ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Artist Cy Twombly remembered

Los Angeles Times / July 6th, 2011

The internationally renowned American artist Cy Twombly died on July 5 in Rome, where he spent much of his time since the 1950s. He was 83. Along with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly was...

Record prices for Stubbs, Gainsborough in $80m London sale

Bloomberg / July 5th, 2011

A George Stubbs painting brought an artist record price of 22.4 million pounds ($36 million) and a Thomas Gainsborough fetched 6.5 million pounds ($10.4 million) in a $80 million Christie’s sale, making it the second-highest total for...

Summer exhibitions at Britain's Bowes Museum

ArtfixDaily / July 5th, 2011

The Bowes Museum of Barnard Castle, an English treasure house built in the French chateau-style by 19th-century art collectors John and Josephine Bowes, has drawn a record number of visitors to its trio of summer exhibitions featuring high-style fashion, ancient Egyptian art, and 19th-century ...

New York gallery sued over phony, overvalued art

Business Insider / July 5th, 2011

New York's ABA Gallery and its owner, Anatoly Bekkerman, have been accused by a European buyer of selling $6.5 million in fake and overvalued paintings by Russian artists. A company in Luxembourg filed a federal suit on Friday claiming that...

Interview: Photographer Stephen Shore

Phaidon / July 5th, 2011

'In the mid-1970s I was once invited for dinner at a friend's loft in SoHo,' recounts Shore. 'At dinner was Ansel Adams. During the meal I saw Ansel drink six tall glasses of straight vodka and...

Rediscovered da Vinci painting could hit the market

The Telegraph / July 5th, 2011

'Salvator Mundi,' previously thought to have been painted by a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, is now deemed by international experts to be by the master himself. It could fetch as much as $200 million...

Artnet forges ahead with online auctions

New York Times / July 4th, 2011

Although its online auction business has not yet turned a profit, Artnet has now sold more than 6,500 objects or artworks, generating $2.5 million in commissions on $12 million in sales in 2010. The average price...

"Duets: Themes and Variations, New Paintings by Warren Prosperi" at Vose Galleries

Boston Globe / July 1st, 2011

"Bringing a portrait painter’s depth of psychological realism to the table, the Prosperis make history paintings that are distinctly contemporary," writes Cate McQuaid in the Boston Globe of the current exhibition at Boston's Vose Galleries.

Water Views from the Figge Collection

Quad-City Times / June 30th, 2011

Works by Hudson River School masters figure laregly in“Water Views from the Figge Collection,” an exhibition on display through Aug. 21 at the Figge Art Museum, appropriately overlooking the Mississippi River, in Davenport, Iowa.

Last chance to visit American Folk Art Museum on West 53rd Street

ArtfixDaily / June 30th, 2011

Independence Day weekenders can soak up Americana, from Colonial portraiture to quilts, in Manhattan for one last stretch at the American Folk Art Museum's 45 West 53rd St. location. The museum will be moving to its home at 2 Lincoln Square on July 9.

Rose Art Museum will keep its collection

Boston Globe / June 30th, 2011

A contentious lawsuit against Brandeis University has been settled with an agreement that will keep its Rose Art Museum's modern art collection intact.

John Paulson fund rescues Berry-Hill Galleries

Wall Street Journal / June 30th, 2011

A fund controlled by finance titan John Paulson has purchased a loan to American-art specialist Berry-Hill Galleries for about $10 million, as well as the mortgage on the gallery's property...

Record $175m contemporary art auction in London

Bloomberg / June 29th, 2011

The contemporary art auctions in London this week sent high-level works to top prices. The 88-lot Sotheby’s evening auction on June 29 totaled a robust 108.8 million pounds ($175 million), the highest total ever...

Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth at Brandywine River Museum

ArtfixDaily / June 28th, 2011

Portly pigs, graceful horses, and plucky chickens figure largely in Jamie Wyeth's lively depictions of farm work and life in the current exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum. These seemingly docile creatures populate serene landscapes and mix with images of farm objects in a world that the ...

Billy the Kid tintype wrangles $2.6m

/ June 28th, 2011

Private collector William Koch ponied up $2.6 million (with 15% commission) for the only known surviving portrait of Billy the Kid at a Denver auction. The tintype of the legendary outlaw blew away its pre-sale estimate of ...

New book reveals the art of Tamara de Lempicka - The Queen of the Modern

ArtfixDaily / June 27th, 2011

A cosmopolitan painter and icon of the art deco movement, Tamara de Lempicka (Polish, 1898-1980) created images that became the symbols of the era stretching from the roaring 1920s through the tumultuous 1930s.

BBC hosts Britain's public art collections online

BBC / June 26th, 2011

Works by John Singer Sargent, John Constable, and Andy Warhol are among the 200,000 paintings in a national collection owned by British taxpayers. Some of this art trove resides in small publicly-funded collections and others exist in relative obscurity, either stashed in museum storage or on ...

Princess Diana gown swept to $800K at auction

ArtfixDaily / June 26th, 2011

A bidder paid $800,000 (CAN) for a gown that Princess Diana memorably wore when she spun around the dance floor with actor John Travolta at a White House state dinner in 1985. It was the top lot among 14 dresses owned by the late Princess of Wales offered at Waddington's...

Michael Jackson "Thriller" jacket fetches $1.8 million at auction

ArtfixDaily / June 26th, 2011

Perhaps one of the most iconic piece of music memorabilia ever auctioned, Michael Jackson's red jacket worn for his "Thriller" video sold for a record price of $1.8 million at a weekend auction. Bidders traveled from as far as China and New Zealand to attend the sale in Beverly Hills, according ...

Heiress Huguette Clark leaves art museum to Santa Barbara

LA Times / June 24th, 2011

Paintings by such artists as John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, and Renoir will take residence in a new public museum on a California beach bluff. The will of reclusive copper heiress Huguette Clark, who died last month at 104, was made public Wednesday. She stipulated that one of her ...