South African artist Gabrielle Goliath is going to Venice despite the best efforts of her country's government.

Goliath, who was selected to represent South Africa at this year's biennale before being summarily dropped by culture minister Gayton McKenzie, will stage her performance piece Elegy as a video installation at the city's Sant'Antonin church from May 5 to July 31.

It will then be shown at Lina Lazar's Ibraaz arts center in London from October.

Goliath said the work, which makes reference to people killed during the conflict in the Middle East, showed people could "dare to think and dream the world differently" in the "face of cancellation, threat, and incommensurable losses".

Earlier this year, she went to court in a bid to be reinstated as South Africa's representative at the event but lost her case against McKenzie who pulled his support for her piece which he said was "highly divisive in nature".

Theaster Gates smashed 45 of his own ceramic works into pieces for his show paying tribute to an enslaved potter who worked more than 150 years ago.

The exhibition, Dave: All My Relations, opens tomorrow and celebrates the life and work of David Drake who was known as Dave the Potter.

Drake, who died in 1874, worked as a ceramicist in South Carolina and Gates has given one of his historic works from his personal collection back to the artist's descendants.

Drake was noted for his skill with clay, but was set apart from his contemporaries as not only did he sign his work but he also sometimes incised them with verse - a dangerous thing to do at a time when it was illegal for enslaved people to be taught to read or write.

Gates used the shattered remains of his own work to build a monolithic sculpture for the show at Gagosian's Park Avenue gallery in New York and also made a large stoneware pot using similar materials and techniques to those Drake would have used.

We hope the Italian embassy in New York has sorted out culture minister Alessandro Giuli's baggage allowance.

We reported yesterday his visit to the United States coincided with the return of 17 looted antiquities including some from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his haul has increased again with one very notable addition.

He stopped by Sotheby's HQ at the Breuer Building for his first look at Antonello da Messina’s Ecce Homo which was bought last month by the Italian state for $14.9 million.

A spokesperson for the country's Ministry of Culture said it "will return to Italy in a few days" which Giuli described as "a historic moment" and "unprecedented cultural achievement".

1 - The artistic roots of the fashion house Schiaparelli are on show in an exhibition opening at London's V&A museum on Saturday. The show, which runs to November 8, includes dresses and a hat made in collaboration with Salvador Dali alongside art by Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and Eileen Agar among others.

2 - Tomashi Jackson, Lucy Kim, and Yu-Wen Wu have been named as the recipients of this year's Wagner Arts Fellowships. The fellowships, presented annually by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based, Wagner Foundation, give grants of $75,000 to "mid-career or established artists in the Boston area who are engaged with social change".

3 - Robin Waites has been appointed interim executive director of the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina while the search for a permanent leader continues. She replaces Della Watkins who is stepping down after nine years in charge.

4 - The death has been announced of Antonio Homem, the adopted son of art dealers Ileana and Michael Sonnabend. He helped launch the Sonnabend Collection Foundation and oversaw the opening last year of its museum in Mantua, Italy, that is home to works by Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg.