heads shows gained a huge following.

Auction Records and a Flop
During 2010 the auction arena seemed to be making a steady comeback from the 2008 financial downturn; 2011 started off promising enough, but in the end proved slightly more contentious. This year was one filled with several highs: on November 3, a $40 million record for a Nazi-looted recovered Gustave Klimt helped fuel a market rebound at Sotheby’s; a record $43 million for a Roy Lichtenstein’s “I Can See the Whole Room!… And There’s Nobody in It!” at Christie’s in November; Andreas Gursky broke the all-time record for a photograph sale, making his “Rhein II” the most expensive photo in the world, worth $4.3 million; and Clyfford Still swept the floor and earned a $61.7 million record for “1949-A-No. 1,” raising profits for his namesake museum in that opened the following week in Denver. Yet there were also moments of doubt, mainly, in August Sotheby’s shares fell 13%, and Christie’s NY Impressionist Sale flopped in November, when over-estimated pieces by Degas, Matisse, and even Picasso were shunned by buyers.

Click here to read our 2011 auction summary and find out the year’s top selling artists and lots.

German Art Forgery Trial
Called the biggest art scam in Europe in recent memory, in September a German artist pled guilty to forging 14 modern art paintings by modern art greats such as Heinrich Campendonk, Max Ernst, and Fernand Leger. The fraud totaled roughly $22 million, and captivated media attention during the trail. Oddly enough, the lovable nature of the plaintiff seemed to win over popular opinion, and many were happy to see him receive a fairly lenient sentence of 6 years. Only after the trial was signed and sealed was the extent of his deceit uncovered, and some 53 forgeries confirmed that involve major auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

Artists fight for Resale Rights
In October, artist Chuck Close, and the estates of artists Robert Graham and Sam Francis filed suit against Sotheby’s and Christies, fighting for their right to 5% profits from art resales. The suit claims the auction houses violated California’s 1977 Resale Royalty Act, which was inspired by European “Droit de suit” laws to protect artists after they lose ownership of their work. Meanwhile, a bill proposed to Congress in December requires large auction houses to pay 7% on sales over $10,000, with half the proceeds going into an art acquisition fund for nonprofit museums. The Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011 would help visual artists gain a more equal footing with those who already benefit from extra income from copyright laws. Currently, visual artists are paid just once, when they sell a work to its first owner. Across the pond, the UK is set to initiate its first controversial Artist Resale Right in January, for living artists or the estates of those who died in the last 100 years.

Re-discovered Masterpieces
Thanks to the power of X-ray, Rembrandt was vindicated in late November by confirming his authorship of “Old man with a Beard.” And restoration work on Salvador Mundi corrected a previous belief that it was created by a protege of Da Vinci, and now credited to the master himself and worth over $200 million (now on view at the National Gallery’s show- if you can get in); currently a battle is brewing over a suspected Da Vinci that is hiding behind another masterful mural in Florence.

Mega-Hit Museum Shows
Non-traditional mega-hit shows made a splash in 2011, where everything from cartoons to couture enthralled audiences. Tim Burton’s whimsical fantasies were a hit at LACMA, making it the fifth best attended show; Alexander McQueen’s iconic designs dazzled at the Met, so much so that they extended the show and its hours three times and final attendance numbers put it as the eighth most popular show ever, beating Van Gogh and Jeff Koons and helping the Met set a 40-year attendance record. And street art finally got its official claim to fame at MoCA’s wildly popular Art in the Streets show that racked up the highest attendance in the museum’s history. Lastly and less surprising is the National Gallery of London’s blockbuster Da Vinci exhibition; the show’s remarkable popularity is already expected to smash attendance records (it only opened in November!). All of the advanced tickets have sold out until 2012, and ticket scalpers became a regular feature outside the museum, with un-official internet ticket sales going for $200-$300! A movie of the exhibit is even on its way. Way to go, Leo the rock star!

US Modern Art Forgery Ring
The New York Times broke the story in early December that US federal agents are investigating a potential modern art forgery ring among elite New York art dealers. Works sold for up to $17 million by the likes of Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell are in the spotlight, sold through prestigious galleries such as Knoedler & Company (which mysteriously closed up shop days before the suspicions surfaced). A London collector has already confirmed that a Pollock he purchased in 2001 from Knoedler is indeed a fake. The Times reports that the investigation commenced in 2009.

Big Private Museum Openings
As public art funding continues to shrivel, private donors have been making huge contributions, although not without a little controversy. In March, the world’s richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim, unveiled his gift to Mexico, the new Soumaya art museum, with a supposed $700 million collection. While fetching much media buzz, critics were less impressed by the results, calling it a “vanity” museum that is not truly a great contribution to the art world. And this month, Alice Walton of the Wal-Mart dynasty presented her gift to the nation, a sprawling new art museum stocked with a first-class modern art collection - in Arkansas. A $20 million donation has even allowed the museum to offer free admission. Already equally loved and despised, critics came blazing before the first visitors even toured the venue. It seems Ms. Walton can do no good, spending millions on a museum instead of her employees, and moving masterpieces from their current homes...to Arkansas!

Honorable mentions:
New Van Gogh death theory
FBI chief who ordered art theft
Hidden animal images found in Mona Lisa
Cleaner damages $1m modern artwork
Missing $30m Farrah fawcett Warhol on Ryan O’neal’s wall
Facebook art censorship
Matisse painting attacked at the National Gallery
Poussin painting spray-painted at the National Gallery

Top art prizes
Turner Prize: Martin Boyce
Max Mara Art Prize for Women: Laure Prouvost
Venice Golden Lion: Christoph Schlingensief for the German Pavilion; Christian Marclay for Best Work
RIBA Stirling Prize: Zaha Hadid
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize: Jim Goldberg

Humanitarian Nods
Takashi Murakami for his auction to benefit Japan
Hamish Parker for donating $1m to British Museum in Picasso prints
Yvon Lambert for the largest art donation to France
Ben Stiller/David Zwirner for their Haiti art auction

In Memoriam
John Chamberlain
Dennis A. Oppenheim
M.F. Husain
Lucian Freud
Cy Twombly
Margaret Olley
Leonora Carrington
Richard Hamilton
Helen Frankenthaler
Claudio Bravo

Written and Compiled by MutualArt writer Joanna Bledsoe