ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Minor prevails over Christie's in court

ArtfixDaily / May 24th, 2010

CNet cofounder Halsey Minor won the favor of a San Francisco jury in his complicated dispute with Christie's International. The court ordered Christie's to pay $8.57 million in damages to Minor for a perceived drop in the retail value of his paintings held by the auctioneer. Christie's employees ...

INTERPOL issues global alert for Paris art heist

ARTFIXdaily blogs / May 23rd, 2010

INTERPOL, the international police agency, issued a global alert on May 22 with images of five paintings which were stolen from the Modern Art Museum in Paris last Thursday. The move inidcates that French authorities suspect the paintings may have left the country, possibly through an organized ...

King Tut tour raises funds for a grand new Cairo museum

ARTFIXdaily blogs / May 23rd, 2010

Egypt's outspoken crusader for cultural objects, Dr. Zahi Hawass, has been demanding the repatriation of Egyptian antiquities from museums worldwide. At the same time, he has endorsed two touring exhibitions of Egypt's most prized ancient treasures. On June 25, Dr. Hawass, former Secretary ...

"Andy Warhol: Making Money" debuts

ARTFIXdaily blogs / May 23rd, 2010

A book hand-made by Pop artist Andy Warhol as a gift for a young girl will be published for the first time this fall. Rizzoli is releasing a fascimile edition of the one-of-the-kind "Making Money." Originally created by Warhol in 1981, the book features a series of his exuberant freehand ...

"American Masters from the Collection of John and Jean Wilkinson' opens

ARTRIXdaily blogs / May 23rd, 2010

Twenty works by leading American artists such as Thomas Cole, George Inness, Alfred Maurer, Jane Peterson, Thomas B. Pope and Anthony Thieme, are on loan from the private collection of John and Jean Wilkinson to the Appleton Museum of Art. The exhibit, which runs through July 25, illustrates ...

Wyeth, O'Keeffe lead American art auctions in New York

Bloomberg / May 20th, 2010

A silent scene of a clam-digging expedition off the foggy Maine coast rose to $6.35 million (with buyer's premium) at Christie's Thursday. "Off Shore" by Andrew Wyeth, painted in 1967, had a pre-sale estimate of $1.2-$1.8 million. From the collection of actor Mel Gibson and his wife Robyn, ...

$55 million Massachusetts mansion compound for sale

Huffington Post / May 20th, 2010

For more than 150 years, only three families have called "The Oaks" home. The recently-listed 9.4-acre property, about 20 miles south of Boston, literally commands the entire waterfront of Cohasset Harbor. The Barrons and the Bancrofts, heirs to the Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal fortunes, ...

Florida museum receives donated O'Keeffe

AP / May 20th, 2010

An anonymous donor surprised the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg with the gift of a 1930 Georgia O'Keeffe painting. “Grey Hills Painted Red, New Mexico" has been owned by private collectors and loaned to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Modern art masters stolen from Paris museum

New York Times / May 20th, 2010

Overnight on Wednesday, a hooded thief was caught on video heaving himself into the Paris Museum of Modern Art through a broken window. The black-clad burglar apparently evaded a security system and three armed guards. Cut from their frames were “Dove With Green Peas” by Picasso, “La ...

Cranach custody battle may go to Supreme Court

LA Times blog / May 20th, 2010

Jerry Brown, California Atty. Gen. and gubernatorial candidate, has filed a legal brief with the United States Supreme Court that sets him against Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum in its effort to hold onto a nearly 500-year-old pair of paintings of Adam and Eve looted during the Holocaust. Marei ...

Likely a Leonardo self-portrait, say experts

Calgary Herald via Montreal Gazette / May 19th, 2010

A dozen scientists and one art historian have concluded that a recently-discovered painting appears to be a Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait. The work was found in 2009 by a medieval historian studying the art collection of a family in Acerenza, a town in southern Italy. After analyzing ...

Connecticut country home, pile of antiques on the block

/ May 19th, 2010

In an American antiques circles, Litchfield, Connecticut, and its rural surroundings, is a favorite destination. Established dealers such as father-and-son Peter Tillou and Jeffrey Tillou are a mainstay in this classic New England town in the Northwest Hills. For those looking to settle into ...

Mel Gibson, Bernard Goldberg collections at Christie's May 20 sale

Christie's / May 18th, 2010

The major American art auctions and gallery events are underway in New York City this week. On May 20, Christie's will offer a $15 million collection of works by Maxfield Parrish, including his iconic "Daybreak." According to arts writer Lindsay Pollack, the Parrish cache comes ...

Bailed-out Bank of America shares art collection with communities

Charlotte Observer / May 18th, 2010

Bank of America (BofA), the recipient of $45 billion in taxpayer-funded government bailouts, has been loaning works from its corporate collection to dozens of art museums worldwide since 2007. Charlotte, North Carolina's Mint Museum of Art will be exhibiting 60 ...

Fresh-to-market rarities at Thomaston Place weekend auction

Village Soup / May 18th, 2010

A canvas-on-panel fireboard depicting a fantastical Garden of Eden scene, by naïve Revivalist Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900), has been plucked for auction from a Brunswick, Maine, home.  This re-discovered piece of Americana, with a pre-sale estimate of ...

"Small but Sublime: Intimate 19th-century American Landscapes" opens

/ May 17th, 2010

Although known for their large-scale landscapes, Hudson River School artists created many alluring smaller pictures for the interiors of Victorian-era homes. These petite views of nature capture the awe-inspiring grandeur of the American landscape in a more intimate way than their bigger ...

Museums promote "Social Harmony" with free admission

About / May 17th, 2010

May 18 is International Museum Day. The theme this year is "Social Harmony." Visit a local museum today, many are waiving admission fees, but could still use a donation. In New York City, the American Folk Art Museum, the Asia Society and The Frick Collection are offering free admission. The ...

SFMOMA patrons rocked 75th birthday bash

San Francisco Chronicle / May 17th, 2010

Nearly 1,200 glittering guests feted the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's first seventy-five years on Friday. The art museum hosted 550 gallerists, museum directors, artists and art collectors at a $50,000-a-table private dinner and several hundred more patrons came for the late night ...

Italian group crusades for purloined Holy Night painting

Deutsche Welle / May 17th, 2010

Forty years ago, a manger scene, depicting Mary and baby Jesus flanked by saints, painted in 1609 by Caravaggio, was swiped from a Sicilian chapel. Extroart, an art recovery organization founded by Italian Ludovico Gippetto, is focused on finding this Renaissance masterpiece. The painting has ...

Beckhams build $44 million art collection

Mirror.co.uk / May 16th, 2010

Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl singer, and her husband David Beckham, the soccer superstar, have reportedly amassed a contemporary art collection valued at £30million ($44 million). Their tastes run toward provocative British art by big names such as Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor Wood, ...