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Hartley, Heade Lead $24.6 Million Sotheby's American Art Sale
ArtfixDaily / December 1st, 2011
Private collectors dominated the salesroom buying the top ten lots at Sotheby's Dec. 1 American Paintings auction which totaled $24.6 million. Even with 32 of 111 lots going unsold, the hefty sale total was bolstered by competitive bidding for several marquee works offered freshly from ...
Venerable American Art Gallery Closes Doors After 165 Years
New York Times / December 1st, 2011
A major Manhattan gallery noted for shaping tastes and the market for American art for 165 years has announced that it is closing permanently. The sudden shuttering of Knoedler & Co., on the Upper East Side, leaves behind an American art institution and a valuable repository...
Oscar Bluemner Tops $25.8 Million Christie's American Paintings Auction
ArtfixDaily / November 30th, 2011
A signature work by American modernist Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) blew past its presale estimate of $2 million to $3 million to fetch an artist auction record price of $5.3 million at Christie's Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture sale on Nov. 30. The auction totaled ...
Newly Discovered Velazquez, Goya Headline Old Master Sales in London
ArtfixDaily / November 30th, 2011
A previously unknown Velazquez portrait is the center of the Old Master Paintings auction to be held on December 7 at Bonhams in London. The bust-length portrait of an unknown sitter is expected to sell for 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds. The painting was one of a group acquired from the estate of ...
George Catlin Indian Portfolio Sparks International Bidding Battle
ArtfixDaily / November 28th, 2011
In a German auction, George Catlin’s “North American Indian Portfolio” almost doubled its starting price of 45,000 euros with a final result of 87,600 euros including commission, leaving several competitive bidders from the U.S. empty-handed. The heated bidding skirmish for the rare period ...
Dispute Over $400 Million Huguette Clark Estate Jeopardizes Future Museum
MSNBC / November 28th, 2011
A recently revealed earlier will signed by heiress Huguette Clark, who died in May at 104, puts the possibility of a new California art museum in question. Clark, a reclusive Manhattan multimillionaire with a Gilded Age copper mining fortune, left part of her estimated $400 million estate to...
Museum's "Crown Jewel" Painting by Marsden Hartley on Auction Block
Kansas City Star / November 28th, 2011
When the capital campaign to renovate the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery fell short by $700,000, Bethany College, in Lindsborg, Kan., decided to sell the lone Marsden Hartley in its collection. The oil painting, “Untitled (Still Life),” from 1919, reflects the American modernist’s ...
Suspects Claim FBI Art Crimes Chief 'Ordered' Museum Theft
Telegraph / November 27th, 2011
Seven people on trial for stealing works by Monet, Sisley and Brueghel from a French museum say that the crime was instigated by Robert K. Wittman, the FBI's well-known art detective. The 2007 heist from Nice's Musée des Beaux Arts yielded the gun-toting thieves four paintings valued at upwards of 22 million euros...
U.S. Film Premiere of 'Gerhard Richter Painting' at Art Basel Miami Beach
ArtfixDaily / November 22nd, 2011
In one decade, Art Basel Miami Beach has catapulted from lively newcomer on the art fair scene in the Americas to an annual destination for the international contemporary art set. This year's 10th edition, from Dec. 1 to 4, features...
Corot Conman Gets His Comeuppance
NY Daily News / November 22nd, 2011
A career swindler, Thomas Doyle of Manhattan, was sentenced to six years in prison for his latest art crime, a convoluted fraud scheme involving a work by Corot. Doyle purchased the work for $775,000, but convinced an investor that its price was...
Clyfford Still Museum Opens with Ninety-Four Percent of Artist's Oeuvre
LA Times blog / November 22nd, 2011
On November 18, The Clyfford Still Museum opened in Denver, Colorado, just nine days after Sotheby's auctioned four Clyfford Still paintings for a strong total of $114.1 million. The sales were to benefit the endowment of the museum which opens with 110 artworks on view from a collection of 2,400...
Stolen Art Returns Home after 60 Years
ArtfixDaily / November 21st, 2011
A painting stolen from Berlin in the chaotic aftermath of WWII, and subsequently sold to the Indiana University Art Museum, is finally on its way back to Germany after years of investigation. The return of two other looted German art works, both by Expressionist painter Karl Schmitt-Rottluff, ...
L.S. Lowry Painting Commands $8.8 Million; Records for Works on Paper
Bloomberg / November 20th, 2011
L.S. Lowry's "Piccadilly Circus, London," from 1960, recently sold for £5.6 million ($8.8 million) in London at Christie's. Works on paper by Lowry and Henry Moore (at left) set auction records at Bonhams...
Street Art Kicked to the Curb
CBS / November 17th, 2011
Art has been allegedly trashed from a special installation in Los Angeles. AEG, or Anschutz Entertainment Group, stands accused of junking the artwork of renowned street artists Mear One, Chor Boogie and Shark Toof. Curator for the L.A. Art Machine, Bryson Strauss, recruited the three artists, ...
Pushkin Museum Accused of Exhibiting Fake Modigliani
The Art Newspaper / November 16th, 2011
The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow is being accused of displaying a fake Modigliani in their current exhibition "Paris School; 1905-32." The painting in question is a supposed portrait of Marevna, the Russian-born cubist painter who was associated with Amedeo Modigliani's ...
Auction Records Set for American Folk Art Portraiture, Botero Sculpture, Yellow Diamond
ArtfixDaily / November 16th, 2011
Skinner's sold a rare 18th-century portrait for a record-setting $1,271,000 with commission (est. $150,000-250,000) on Nov. 5 in Boston. The portrait of Abigail Rose of North Branford, Conn., broke the previous record for American folk art portraiture...
Christie's Watch Auction Soars to $29 Million Total
ArtfixDaily / November 15th, 2011
A pink gold Patek Philippe wristwatch and James Bond's Mythical Rolex were among the star lots that sparked a nine-hour bidding marathon at Christie's Geneva auction of Important Watches The sale totalled 26,183,538 Swiss francs ($29,168,461).
Photographer Andreas Gursky Unseats Cindy Sherman in Record Setting Sale
CBS News / November 14th, 2011
A digital photograph entitled “Rhein II” by German photographer Andreas Gursky sold for $4.3 million last week at Christie’s New York, setting a new record for the artist and the category.
Auctions Tally Record $92 Million during Asian Art Week in London
Bloomberg / November 12th, 2011
A selection of 1,695 Chinese artworks and antiques offered at Sotheby's, Christie's and Bonhams during the 14th annual Asian Art in London event last week totalled a record 57.4 million pounds ($92 million) even while 44% of the lots failed to sell.
MFA Boston to Acquire Important Collection of African American Art
Art in America / November 11th, 2011
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has acquired 67 works of African American art from the collector and MFA Honorary overseer, John Axelrod, who is selling the works to the MFA at below market values, between...