ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

From Abstraction Innovators to Protest Art, Art Basel Miami Beach Mixes Up Eclectic Offerings

ArtfixDaily / December 4th, 2017

From December 7 to December 10, with a VIP preview on Dec. 6, Art Basel's 16th edition in Miami Beach features 268 leading galleries within a more-spaciously redesigned floorplan at the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC).  2017 is an important year for the cultural scene in ...

Wende Museum Showcases Material Culture of the Cold War Era

ArtfixDaily / November 28th, 2017

The Wende Museum in its new location in Culver City, Calif., is a collections-based research and education institute that preserves Cold War artifacts and history, making resources available to scholars and applying historical lessons of the past to the present. From a vandalized bust of ...

Gallerist Gary Nader to Sell $100 Million of His Art to Fund Museum

Miami New Times / October 12th, 2017

Art dealer Gary Nader plans to sell about $100 million worth of works from his collection to fund the building of a new museum in downtown Miami. Several blue-chip works---by the likes of Picasso and Botero---from Nader's personal collection are set to be sold during Art Basel Miami Beach in ...

Gurlitt's Art Dealer Finally Speaks About His Notorious Client

Swiss Info / October 12th, 2017

Swiss art dealer and auctioneer Eberhard Kornfeld broke his silence about client Cornelius Gurlitt in an interview, detailing how the reclusive collector sold off artworks. Gurlitt, who died in 2014, inherited over 1,200 artworks from his art dealer father who worked with the Nazis. He kept the ...

'Loving Vincent' Film Animates Van Gogh's Life and Work

ArtfixDaily / September 28th, 2017

The world's first fully painted feature film is an animated adventure featuring the tragic story and beloved artworks of Vincent van Gogh---and it's experienced as if viewing his life through the lens of his art. The film opened in New York last week, and debuts in LA on Friday before additional ...

Sotheby's Releases Estimates for Berkshire Museum Artworks

ArtfixDaily / September 12th, 2017

The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Mass., appears to be going forward with its planned sale of 40 artworks from its collections despite protests from museum professional organizations and art lovers. Over $50 million is estimated to be generated from the sales, and the museum has a ...

Antonio Banderas Stars as Picasso in NatGeo's 'Genius' Series

Variety / September 11th, 2017

Actor Antonio Banderas will portray Pablo Picasso in National Geographic’s “Genius” Season 2. The first season of “Genius”, which starred Geoffrey Rush as Einstein, was recently nominated for 10 Emmys, and was watched by over 45 million viewers globally, according to Variety. Picasso ...

After $3.5 Million Renovation, JMW Turner's Picturesque Cottage Opens to Visitors

Guardian / August 16th, 2017

In 1813 England’s great landscape painter JMW Turner built a small villa, Sandycombe Lodge, on a large plot near the Thames at Twickenham. Here, the painter became an architect, guided by the hand of his friend John Soane, notes the home's website. Now, a $3.5 million renovation has made ...

3 Stolen Francis Bacon Paintings Recovered by Police in Spain

Daily Star / July 20th, 2017

Spanish police announced the recovery of three of five stolen paintings by Francis Bacon on Thursday. Five Bacon paintings valued at more than 25 million euros ($29 million) along with a safe with jewels and coins were taken from a Madrid residence in July 2015. The works were stolen from a ...

$600 Million Historical Art Collection Heads to a Contemporary Art Museum

New York Times / July 17th, 2017

Near Turin, Italy, a private art collection with notable works spanning the 13th-to-20th centuries, and valued at $600 million, will radically transform a contemporary art museum, reports the New York Times. In a statement, the Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti per l’Arte, Castello di ...

Italian Authorities Seize 21 Paintings from Modigliani Exhibition

Telegraph / July 16th, 2017

Some 21 paintings in an exhibition of works by famed modernist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) were seized by Italian authorities as part of an investigation into their authenticity. Displayed at the historic Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale) in Genoa, the works were first called into question ...

First-Ever Exhibitions of Gurlitt Art Trove Planned For This Fall

DW / June 27th, 2017

Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle and the Museum of Fine Arts Bern will finally exhibit works from the infamous stash of artworks known as the Gurlitt hoard more than five years after its astonishing discovery. Parts of the collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of the Nazi art dealer Hildebrand ...

Salvador Dali's Body to Be Exhumed in Paternity Case

BBC / June 27th, 2017

A Madrid judge has ruled in favor of a Spanish woman to have the remains of surrealist artist Salvador Dali exhumed in a paternity case. The woman, Maria Pilar Abel Martínez, claims that her mother had an affair with the painter in 1955. Her mother worked in Cadaqués for a family that ...

Kandinsky Works Break Artist Record Twice in London Sale

Bloomberg / June 22nd, 2017

Bloomberg reports: Wassily Kandinsky's 1913 canvas “Bild mit Weissen Linien (Painting With White Lines)” fetched 33 million pounds ($41.6 million) at Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art sale in London. His lush 1909 landscape with a green house had just sold for $26.4 million, beating the ...

Restored Renoir Home Will Open to the Public in June

ArtfixDaily / May 24th, 2017

A family home of French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir will open to the public on June 3 following a major restoration. Located in Essoyes, 120 miles southeast of Paris, the residence has been converted into a museum with climate-controlled exhibition space alongside the artist's ...

Brancusi Fetches Record-Setting $57 Million, Nazi-Seized Picasso Makes $45 Million at Christie's

ArtfixDaily / May 16th, 2017

New York's auction "gigaweek" is underway with Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary art offered over four days. Christie's started it off with a solid sale total of $289.2 million, above the $200 million expected. Two notable works soared of the 55 lots offered; in all 78 percent of the lots ...

Cab Driver Returns $1.6 Million Painting Left Behind in Paris Taxi

T+L / May 3rd, 2017

An unidentified art dealer on his way to visit a client in Paris left behind a $1.6 million painting in the trunk of a taxi cab. The work is by Argentina-born Italian sculptor and painter Lucio Fontana, from his famed series of pierced abstractions entitled "Concetto spaziale.” Distracted by ...

$59 Million Klimt Painting Tops Record-Setting Auction in London

ArtfixDaily / March 2nd, 2017

Sotheby’s 54-lot sale of Impressionist, Modern, and Surrealist art Wednesday night brought a total £195 million ($241 million), the highest total for any single auction in London. The pre-sale estimated value for the sale was £150/180 million.  Topping the night, Gustav Klimt's rare ...

Son of Nazi Governor Returns Looted Artworks to Poland

Guardian / February 27th, 2017

Horst Wächter, the 78-year-old son of a notorious SS general, has returned artworks taken decades ago by his parents from a museum collection in Poland. On Sunday, he attended a ceremony in Kraków at which three stolen works were returned to the Polish government, reports the ...

Museums Plan First Public Exhibitions of Gurlitt's Hidden Art Trove in November

Kunstmuseum Bern / February 15th, 2017

Dates have been announced for exhibitions showcasing some of the 1,500 artworks discovered hidden in the apartment of the late Cornelius Gurlitt in Munich and in another residence.  The Museum of Fine Arts in the Swiss capital, Bern, and the Art and Exhibition Hall in the German city of ...