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Category: european art
Mobster Allegedly Offered to Sell Gardner Paintings
Boston Globe / April 20th, 2015
A federal prosecutor said in court Monday that a 79-year-old Connecticut crime figure offered to sell two artworks stolen 25 years ago from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Robert Gentile allegedly offered the pair for $500,000 shortly after his release from prison last year. The ...
Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit Denied in Cranach Case
LA Times / April 6th, 2015
The Norton Simon Museum will face continued legal action over ownership of a pair of 16th-century Adam and Eve paintings. The works by Lucas Cranach the Elder were looted by the Nazis, and bear a complicated provenance that stretches to the Russian Revolution. Since the 1970s, the pair has ...
New Film 'Woman in Gold' Reveals Story Behind Looted Klimt Painting
Guardian / March 31st, 2015
A new film details one woman's epic fight for her family's art collection confiscated by the Nazis. 'Woman in Gold' is a historical drama that tells the story of how a recognized masterpiece by Gustav Klimt--the 1907 gold-flecked portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I"--was eventually restituted ...
Dutch Royal Family to Return Nazi Plundered Painting
BBC / March 31st, 2015
The Dutch royal family will return a painting seized by the Nazis during World War II to the heirs of the owner. "The Hague Forest with a View of Huis ten Bosch Palace" by 17th century Dutch master Joris van der Haagen was purchased in 1960 by Queen Juliana from a Dutch art dealer who did ...
FBI Identifies Thieves Behind Gardner Museum Heist - Art Still Missing
Breitbart / March 31st, 2015
Two men who raided Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, making off with 13 masterpieces worth half a billion-dollars, have been identified by the FBI twenty-five years after the crime took place. One was a local thug, and the other was an ex-con whose lawyer, John Kerry, now Secretary of ...
RBC's Bahamas Unit Reeled into Probe of Art Dealer Wildenstein
Globe and Mail / March 30th, 2015
Allegations of tax evasion lodged against New York and Paris-based billionaire art dealer Guy Wildenstein have pulled in the Royal Bank of Canada's Bahamas subsidiary. On Monday, a French prosecutor recommended to a judge that RBC Trust Company (Bahamas) Ltd. be charged with ...
Researchers Say Haystack Painting is a Rediscovered Monet
ArtfixDaily / March 29th, 2015
An impressionist work from 1891 has been authenticated through modern technology as the work of Claude Monet. Scientists used a hyperspectral camera to reveal the artist's signature under layers of paint. Monet apparently painted over his own signature, say the researchers from the University ...
Picasso Estimated to Bring Auction Record $140 Million in May
Christie's / March 25th, 2015
A masterpiece by Pablo Picasso could fetch an auction record price this spring at Christie's. The auction house is banking on "Les femmes d'Alger (Version “O”) to fetch $140 million, or more, and with a buyers premium added in the final price could exceed $155 million. Christie's ...
Nazi-Looted El Greco Returned to Rightful Owners
NY Times / March 24th, 2015
A painting by El Greco that was seized by the Gestapo in Vienna in 1938 has been returned to the owner's heirs. "Portrait of a Gentleman" was known to have been in New York in the 1950s. Attempts by the owner, Julius Priester, who had fled Vienna, to recover the artwork after the war were ...
5 Theories About the Gardner Museum Heist Mystery
Gizmodo / March 18th, 2015
Twenty-five years ago, news broke of the biggest art theft in history. Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was missing major artworks, taken in the middle of the night by two men disguised as Boston police. It was a stunning loss. The FBI says the two men suspected of actually swiping ...
German Art Advisor Achenbach Gets 6-Year Prison Term
DW / March 16th, 2015
A district court in Essen has found the once-prominent German art advisor Helge Achenbach guilty on 18 counts of fraud. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison for overcharging his wealthy clients millions of euros for artwork. Known as a gregarious networker and for his lavish lifestyle, ...
Facebook Does Not 'Like' All Art
WaPo / March 10th, 2015
A French schoolteacher posted an image of Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine du Monde" on Facebook only to have the famous painting of lady parts from the Musee d'Orsay collection censored by the social media giant. He has now sued Facebook in a Parisian court. The court agreed to hear the case in ...
Missing Picasso Painting Recovered at Newark Airport
Vanity Fair / March 1st, 2015
When a FedEx shipment arrived in Newark with a package marked “art craft/toy” with a listed value of $37, and a message reading “Merry Christmas” it seemed innocuous, writes Melissa Locker in Vanity Fair. However, when customs officials opened the box, they found a painting by Pablo Picasso, ...
Barnes Foundation Discovers Two Hidden Cezanne Sketches
Barnes Foundation / February 22nd, 2015
Two watercolors that art collector Dr. Alfred Barnes bought 90 years ago for $100 have yielded an unexpected surprise. Conservtors at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia recently removed the frames from the watercolors depicting the landscape of southern France. On the reverse side two ...
Book Claims New Leads in the $500 Million Gardner Art Heist
NY Daily News / February 17th, 2015
When thieves posed as cops and stole $500 million worth of masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, the world was robbed of the only seacape by Rembrandt, Vermeer's gem "The Concert," and a glistening portrait by Manet, along with 10 other works. A quarter century ...
Legal Limbo Keeps Gurlitt Art Trove from Swiss Museum
NY Times / February 17th, 2015
It's been three months since the Kunstmuseum Bern said it would accept a bequest of 1,600 works from the late Cornelius Gurlitt, son of a Nazi-era art dealer. But the gift of works by the likes of Monet, Manet, Gauguin, Renoir, Rodin, Matisse and Pissarro might not journey to its new home ...
Accused Art Thief Escapes Federal Custody
Courthouse News / February 10th, 2015
Accused art thief Luke Brugnara has escaped a federal building in San Francisco and is currently on the lam.
Gauguin Painting Sells Privately for $300 Million
NY Times / February 8th, 2015
An iconic Paul Gauguin painting of two Tahitian girls was sold privately by a Swiss collection for a reported $300 million, ranking it among the highest prices ever
Picasso's Granddaughter to Sell Artist's Work
NY Times / February 5th, 2015
Marina Picasso, a granddaughter of the artist, plans to sell inherited works from her 10,000-piece collection--privately, on her own.
Barbara Allbritton Fights IRS Over $40 Million Art Tax
Courthouse News Service / February 4th, 2015
Houstonian Barbara B. Allbritton sued the United States for herself and the estate of her husband, self-made millionaire Joe L. Allbritton, on Jan. 30 in Federal Court over a $40 million art tax, according Courthouse News Service. Joe Allbritton died in 2012 at 87, leaving behind a banking and ...