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Gauguin, Degas to star in Christie's blockbuster sale
Christie's / January 10th, 2011
A painting of sunflowers by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is expected to lead Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Auction, a sale chock-full of fresh-to-market works from various private collections and a museum, on Feb. 9 in London. Gauguin painted Nature morte à “L’Espérance” ...
Broad museum plans revealed
huffington Post / January 9th, 2011
Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and the Broad Art Foundation unveiled architectural renderings for a new gallery showcasing contemporary art (which will be known as The Broad) planned for Downtown Los Angeles. The site is across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Museum of ...
Art Market: Record highs, soft middle
New York Observer / January 6th, 2011
Record auction prices, successful art fairs, and quick gallery sales in 2010 may have reflected both pent-up demand for exceptional pieces and an increasing interest in art and antiques as the still-affluent sought to invest in tangible assets. Segments of the art market seemed to perform ...
Calder mobile stars in Antiques Roadshow season premiere
PBS / January 4th, 2011
The 2011 season of Antiques Roadshow on PBS started off on a high note in Miami Beach with a $1 million find, the second highest valuation in the popular TV show's 15-year history. In Monday night's episode, decorative arts appraiser Christopher Kennedy was presented with a colorful mobile made ...
Kovels Year in Review: Collectibles clean up at 2010 auctions
Kovels / January 4th, 2011
Printed books, movie memorabilia, and Chinese porcelain were among the auction market's superstar categories with great stories in 2010. Record prices for art, antiques, and collectibles were achieved and then quickly surpassed throughout the year. Of note, American historical documents and ...
Exhibition of antique Spode serves up every pattern online
ArtfixDaily / January 3rd, 2011
Casual collectors, appraisers, museum curators and decorative arts aficionados can now browse through every known blue Spode pattern in a new interactive online exhibition of the famed English ceramic. In November, Delaware's Winterthur launched the Spode Exhibition Online ...
Controversy puts Smithsonian's "Hide/Seek" exhibit in full view
Washington Post / December 29th, 2010
The Smithsonian's Nov. 30 decision to remove an AIDS-related film from its National Portrait Gallery exhibition titled "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" has provoked a month-long fury of controversy and accusations of censorship. After one Washington Post writer called ...
Art collector and financier Roy Neuberger remembered
Bloomberg / December 28th, 2010
Roy Neuberger, the legendary investor and art collector, died at age 107 in New York City on Dec. 24. As the successful cofounder of the money manager Neuberger Berman, he was able to collect a wide swath of American artists such as Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, ...
Edmonia Lewis sculpture achieves $287,500 at auction
Antiques and the Arts / December 28th, 2010
A rare carving by Edmonia Lewis, the 1898 work "Three Native Americans in Battle," or "Indians Wrestling," soared to $287,500 at Gabriel's Auctioneers/Appraisers in Norwood, Mass., on November 29. The 30-inch sculpture, made of white Carrara marble...
Kentucky butter churn fetches auction record of $55,200
Maysville Online / December 28th, 2010
In October, Knoxville-based Case Antiques Inc., Auctions and Appraisals sold an eight gallon stoneware butter churn, made and decorated in Maysville, Kentucky, by Isaac Thomas, for $55,200, a record price for Kentucky pottery.
Nuns sell rare baseball card for $220K
ABC News / December 27th, 2010
Last week, the Balitmore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame sold a rare Honus Wagner baseball card, with condition issues, in a post-auction transaction to a Philadelphia-area cardiologist for $220,000. The T206 series of the Honus Wagner card, produced between 1909 and 1911, is considered the ...
"The Art of Collecting" goes inside private collectors' homes
Boston Globe / December 26th, 2010
“The Art of Collecting: An Intimate Tour Inside Private Art Collections, with Advice on Starting Your Own” (Antique Collector's Club) is a new coffee-table book by Boston-area art dealer Diane McManus Jensen with a foreword by Wendell Garrett. Included are fifteen collecting-specific essays ...
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, returns historic embroidered panel to Italy
ArtfixDaily / December 20th, 2010
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, returned to the Museo Diocesano Tridentino (Diocesan Museum of Trent, Italy) an embroidered panel, the Entombment of Saint Vigilius, from around 1390–1391, on December 20. Commissioned by George of Liechtenstein on the occasion of his appointment as bishop ...
Forbes' toy Lusitania sails to record $194,500 at auction
Bloomberg / December 19th, 2010
The antique toy collection assembled over the course of 40 years by the late Malcom Forbes and his sons went for a total $2.4 million at Sotheby's in New York on Dec. 17. Fetching $194,500, to set...
New British law may make finder's fees risky
The Art Newspaper / December 16th, 2010
The Bribery Act, new British legislation aimed at curtailing bribery in the corporate world, which takes effect next year, may jeopardize the legality of the longstanding practice of paying finder's fees in the art trade. An art dealer may face prosecution for paying a commission to a third ...
Successful sales, turn-out for 14th Boston International Fine Art Show
Antiques and the Arts / December 15th, 2010
Attendance and sales were strong for the fourteenth edition of the Boston International Fine Art Show, held at Boston's Cyclorama from Nov. 18 to 21, and beginning with a benefit preview party for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Forty international dealers exhibited historic to contemporary art, ...
Prices for Asian art ascend at auctions worldwide
ArtfixDaily / December 14th, 2010
Record-setting recent sales of Asian art at Skinner's in Boston and Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco have followed this year's trend of enormous price increases for Chinese art and antiques. Fresh-to-market material helped entice Chinese bidders to Bonhams' Dec. 13 sale of Fine Asian ...
Museum of Contemporary Art whitewashes antiwar mural
Los Angeles Times / December 13th, 2010
A mural recently commissioned by the the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has been whitewashed. The Italian street artist known as Blu painted an image of military style coffins draped in giant dollar bills for an upcoming exhibition. With a Veterans Affairs building and a war ...
Peter C. Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, remembered
New York Times / December 12th, 2010
For nearly 30 years, Peter C. Marzio, as director, led the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on an upward course to world-class status. He steered a series of building expansions, influential exhibitions, and major acquisitions. He also attracted important donations such as Audrey Jones Beck's gift ...
Custer's last flag won for $2.2m at auction
Boston Globe / December 12th, 2010
The only surviving American flag from General Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn sold at a Sotheby's sale for $2.2 million on Saturday. Custer and 200 of his troops perished in their famous battle against Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors in 1876. The war-torn U.S. ...