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Staffordshire figures one highlight of Sampson and Horne sale
Telegraph / April 22nd, 2010
Bonhams will offer some 800 lots from the inventory of legendary antique dealers Sampson and Horne next week in London. Jonathan Horne and his late business partner Alistair Sampson were world-renowned for their cache of early British pottery and English country furniture. Part of the ...
Functional art on fire at SOFA
The Art Newspaper / April 22nd, 2010
A strong gate and brisk sales to museums and private collectors energized the 13th annual Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair (aka Sofa) at the Park Avenue Armory, 16-19 April. Japanese ceramicist Koike Shoko proved popular on opening night. Dealer Joan Mirviss sold out her offerings ...
Sotheby's to sell Vollard's art collection
Mail online / April 22nd, 2010
About $26 million (£16million) worth of paintings once owned by legendary Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who died in 1939, will go under the hammer this June after decades in a bank vault. The 141 paintings, including works by Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso and Andre Derain, will be sold ...
Undercover agent in Gardner heist spills the beans
New York Times blog / April 21st, 2010
Robert K. Wittman, a retired F.B.I. special agent, has a book coming out that asserts his efforts to recover masterpieces stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum were undone by infighting at the bureau. Wittman says he had a lead in the biggest art heist in U.S. history, in which ...
Kirman catapults to record $9.5 million
The Economist / April 21st, 2010
Frenchwoman Martine Marie-Pol (1870-1939), Comtesse de Béhague, a noted collector of antiquities and Islamic art, once owned an exquisite Kirman rug. The rare rug descended in her family, returned to the market in the 1980s, and was consigned by a dealer to a Christie's Islamic and Indian sale ...
Unpublished Mark Twain memoir at auction
NBC NY / April 21st, 2010
Intimate letters and manuscripts written by Mark Twain, as well as photographs of the American author, will be sold by Sotheby's in June. Among them is a 64-page, handwritten document called "A Family Sketch" (est. $120,000 to $180,000) that honors his daughter, Olivia, who inspired some ...
Country house sale: Givenchy gowns to sporting art
Luxist / April 21st, 2010
The contents of billionaire Patricia Kluge's Albemarle House, a lavish take on high-style country living in the English tradition, will be auctioned by Sotheby's on June 8 and 9. The grand 45-room estate in Albermarle County, Va., will be open May 31 for buyers of the auction catalog to preview ...
Prendergast in Italy
Antiques and the Arts / April 20th, 2010
Stephen May writes of the travelling Maurice Prendergast exhibition featuring the influential American modernist's most dazzling watercolors of Italy. Prendergast soaked in the Renaissance masters on his first trip to Italy in 1898–1899. Fresh from Paris, where he experienced powerfully-hued ...
So-called Man with a Golden Gavel is banking on BRIC
Guardian / April 20th, 2010
Auctioneer Simon de Pury tells the Guardian, "I don't think the market is as jittery as you suggest." He cites rapid-fire bidding at last week's Phillips de Pury auction of 318 works from the estate of Nina Abrams, late wife of publisher Harry N Abrams. The collection fetched $6 million, twice ...
Museum mistakes exposed in London show
Guardian / April 20th, 2010
The National Gallery in London will be showing off some embarrassing acquistions and misleading gifts in its major exhibition called Close Examination opening in June. Works once-removed from the gallery's walls for their dubious nature are being exhumed from the vaults. One of the museum's ...
Bird decoy sales take off this week
Chicago Sun-Times / April 20th, 2010
Folk art and antique decoy collectors have descended upon the 45th National Antique Decoy and Sporting Collectibles Show for room-to-room trading this week at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois. The theme this year is Southern Decoys. The resort will also host a corresponding ...
LACMA committee steps up for new acquisitions
LA Times / April 19th, 2010
More than six dozen couples helped raise $1.8 million for new acquistions to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collections over the weekend. The Annual Collectors Committee Weekend has been likenend to an "American Idol" competition with several curators taking stage to passionately promote ...
Art pottery in the spotlight nationwide
News-Herald / April 19th, 2010
Rookwood, Weller, Grueby and Roseville---art pottery is the focus of a convention in Ohio this week. The American Art Pottery Association event attracts die-hard collectors who will be gathering for a 350-lot auction and two-day sale with 45 dealers. Even with the credit crisis-era depressing ...
John Deere art collection revealed
Quad Cities Online (PR) / April 19th, 2010
Coming to public view for the first time, the John Deere company's art collection will be unveiled April 24, in Davenport, Iowa, at the David Chipperfield-designed Figge Art Museum. Begun in 1965, the collection includes works by such artists as Grant Wood, Edward Curtis, Joan Miro, Henri de ...
Keno Bros. new furniture line deemed 'sexy'
Hartford Courant blog / April 19th, 2010
"The designs have so many curves, flared feet and serpentine styling details that they seem downright sexy," writes Hartford Courant blogger Nancy Schoeffer of the Theodore Alexander furniture line designed by twin brothers and antiques experts Leigh and Leslie Keno. The Keno Bros. ...
V&A showcases Grace Kelly's style
NPR / April 18th, 2010
"Grace Kelly: Style Icon" at London's Victoria and Albert Museum displays the glamorous wardrobe of the Oscar winning actress-turned-princess. Exhibits include the gown Kelly wore to accept her Oscar in 1955, as well as the outfit she wore to her first meeting with her husband Prince Rainier III ...
Calder's Spunk of the Monk priced at $25 million
Bloomberg / April 18th, 2010
In 1964, a Midwestern executive paid $35,000 for a sculpture by Alexander Calder (1898-1976), called “Spunk of the Monk.” The painted-steel work consists of three massive interconnected arcs on seven legs and stood for years in the courtyard of American Republic Insurance Co. in Des Moines, ...
Titanic correspondence reaches record price
BBC / April 18th, 2010
A letter from a first-class passenger on board the ill-fated Titanic has been sold at auction for £55,000, a record price for a piece of written correspondence from the ship. The letter, written by Adolphe Saafeld and addressed to his "wifey." was written five days before the ship ...
Fairfield Porter: Raw/The Creative Process of an American Master
New York Times / April 18th, 2010
The New York Times reviews an exhibition of works---unvarnished, unfinished or in progress---painted by Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) on Long Island from the 1940s until his death. On view at Southampton's Parrish Museum, the show looks at how Porter adeptly blurred the lines between abstraction ...
A "new" $230 million Michelangelo at the Met?
Guardian UK / April 15th, 2010
Everett Fahy, former head of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, says a painting long-attributed to the workshop of Francesco Granacci is actually by Michelangelo. Stylistic elements and a look at the underpainting with infrared led Fahy to the conclusion that "Saint John the ...