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Category: european art
A Twisted Tale Behind Huguette Clark's $10 Million Degas
ArtfixDaily / March 19th, 2012
An exquisite image by French Impressionist Edgar Degas, valued at $10 million, is at the center of yet another puzzle involving the estate of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark. The pastel and gouache painting of a ballerina, one of Degas’ favorite subjects, called “Dancer Making Points,” is...
Buzzworthy at the New York Art Shows
Huffington Post / March 8th, 2012
With 10 art shows running concurrently in New York this week, and hundreds of dealer exhibitions of modern and contemporary art on view, the stage is set for an art market gauge. Interest levels of collectors, curators and art-curious are soon measured in terms of sales. Red-dot reports have already abounded from the Armory Show...
Betting Much on Munch Auction Record
ArtfixDaily / March 4th, 2012
For those looking for action on the star lot in Sotheby’s May 2 sale of Impressionist and modern works in New York, Ladbrokes betting service has provided an alternative way to be part of the excitement. The London-based gambling company has been taking bets on the final price for an 1895 ...
Art Thief Gets Sentenced for Hotel Lobby Heists
Newsday / February 28th, 2012
A sometime sommelier and Manhattan restaurant staffer who had a penchant for pricey artwork was sentenced to 1 to 3 years of prison time for theft in New York on Tuesday. Mark Lugo, 31, has already served 138 days behind bars for stealing...
Part of Hitler's Art Cache Uncovered in Czech Monastery
ArtfixDaily / February 27th, 2012
Seven paintings, formerly owned by infamous dictator Adolph Hitler, have been located at a monastery in the Czech Republic. The paintings were apparently stashed in Bohemia towards the end of World War II, at the Vyssi Brod monastery. Just recently, historian and writer...
Munch's 'The Scream' Might Muster $80 Million at Auction
ArtfixDaily / February 21st, 2012
One of four versions of Edvard Munch’s iconic “The Scream” will lead Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale on May 2 in New York. This widely-recognized masterpiece, painted in 1895, is the last version to be privately held, and has been in the possession of Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen ...
Palm Springs Blooms with Art Shows, Museum Exhibits, Sunnylands Opening
ArtfixDaily / February 20th, 2012
The California desert is alive with art this winter. A new art fair hit the ground running during the 11-day Palm Springs Modernism Week (through Feb. 26). The Palm Springs Art Museum has mounted a notable exhibition of ethereal landscapes by Lockwood de Forest on view through April 8 and the ...
Getty Museum Appoints New Director Who Will "Think Big"
ArtfixDaily / February 19th, 2012
As of September 1, the Getty Museum will have a new director, a position that has been empty since the departure of Michael Brand over two years ago. The incoming director will be...
Elizabeth Taylor Estate Auctions Wrap with $183.5 Million Total
ArtfixDaily / February 9th, 2012
Star power drove prices for items from actress Elizabeth Taylor's estate to five, ten or even 50 times their pre-sale estimates at a series of Christie's sales. Bidders worldwide clamored for 1,817 lots of fine art, jewelry, fashion, decorative arts and memorabilia from the late Taylor's personal ...
Christie's Sale Tumbles Records; Mixed Results at Sotheby's
ArtfixDaily / February 8th, 2012
Records were smashed at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, along with The Art of the Surreal auction, in London on February 7. Though not all of the 88 lots sold, new top prices were made for modern masters and Surrealists, for a total take of £134,999,400 ($213,299,052). A ...
Cezanne Becomes Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold
U.K. Independent / February 6th, 2012
Over the weekend, news spread that Paul Cezanne's "The Card Players" was purchased for $250 million by the Qatari royal family from the collection of the late Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos. The staggering price is almost double the previous record for a work of art.
France Says Guy Wildenstein Owes $330 Million in Back Taxes
ArtfixDaily / February 4th, 2012
The French government is demanding that prominent art dealer Guy Wildenstein pay €250 million ($330 million) in back taxes. The head of the powerful art dealing family is said to have grossly undervalued his father's estate. Overall, the heirs of Daniel Wildenstein (d. 2001) owe...
Stolen Pissarro Returns to France After Three Decades
ArtfixDaily / February 2nd, 2012
Thirty years ago, back in 1981, Emile Guelton walked into the Faure Museum in Aix-les-Bains, France, only to stroll out with a Camille Pissarro monotype under his jacket. The brazen criminal then managed to smuggle the image, entitled “Le Marché aux Poissons” to the United States where it was ...
Gardner Museum Addition Dazzles Critics, Some of the Crowd
Boston Globe / January 29th, 2012
A glass box-like punctuation point to its original palazzo-style museum, the new Renzo Piano-designed addition of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened January 19 to critical acclaim, with accolades for the functionality of the architecture itself. The Boston Globe notes, "...its sloping ...
Nuns Lose $51 Million Lawsuit Over Painting
Antiques and the Arts / January 10th, 2012
A long-standing lawsuit over the sale of a 19th-century painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau has been lost by New York State-based Catholic nuns who sued a Santa Fe, N.M., art dealer and a local art appraiser. In 2008, the nuns claimed that dealer...
100 Picasso Etchings Recently Donated to British Museum
ArtfixDaily / December 22nd, 2011
Picasso's 100 Vollard etchings which document his love affair with Marie-Therese Walter have been donated to the British Museum. The suite of etchings, which was commissioned by Paris art dealer Ambroise Vollard, often depicts Picasso as a bull-headed minotaur with the young Marie-Therese. This ...
Pre-Raphaelite Picture Reaps Auction Record Price
Northampton Chronicle / December 18th, 2011
A world record price was set for the work of Frank Cadogan Cowper (English, 1877-1958) at Christie’s in London for a 40in by 30in painting titled Our Lady Of The Fruits Of The Earth. Created in 1917, Cowper's vibrant oil had been expected to sell for between £150,000 and £250,000, but in the ...
Surrealist Price Surge in $19 Million Sotheby's Sale
ArtfixDaily / December 18th, 2011
Last week, Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art evening sale reached its high-end estimate, totaling $19.3 million. Three pieces by the German Surrealist Max Ernst (1891-1976) drew the biggest bids. Ernst's scene of bizarre battling characters drew...
Museum Curator as Art Detective
Boston Globe / December 11th, 2011
At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Victoria Reed is the first and only endowed curator of provenance at an American museum. Since 2010, her role has been to research objects in the museum's collections, and new acquisitions, in order to determine the right of ownership. At times, Reed's findings have led to restitution...
Record Prices for Old Masters in London Auctions
ArtfixDaily / December 8th, 2011
Several artists achieved world record prices at the series of Old Masters paintings sales in London this week. A work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger sold for an artist auction record price of £6.9 million ($10.7 million) at Christie's in London to lead its $37.6 million Old Master & ...