ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Record price set for Chinese contemporary art

Bloomberg / April 3rd, 2011

A triptych painted by Zhang Xiaogang fetched HK$79 million with fees, an auction record for a contemporary Chinese artist, at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. This early work by Zhang, "Forever Lasting Love," more than doubled its estimate. The April 2 sale, part of 3,600-lot series, netted HK$427.2 ...

Philanthropist gives £15 million to save unseen art

Telegraph / March 31st, 2011

British hedge fund manager Jonathan Ruffer has donated £15 million to keep a series of paintings on public view in the U.K. He has never seen the 13 paintings of Jacob and his sons by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán. Church commissioners were set to auction the 17th century ...

Old Masters invited to British royal wedding reception

The Scotsman / March 30th, 2011

Buckingham Palace will be bedecked with its best art and accoutrements for the April 29 reception celebrating the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. In the Palace's Picture Gallery -- where the multi-tiered fruity wedding cake will reside --  works by Old Masters like ...

Red, white quilts boldly blanket New York

ArtfixDaily / March 27th, 2011

In New York, the American Folk Art Museum has dramatically transformed the Park Avenue Armory’s 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall with "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts," an installation of 650 red and white American quilts. On view March 25 to 30, this free ...

Sales surge at TEFAF Maastricht

Guardian / March 22nd, 2011

This week's rarefied bazaar of art and antiquities at TEFAF in Maastricht is truly an international affair that has proven the upper-end of the market remains strong in many categories, from antiquities to contemporary art.  Early on, a group of Chinese buyers snapped up Japanese art from ...

Earthquake relief part of Spring Asian Art Week in New York; Highlights in Japanese Art

ArtfixDaily / March 18th, 2011

From March 18 to 28, auction houses, museums, and many of the world's leading galleries are hosting dozens of special exhibitions and sales across New York City, featuring fine examples of ancient to contemporary Chinese, Indian, Himalayan, Southeast Asian, Korean, and Japanese art. Following the ...

Confident dealers offer their best art & antiques in Maastricht; Preview video online

TEFAF Preview / March 17th, 2011

There are 30,000 items worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) offered by 260 top-tier galleries at the world’s most influential art and antiques fair. Two highlights are extraordinary paintings by Rembrandt and Renoir. Attracting leading international collectors and museum officials, ...

DeCordova Museum goes for the Goldsworthy

Boston.com / March 15th, 2011

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Mass., is looking to raise $1 million, specifically to commission a work by British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. In an effort to upgrade the collection of its 35-acre sculpture park, the museum wants to acquire the work of this well-known ...

Ways to help earthquake relief in Japan

Huffington Post / March 13th, 2011

Following the devastating 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, a number of international aid agenices are fundraising to provide humanitarian relief. Direct Relief International, for one, has committed an initial $600,000 in cash to the effort and offered $15 million in ...

Gustav Stickley, now in paperback

PHAIDON store / March 10th, 2011

Phaidon has released a massive paperback about Gustav Stickley (1858-1942), the iconic character and one of the most influential figures of the American Arts & Crafts movement. Stickley was a self-made man whose furniture company, Craftsman Workshops, and the seminal magazine he founded in ...

$45 million Turner goes on display at Getty

Getty Museum blog / March 9th, 2011

J.M.W. Turner’s Modern Rome—Campo Vaccino was finally placed on view Tuesday at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles after the U.K. failed to raise funds to keep the masterpiece on British soil. The Getty bought the 1839 painting by the British master at a Sotheby's auction last July for a record ...

New art fair finds a niche in Naples

Naplesnews.com / March 8th, 2011

Veteran show organizer David Lester estimated that sales soared to between $10 million and $20 million at his inaugural Naples International Art & Antiques Show. About 80% of visitors to the new 4-day show were locals from the southwest Florida city of Naples, but Lester told Naplesnews.com ...

Must-see Chagall exhibition in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Inquirer / March 6th, 2011

The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents the exceptional exhibition "Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle," a look at the emigre artists from Eastern Europe who helped to make Paris the center of the artistic avant-garde. Works by Marc Chagall dominate such as Half-Past Three ...

Art Summit at ADAA Art Show

artnet / March 6th, 2011

“Transparency in the Art Market” was the panel topic in The Art Newspaper's "Art Industry Summit,” held March 3 at the Park Avenue Armory in conjunction with the Art Dealer’s Association of America (ADAA) Art Show, Mar. 2-6, 2011. An auction house rep and two dealers sparred over art market ...

WSJ's Guide to the Armory Show

Wall Street Journal / March 3rd, 2011

Each year the Armory Show attracts 60,000 visitors to both ogle and buy modern masters and contemporary art. Combined with other art shows across Manhattan, the Armory week should generate more than $40 million in economic activity in the city, according to Mayor Bloomberg's office. The Wall ...

Billionaire computer mogul sues Santa Fe gallery

Santa Fe New Mexican / February 28th, 2011

Art collector Norman Waitt, whose billion-dollar fortune came from the 1991 sale of his Gateway computer company, has filed a lawsuit against a Santa Fe art dealer over a painting he says is worth only...

Record-breaking Chinese vase still mysterious

The Telegraph / February 28th, 2011

The sale of an 18th century Qianlong-dynasty vase for £51.6 million ($83 million) last November created widespread buzz about attic finds and the strength of the Chinese art market. Auctioneer Bainbridge's, a small firm in suburban London, catapulted the estate item into the most expensive ...

Private collection of Dutch Golden Age art on view at Peabody Essex Museum

Salem News / February 24th, 2011

On Feb. 26, the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Mass., will open a new exhibit, "Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection," which includes 67 works by important Old Masters such as a Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Jan Steen, as well as lesser known ...

Paintings from Questroyal Fine Art will star at Oscars

ArtfixDaily / February 21st, 2011

Six spectacular American paintings from New York City's Questroyal Fine Art have been selected to adorn the Architectural Digest green room at the Oscars. Film stars and glitterati will gather for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 27th. Celebrated ...

Warhol, Richter pop to the top in London sales

Mutual Art / February 17th, 2011

A recently rediscovered 6-by-6 foot Andy Warhol self-portrait doubled its pre-sale estimate to fetch £10.8 million pounds ($17.4 million) at a London auction on Wednesday. Christie's evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary art brought in a total £61.4 million ($99 million), well ...