ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

OCMA's quiet sale of 18 paintings raises hackles

LA Times Arts / July 5th, 2009

The sale of the California Impressionist paintings to a private collector is seen as a snub to some in art circles. The Orange County Museum of Art was tooling along, a sporty little contender in the contemporary art world, its reputation sparkling from the good reviews ...

Museum Hosts an Enterprising Auction

The Detroit News / July 2nd, 2009

In an unprecedented move to cope with a bad economy, the Detroit Institute of Arts is sponsoring an art auction to raise money for its operations. No, the museum's not selling off any of its treasures. Rather, it's inviting the public to contribute pieces of art valued at more than $250 that ...

Presitigious Grosvenor House Fair to Close

Bloomberg / July 2nd, 2009

The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, the most prestigious of the U.K.’s traditional antiques events, is to close, having celebrated its 75th anniversary this year, the British Antique Dealers’ Association said today in an e-mailed statement. The latest edition of the week-long event, ...

Contemporary Art Sales Pick up a Pace

ArtInfo / July 2nd, 2009

LONDON—Christie’s finished out the London evening-auction season with a reassuring sale of postwar and contemporary art that realized £19,063,350 ($31,778,604). That compares to pre-sale expectations of £17.4–24 million for the 40 lots offered, of which all but five sold, for an impressive sold ...

Top-Dollar Bird Decoys Making News

NECN / June 30th, 2009

(NECN) - A big auction is coming up this month in Plymouth, Massachusetts, for duck decoys, among other items! Some of the most prized decoys are from a Massachusetts man's collection that were carved in the early 1900's and have never before been put on the market. Joining Good Morning Live ...

The High Life - Art Collecters in the Rockies

Artinfo / June 30th, 2009

Bob and Nancy Magoon have cultivated an eye-popping collection of contemporary art in their Rocky Mountain residence. In a corner of Bob and Nancy Magoon’s expansive living room in Aspen, Colorado, is a "portrait" of the couple. Composed entirely of phrases and dates stenciled on the wall in ...

First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow

Reuters / June 30th, 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman who inherited some Chinese carved jade from her father has scored the first $1 million appraisal from experts on the U.S. television program "Antiques Roadshow," the producers said on Monday.    

Art review: 'Your Bright Future' at LACMA

LA Times Arts / June 28th, 2009

If you miss the 1990s, you'll love “Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea.” Despite the forward-looking title, the new exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art seems locked in a wheezing, pre-millennial artistic frame of mind. The 1990s is the decade when ...

Art: A Round Peg

New York Times Art / June 28th, 2009

HERE’S a good art-world quiz question, one that could stump many an astute insider: What do Sol LeWitt, Sonic Youth, Dean Martin, Mel Brooks, Merle Haggard, Hudson River School painting and midcentury New Jersey tract housing have in common?

Julien's hammers down Michael Jackson memorabilia

AP / June 29th, 2009

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A crystal-studded shirt worn onstage by Michael Jackson: $52,500. A young Jackson's painting of Mickey Mouse: $25,000. Owning a piece of a pop icon who died before his time: Priceless. Or, at least, very expensive. Twenty-one items once owned by Jackson sold at auction Friday ...

Women Artists in 'Illumination' at the Orange County Museum of Art

LA Times Arts / June 22nd, 2009

The kernel of a powerful idea resides within “Illumination,” an exhibition of abstract paintings by four women who worked in the deserts of the American Southwest and whose careers pretty much spanned the 20th century. But the kernel never really pops. One reason is that the modest galleries of ...

Christie's Kicks Off London Season with Solid Sales

Artinfo.com / June 26th, 2009

LONDON—Christie’s kicked off the London June sale season tonight with a decent result, selling the most expensive of its offerings but having more trouble with middle-range works, a difficulty that affected the buy-in rate. It was a sale dominated by European and U.K.-based bidders, who bought ...

Cartier's 100 Years in North America

Antiques & the Arts / June 25th, 2009

Manhattan's Fifth Avenue has long been the avenue of elegance, but Cartier bumped up the glamour and glitz tenfold for its exhibition "Cartier's 100th Anniversary in America." In 1909, Pierre Cartier opened a flagship boutique in New York City catering to those clients the company had been ...

Fruitlands Museum Official Charged with Embezzlement

WBZ News Radio (AP) / June 24th, 2009

Worcester (AP)  -- A former chief financial officer of a Massachusetts museum has been indicted in connection with an alleged embezzlement of more than $1.3 million. Attorney General Martha Coakley's office announced Tuesday that 58-year-old Peggy Kempton, of Hollis, N.H., turned ...

American Grandeur - Hudson River School at PAFA

Urban Art & Antiques / June 23rd, 2009

Although most of the Hudson River school artists were associated with Hudson River Valley and its surrounding areas and won their fame in New York city, the current exhibition — Public Treasures/Private Visions: Hudson River School Masterworks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Private ...

Greeks Continue to Pressure British to Return Elgin Marbles

Washington Post / June 21st, 2009

ATHENS -- Greek President Carolos Papoulias ramped up pressure on Britain over the weekend to return priceless statues from antiquity taken more than 200 years ago. His comments came as the new Acropolis Museum opened in Athens.

Pre-Raphaelites back with London show

Reuters / June 23rd, 2009

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Victorian art is making a comeback in London this summer with a major exhibition, and the biggest retrospective to date, of works by John William Waterhouse, who died in 1917.    

Why Risk Losing Your Art Collection?

The Huffington Post / June 23rd, 2009

It's become pretty clear to me, working as the Director of the Briddge Group's Chicago office, that there are an awful lot of risks inherent in having a decent (or better) art collection. I think it's important to look at these risks and to consider the value of working with some really ...

Francis Bacon's Strange Sizzle

New York Observer / June 19th, 2009

"Francis Bacon,” a retrospective timed to the centenary anniversary of the artist’s birth (he died in 1992 at the age of 83) is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hs toothy monsters, humping, anonymous men and slabs of meat installed directly off the European wing, a stone’s throw from ...

Bedroom, kitchen, art gallery

CS Monitor / June 22nd, 2009

Homes, gas stations, hair salons house art exhibits and musical performances in hard times.