ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Fraudster Brugnara Claims He Will "Perish" in Jail, Files Motion for Acquittal

Courthouse News Service / July 22nd, 2015

San Francisco-based convicted swindler Luke Brugnara, who is serving time for fraud, wants to fire his laywers, get bail to recuperate, and hire new counsel. Brugnara is under federal prosecution for taking and not paying for $11 million in fine art, including a $2 million Degas bronze that ...

Artist and Empire at Tate Britain Boldly Explores Imperial Visual Culture

Guardian / July 20th, 2015

Some 200 works from 55 lenders will be featured in a fall show at Tate Britain that was carefully researched for four years. Artist and Empire, on view from November 25, 2015 - April, 10, 2016, aims to present a broad artistic view of British Imperialism, including the painful parts. Elizabeth ...

Art, Offerings in Leonardo DiCaprio Gala Auction Set to Raise Major Funds for Environmental Causes

Forbes / July 19th, 2015

At a private villa in St. Tropez on July 22, a massive auction organized by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will offer up a host of fine art, jewelry, properties, goods and experiences to raise funds for environmental conservation. The first edition of the event raised $25 million last year, ...

Counter-protesters Escalate 'Kimono Controversy' at MFA Boston

Boston Globe / July 19th, 2015

Protests that erupted this month over 'Kimono Wednesdays" at the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston, have spurred other voices in support of the new event. Visitors were encouraged to "channel their inner Camille Monet" and don a kimono similar to the artist's wife in Claude Monet’s painting “La ...

Planned German Cultural Protection Law Stirs Controversy

Deutsche Welle / July 15th, 2015

Germany is planning to strictly regulate the international sale of art and artifacts deemed of significant cultural value. German Culture Minister Monika Grütters stands behind the draft cultural protection act, despite hefty criticism from the art world. "No one has the right to tell me what I ...

$300 Million Gauguin Painting Goes on View at Madrid's Reina Sofia Before Heading to DC

MSN / July 9th, 2015

A record-setting Paul Gauguin painting sold by a Swiss family foundation to a group of state museums in Qatar was unveiled at Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia last week. The 1892 double portrait, “Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?),” depicting two Tahitian girls, fetched nearly $300 ...

Documents Show Monet's Neighbors Tried to Block His Lily Pond

Daily Mail / July 6th, 2015

Some of the most iconic works of French Impressionism might not have been painted if Claude Monet's neighbors in Giverny had their way. Plans for the lily pond raised objections from suspicious farmers who feared the artist's exotic plants would poison the water supply and kill their cattle. ...

Clients Sue London Art Dealer Over Missing Millions

Daily Mail / July 5th, 2015

One of Mayfair’s most high-profile art dealers is at the center of a number of multi-million-pound international claims after wealthy clients who used him as an agent to sell masterpieces by artists such as Van Gogh, Canaletto, Picasso, Chagall, Modigliani and Magritte were not paid, reports the ...

Rare Klimt Portrait Brings $39 Million to Lead Sales Series

NYT / June 24th, 2015

A work by Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich fetched $33 million and a pale, full-length portrait by Gustav Klimt brought $39 million at a strong Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art sale in London. The sale total was $282 million, well beyond Christie's total, boosted by nine elots ...

Judge Rules for Museum in Case of Contested Pissarro

NYT / June 11th, 2015

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that an Impressionist painting that a Jewish woman was forced to sell to the Nazis in 1939 will stay at Spain's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Judge John F. Walter of the United States District Court for the Central District of California said that the ...

Boston Public Library Finds its Missing Durer, Rembrandt Prints

Boston Herald / June 5th, 2015

Boston Public Library officials announced that missing prints were "misfiled" in the main library amid an ongoing investigation by the FBI, U.S. Attorney's office and Boston Police. Library President Amy Ryan said that the artworks were found 80 feet from where they should have been. The ...

Frick Museum Scraps Controversial Expansion Plan

ArtfixDaily / June 4th, 2015

A plan to expand the Frick Collection in Manhattan with a six-story tower has been abandoned. Protestors railed against a 106-foot-tall addition that would be built over the historic mansion's Russell Page Garden. A movement to preserve the garden, and the Frick's cherished intimate scale, ...

Murdered Art Forger's Work Up for Auction in UK

DailyMail / June 1st, 2015

Master forger Eric Hebborn duped museums, galleries, and auction houses worldwide with his drawings and paintings in the styles of Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Claude, Augustus John and others, sold as originals by the artists. Hebborn's con worked for nearly two decades until a National Gallery of ...

Speculation Swirls Around Buyer of Record $179 Million Picasso

Page Six / May 21st, 2015

“Les Femmes d’Alger,” the Pablo Picasso painting sold at Christie’s this month for a world record auction price of $179 million, went to an anonymous telephone bidder. The buyer's identity has been kept private since the May 11 sale. Now sources have told Page Six that former Qatari Prime ...

Rybolovlev Family Trust Joins Picasso Heir in Legal Action Against Art Dealer

Art Newspaper / May 18th, 2015

Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev's family trust has reportedly joined a Picasso heir as a plaintiff in legal proceedings against French art dealer Olivier Thomas. Paris police questioned Thomas last week in regards to allegations that works by Pablo Picasso were stolen from Catherine ...

Turkish Authorities Seize Possible Cezanne Painting

World Bulletin / May 18th, 2015

A work possibly by the French post-Impressionist master Paul Cezanne was seized by police in Turkey’s northwestern province of Yalova following a tip. Thought to be ‘Young Italian Woman at a Table’, and valued at $150-200 million, the painting was sent to the Museum Directorate of Bursa ...

Court Battle Continues Over Peggy Guggenheim Art Collection

Telegraph / May 18th, 2015

A feud that dates back 20 years has resumed in a Paris court over the Peggy Guggenheim collection of art housed in Venice.  Works by Picasso, Braque, Chagall, Kandinsky, Dali and Miro that Guggenheim acquired in the mid-20th century are part of a priceless collection in the Peggy ...

Picasso Brings $179 Million, Breaks World Record for Art at Auction

ArtfixDaily / May 11th, 2015

Pablo Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)" set a world record for most expensive artwork ever sold at auction on Monday night. It was part of Christie's "Looking Forward to the Past" sale of masterpieces which also featured Alberto Giacometti's life-size sculpture "Pointing Man." "Women of ...

Accused Fraudster in $11M Scam Gets Jail Time for Bullying Art Dealer

Courthouse News Service / April 30th, 2015

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup sentenced accused art thief Luke Brugnara to jail for 21 days after he bullied a witness on the stand, reports Courthouse News Service. Brugnara, who is representing himself, landed contempt "for abusing the art dealer he allegedly conned ...

Few Museum Visitors Spot Fake Fragonard Painting

BBC / April 29th, 2015

The UK's Dulwich Picture Gallery has revealed the identity of a "fake" painting hung in the museum for a "spot-the-fake" challenge. Just ten percent of 3,000 museum visitors polled correctly identified the replica picture, placed amongst 270 artworks on display. Jean-Honore Fragonard's "Young ...