ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Chihuly Garden and Glass Opens in Seattle

Seattle Times / May 23rd, 2012

At the base of Seattle's famous Space Needle, the 45,000-square-foot Chihuly Garden and Glass opened on Monday transforming 1.5 acres of city asphalt into a glass garden oasis. Controversy has swirled around...

Basquiat Record Rounds Out Blockbuster Auction Series

ArtfixDaily / May 15th, 2012

May has so-far ushered in a record-smashing season of auctions. Nearly $1.5 billion of art was sold in 2 weeks at three New York auction houses: Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury. The latest headliner is Jean Michel Basquiat's ‘Untitled”...

Lichtenstein Retrospective Opening Delayed Due to Members' Demands

Crain's / May 14th, 2012

A retrospective of the work of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, whose “Sleeping Girl” set an auction record of $45 million last week, will open May 22 at the Art Institute of Chicago. Proving the artist's current popularity, on onslaught of...

Artist Robert Indiana Sued over Sculptures

/ May 10th, 2012

A Monaco-based art dealer is suing renowned Pop artist Robert Indiana, who is celebrated worldwide for his LOVE sculptures. The dealer bringing the suit...

Lichtenstein, Bacon Boost Sotheby's $266.6 million Sale

ArtfixDaily / May 9th, 2012

Led by $44.9 million final bids for Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein, Sotheby's took in a grand total of $266.6 million with its Contemporary art evening sale on Wednesday. Nearly half of the offered lots went above estimates with 46 of 57 lots selling. Lichtenstein's "Sleeping Girl"...

Christie's Sale Shatters Records for Post-war Masters

ArtfixDaily / May 9th, 2012

Works by modern art giants from Rothko and Pollock to Calder and Klein sparked furious bidding at Christie's on Tuesday. A number of record-breaking prices sent the Post-war and contemporary art sale to $388.5 million, the highest total ever for the category, with 59 offered lots. From the ...

Estate of Artist Lucien Freud Valued at $156 Million

Reuters / April 30th, 2012

itish portrait painter Lucien Freud left 96 million pounds ($156 million) in his will. According to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, the amount is a record for an artist's estate in the UK. Freud, who died last year, bequeathed...

New York Magazine's Rules for Making It in the Art World

New York Magazine / April 23rd, 2012

Decidedly in the realm of contemporary art, 100 people made New York Magazine's list of who to know in the art world, part of a feature titled "How to Make It in the Art World." Those with influence are...

Italian Museum Burns Art in Government Protest

CNN / April 22nd, 2012

An Italian museum of contemporary art is protesting government austerity measures in a drastic way: by burning their inventory. Led by director Antonio Manfredi, the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples kicked off the protest this week by setting fire to a painting by...

Bomb Threat Closes Swedish Museum During Controversial Exhibition

New York Daily News / April 18th, 2012

Tensions were running high in Stockholm, Sweden, after a bomb threat closed the city's modern art museum. On April 17, the Moderna Museet was evacuated after officers received the threat, delivered in English, and a bomb squad was dispatched to the museum. The threat came only a couple days after the opening of...

Luxury Hotels Double as Art Destinations

Wall Street Journal / March 27th, 2012

Luxury hotels are putting the focus on art, inside their buildings and outside them, reports the Wall Street Journal’s weekend Off Duty. Rotating displays, art concierges and even sculpture gardens where you can shop are taking hold in high-end hot spots from Hong Kong to Napa Valley. Among those recommended...

Promised Gift a Windfall for Two Museums

New York Times / March 21st, 2012

Noted art collectors Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner have promised over 800 works of art to two museums. One of the lucky repositories named in the gift is...

Spirited Sales during New York Art Week

ArtfixDaily / March 11th, 2012

New York City was inundated by the contemporary art contingent this week, with both the Armory Show and The ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America) Art Show taking place, as well as a plethora of smaller fairs and major auctions running contemporaneously. As the week comes to a close, there ...

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...

Claire Falkenstein Sculpture Stolen Concurrent to Major Exhibition on the Artist

ArtfixDaily / March 6th, 2012

With the price for scrap metal running high, thieves recently ripped apart a public sculpture by the artist Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997). Now missing is her copper fountain, entitled Tide Pool, an outdoor centerpiece created for the Commons in San Francisco. Falkenstein Foundation president, ...

Hong Kong's Art Scene Sprouts More Buds

ArtfixDaily / March 5th, 2012

Beijing and Shanghai have long had significant art scenes, and been home to a number of notable artists, such as Beijing’s high-profile Ai Weiwei (who recently sold his “Sunflower Seeds 2010” to the Tate Modern for an undisclosed amount). Yet, it is Hong Kong that has fast become...

Occupy Wall Street Takes Aim at Whitney Biennial

ArtfixDaily / February 29th, 2012

Hard on the heels of a faux Whitney Biennial website being set up to mock the museum for its corporate ties, an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) group has written a letter calling for the Biennial’s cessation in 2014.

Mystery over Modern Masters Authenticity Boils On

New York Times / February 22nd, 2012

Court documents have begun to expose a little bit of the intrigue behind an art world scandal. The authenticity of a cache of works attributed to giants of Abstract Expressionism, from Jackson Pollock to Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko to Willem de Kooning, is under investigation by the F.B.I. Details are emerging piecemeal in lawsuits. When Knoedler & Co. closed abruptly in December..

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 ...

Bacon Fires Up Christie's Auction; Richters Reap $30 Million at Sotheby's

ArtfixDaily / February 15th, 2012

There was more bank-breaking action at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s London auction houses over the last few days. Christie’s evening auction of Post-War and Contemporary art managed to rake in $126.5 million, with a Francis Bacon going for over $33.4 million...