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Google wins "thumbnail" lawsuit
BusinessWeek / April 29th, 2010
An artist who posted photographs of her work on a website in 2005 lost a case in Germany against Google Inc., the Internet search engine giant. Her lawsuit, which aimed to prevent Google's use of "thumbnail" preview images, was dismissed in Germany’s top civil court. ...
Chicago's newest curator will bet on emerging artists
Time Out Chicago / April 29th, 2010
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago has poached Michael Darling from the Seattle Art Museum. On July 12, Darling will step into his new role as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art in the midwestern art hub. Darling hopes “to do the kinds of shows that other museums ...
Clars' browse-worthy May auction
Auction Central News / April 29th, 2010
Bolstered by four big estates, Clars' May 15-16 auction includes some important 17th and 18th century furnishings and a fine selection of art from Old Masters to contemporary artists. Asian art and jewelry round out the Oakland, Calif. firm's sale. Top-notch Western artists represented ...
Remembering abstract painter Robert Natkin
New York Times / April 28th, 2010
Robert Natkin (b. 1930), whose bold paintings expertly melded the abstract style of artists like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky with vibrant post-impressionist colors reminiscent of Henri Matisse, passed away in Connecticut on April 20. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Chicago-born Natkin rose to ...
Anne Frank House museum goes virtual
Fast Company / April 28th, 2010
The Anne Frank museum launched a "Secret Annex Online" on its website Wednesday, allowing people to tour the Amsterdam house where the teenage diarist hid from the Nazis during World War II. This 3-D tour is a great tool to keep the public interested in the stories of an era that is rapidly ...
Dubai auction sets highest price for Arab art
Maktoob / April 28th, 2010
An Egyptian painting from 1934 became the most expensive work by an Arab artist on Tuesday, selling for $2.43 million at a Christie's auction in Dubai. “Les Chadoufs” by Mahmoud Said shows a woman in a veil carrying water and two men and donkey drawing water from a well. The pre-sale estiamte ...
Harbinger of Spring: Antique Garden Furniture Show & Sale
The Epoch Times / April 28th, 2010
From May 7 to 9, over 30 of America’s foremost dealers are offering their best quality pieces at the Antique Garden Furniture Show and Sale at the New York Botanical Garden. Special events and lectures compliment the exhibitor offerings---from cast iron and marble fountains to early ...
Balloon Dog art fabricator shuts doors
Bloomberg / April 27th, 2010
California-based art fabricator Carlson & Co. is known for producing large-scale sculptures such as Jeff Koons’s giant, $20-million, stainless-steel “Balloon Dog” series. The company announced it is closing due to the recession-weary contemporary-art market. Founded in 1971, Carlson & ...
Thousands attend Jeanne-Claude tribute
New York Observer / April 27th, 2010
Artist Jeanne-Claude, who died in November at the age of 74, was honored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a massive memorial service on Monday. "As we waited to unfurl the first Gates, the anticipation was palpable," Mayor Bloomberg recalled of the famous saffron-hued Jeanne-Claude and ...
Art dealer admits to selling $2 million fake Picasso
LA Times blog / April 27th, 2010
Los Angeles art and antiques dealer Tatiana Khan, 70, may serve prison time for selling a fake Picasso for $2 million. She agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges, authorities said Tuesday. The owner of Chateau Allegré gallery wove an elaborate web of lies regarding the provenace of the ...
When art museums become a brand
The Atlantic / April 27th, 2010
Mega-cafes and gift shops. Massive new spaces. Brand building and franchising. Kyle Chayka writes in The Atlantic, "Are Fine Art Museums the Next Starbucks?" "Institutions as diverse as New York's Whitney and Museum of Modern Art, DC's Corcoran and National Gallery and Philadelphia's Barnes ...
Poet Robert Pinsky jams "Antique"
Boston University / April 26th, 2010
Someone who buys this picture of you for the frame / At a stall in a dwindled city will study your face / And decide to harbor it for a little while longer / From the waters of anonymity
'BRIC' auction: Russia leads, China dominates in numbers
Telegraph / April 26th, 2010
A painting by the Russian artist Erik Bulatov fetched 713,250 pounds, snagging top lot position in a £7.2 million sale held by Phillips de Pury & Co at the Saatchi Gallery last weekend in London. Sheer weight of numbers saw China prevail over Brazil, Russia and India in the inaugral ...
Peploe painting peaks at £520,000
Antiques Trade Gazette / April 26th, 2010
A new auction record has been set for any painting by a Scottish Colourist after Tulips by Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) sold for £520,000, against a £300,000-500,000 pre-sale estimate, at Sotheby's on April 22. The previous record for a Peploe was £440,000 for Roses at Christie’s Scottish art ...
Phillips bringing its gavels to Park Avenue
Wall Street Journal (subscription required) / April 26th, 2010
In a bid for the blue-chip art business dominated by rivals Sotheby's and Christie's, auction house Phillips de Pury & Co. is expanding to Midtown Manhattan. London-based Phillips, owned since 2008 by Russian retailing giant Mercury Group, has signed a lease for 25,559 square feet of space ...
Can Art Chicago keep up with the Basels?
Chicago Tribune / April 25th, 2010
Global and year-round competition from modern and contemporary art fairs like upstart Art Basel Miami have thrown a monkey wrench in Art Chicago's ability to attract gallery exhibitors and collectors. Thirty years after the birth of this once-dominant world art fair, Art Chicago, which opens ...
Dutch Utopia hits Midwest museum
Cincinnati.com / April 25th, 2010
Taft Museum in Cincinnati is the second stop of the travelling exhibition, Dutch Utopia. This landmark show centers on American artists in The Netherlands, working, studying and painting during the years 1880 to 1914. There are nearly 40 American artists represented: George Hitchcock, Gari ...
Houston dealer unveils Vollard's Cassatt cache
Culture Map / April 24th, 2010
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper was revealed last week at Houston's Meredith Long & Company. Fresh to the market are 41 significant prints and drawings that until very recently have remained hidden in the seemingly long-lost collection of Ambroise Vollard, the friend and Parisian art dealer of ...
Consignor demands $560K for W.T. Richards painting
Courthouse News Service / April 23rd, 2010
Rhode Island art dealer William Vareika sold a 19th century landscape by William Trost Richards for $700,000 but paid the owner only $140,000, the consignor claims in New York County Court. Universe Antiques sued William Vareika and William Vareika Fine Arts over "The Rainbow," also titled ...
Mess over Marlene Dumas moves ahead
LA Times blog / April 22nd, 2010
A hearing for the injunction took place in Manhattan on Tuesday in a lawsuit allegedly waged over an artist's blacklist. South Beach developer and collector Craig Robins sued dealer David Zwirner for $8 million on March 29. Robins claims that Zwirner breached a contract, telling artist Marlene ...