ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Spain Busts Art Forgery Ring

Hyperallergic / January 20th, 2015

Three were arrested in Spain for allegedly forging works by Miró, Picasso, and Matisse...

Abstract Art and Society Focus of New Exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery

Telegraph / January 14th, 2015

The evolution of abstract art, and its impact on society, are on view at a major new exhibition staged by London's Whitechapel Gallery. "It's a journey worth taking,

Secrecy Looms in Slow Sift Through Corcoran Gallery's Art

Washington Post / January 12th, 2015

It's been five months since the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, went belly up and the National Gallery of Art (NGA) was named as the successor to its renowned collection.

Five Museum Blockbusters Come to Theaters

ArtfixDaily / January 6th, 2015

Popular recent exhibitions at major museums will be appearing on big screens in the U.S. for single-day virtual guided tours.

Detroit Institute of Arts Raises Goal for Grand Bargain

USA Today / January 5th, 2015

In less than a year, the Detroit Institute of Arts has fulfilled its promise to deliver $100 million to the city's $816-million grand bargain debt restructuring plan.

Ford House Secretly Sells Cezanne Painting for $100 Million

Detroit Free Press / December 21st, 2014

An oil painting by Paul Cézanne was sold privately in 2013 for $100 million by the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, a nonprofit cultural institution, in Grosse Ponite Shores, Michigan. The sale to a private buyer was kept quiet so as to not influenec negotiations in keeping the Detroi ...

Nine Artworks from LA's Biggest Art Heist Recovered

LA Times / December 18th, 2014

One of the largest art heists in LA history was recently cracked by police and the FBI after nine artworks were recovered in an undercover sting, reports the LA Times. The paintings, by the likes of Diego Rivera and Marc Chagall, were stolen from a home in Encino, CA., in 2008. The case went ...

Vincent van Gogh in his Own Words

Independent / December 18th, 2014

Vincent van Gogh's 819 letters (658 to brother Theo) make up not only a creative autobiography without parallel in visual art but what the editors of a new selection call "a highlight of world literature,"...

Missing Baroque Masterpiece Surfaces in London

Artlyst / December 15th, 2014

A long lost painting by the Spanish Baroque artist Sebastián de Llanos Valdés, which was missing for over 70 years, has been discovered in the UK, after an unidentified individual tried to consign 'Penitent Maria Magdalena' to Christie's, according to a DPA report. However, the Staatliche ...

Winston Churchill's Belongings, Paintings Under the Hammer

Guardian / December 15th, 2014

An auction of Winston Churchill's personal possessions is set for Dec. 17 at Sotheby's in London. A preview is underway of the items left by his last surviving child, Lady Mary Soames, who died last June, aged 91. A gallery of Churchill's own paintings, regarded as the most important group ever ...

Italian Pensioner Gets to Keep Gauguin, Bonnard Works

http://www.leaderpost.com/entertainment/Painting+bought+pensioner+worth/10465667/story.html / December 15th, 2014

An Italian pensioner who unknowingly bought a stolen Gauguin for about $35 has been allowed to keep it after it was valued at $50 million.

Vegetation in London's 'Virgin of the Rocks' Are Wrong for da Vinci, Claim Scholars

Guardian / December 10th, 2014

Scientists and art historians are trying to work out to what extent Leonardo had a hand in both versions of Virgin of the Rocks – the one in the Louvre, in Paris, and the replica in the National Gallery in London. Doubts have long been cast over whether the Renaissance master made the ...

Man Gets Prison Time for Punching Monet Painting

Daily Mail / December 9th, 2014

A man who punched a hole through an £8million Claude Monet painting has been jailed for six years and banned from all galleries - despite claiming he collapsed onto it due to a heart condition. Andrew Shannon, 49, strolled calmly into the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin before attacking ...

J.M.W. Turner Painting Fetches Record $47.4 Million

ArtfixDaily / December 4th, 2014

One of the last great Turner masterpieces remaining in private hands set a world auction record for the artist, selling for £30.3 million/ $47.4 million (est. £15-20m /$24.1-32.1m ) at Sotheby's London on Wednesday night. Turner now ranks as the most expensive of any pre-20th ...

Insurer Refuses to Pay for Lost Degas Sculpture

NY Daily News / December 3rd, 2014

Lloyd's of London says it won't pay for a $3 million Degas ballerina sculpture that went missing after delivery to a California collector, reports the NYDaily News. “The claim of the loss of Degas bronze results from theft or dishonesty by a person to whom the insured property was entrusted,” ...

UK Project Puts Every Publicly-Owned Painting Online

Telegraph / December 2nd, 2014

When Fred Hohler got peeved 14 years ago that a catalog did not exist of the paintings in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, the seed for an unprecedented cultural heritage project was planted.

Art Historian Spots Lost Masterpiece While Watching 'Stuart Little'

NY Post / November 30th, 2014

An important painting deemed missing since the 1920s was rediscovered by an art historian while watching the 1999 film "Stuart Little."

Swiss Museum Accepts Gurlitt Art Trove

WSJ / November 24th, 2014

Kunstmuseum Bern announced Monday at a news conference with the German and Bavarian governments that it would accept the bequest of 1,300 artworks from Cornelius Gurlitt...

Bunny Mellon's Rothkos Top $158.7 Million Sale

ArtfixDaily / November 10th, 2014

Rachel Lambert Mellon, known as Bunny, was an ardent supporter of Mark Rothko. The iconic abstract expressionist's dark blue-purple work from 1970 sold for nearly...

Murder in Auvers?: Forensic Expert Weighs In On Van Gogh's Cause of Death

Vanity Fair / November 9th, 2014

Was Vincent van Gogh murdered? A new voice is backing the theory that someone shot the artist...