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Americana Dream: J.J. Astor progeny puts presidential portrait on the block
USA Today / February 18th, 2010
Estimated at $200,000 to $300,000, a Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington, desirably unrestored, goes under the gavel at Cottone Auctions in Geneseo, New York, on March 27. The great-great-great-great-grandson of John Jacob Astor is selling this work by the first American ...
Mid-market art stolen from Europe often lands in U.S.
Naples News / February 18th, 2010
Robert Wittman, the de facto head of the FBI’s art theft program from 1988 until 2008, has tracked down stolen Goyas, a Rembrandt, and five Norman Rockwells, among many other multi-million dollar artworks. Art and antiques originating in theft hotspots like Europe, South America, and ...
“Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker”
TCPalm / February 18th, 2010
A cache of artworks stolen by the Nazis from an influential Dutch art dealer now graces the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach in a traveling exhibition. Forty paintings, dating from the Renaissance through 19th c., highlights from the 200 works returned to ...
L.A. is on display at the European art fair ARCOmadrid
LA Times Arts / February 18th, 2010
The organizers usually focus on an entire country's art, but this year they chose Los Angeles. During its 29-year history, Spain's ARCOmadrid has grown to become not only Europe's largest art fair but also a magnet for the contemporary art world's elite. Every winter, top gallerists, ...
'Cezanne and American Modernism'
Washington Post / February 17th, 2010
A fascinating exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art traces the exuberant, all-over-the-map responses of 33 early 20th-century American artists to Cezanne's works in the decades when his oils and watercolors were more a matter of rumor than a mainstay of modern museums.
Signs of Rebound in Antiques Market
New York Times Art / February 17th, 2010
After 12 months in which antiques sales were down and prices fell, collectors and dealers again flocked to major antique shows last month in New York. Red dots were plentiful, but according to some of the shows' exhibitors, there are still good buys to be had in certain categories, such as ...
The Art of the Steal
Huffington Post / February 16th, 2010
The story of Alfred C. Barnes reflects the American Dream, except, after his death, his worst nightmare unfolded. He rose from poverty to invent a popular drug that helped build an immense personal fortune. His wealth created a world-class art collection (ie., 181 Renoirs), now estimated to be ...
Lingering thoughts of Tiffany, other tantalizing treasures at Winter Antiques Show
Canadian Press / February 16th, 2010
January's Winter Antiques Show is still generating buzz. Among the unveilings at the presitigious New York fair was one of the most significant Tiffany lamps to come on the market in decades. The exquisite example, with cascading pastel lilies and a lily pad bronze base, ...
European art fairs will test the waters next month
Auction Central News / February 16th, 2010
March features TEFAF Maastricht, the British Antique Dealers' Association Fair (BADA), and a double-dip recession hovering over parts of Europe. Prices for top-tier art continue to hit the stratosphere so buyers are expected to seize prime offerings from the shows' exhibitors, including a ...
Renaissance renderings that show an artist in love
Guardian / February 16th, 2010
The Courtauld Gallery in London has mounted a powerful exhibition of the greatest drawings that survive from Michelangelo's hand. Many of these sketches, primarily made as studies for sculptures, paintings and buildings, served as the artist's love gifts. ...
Sculpture of a humble man stokes art market to new level
New York Times / February 16th, 2010
In 2009, art auction prices plummeted 24%, according to the Mei Moses Fine Art Index. Economic uncertainty caused art buyers (and sellers) at the very top level to flinch, but perhaps just for a moment. The highest price ever paid for an auctioned artwork, $104.3 ...
Pennsylvania folk art heavy with hearts
Philadelphia Inquirer / February 15th, 2010
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, with its great permanent collection of regional folk art, anchored by a priceless group of objects donated by Titus C. Geesey between 1953 and 1969, includes striking 18th-c. pieces emblazoned with hearts. View a slideshow of Pennsylvania German ...
Banksy lampoons art market with more than his art
Bloomberg / February 15th, 2010
Banksy, the British street artist whose paintings have fetched as much as $1.9 million at auction, keeps his identity secret to avoid prosecution for graffiti. He introduced his debut film at the Berlin Film Festival via video message in a hooded sweater, his voice disguised. “Exit Through ...
ArtDubai aims to sell the best in a dubious situation
Daily Star / February 15th, 2010
Enthusiasm and criticism rule as the countdown begins for the fourth edition of the Emirati entrepot’s yearly art fair. Scheduled for March 17-20, ArtDubai is luring in international exhibitors with price-reduced booths. Among the value-adds for visitors to the show, an unveiling ...
Queen Victoria's taste for titillating art exposed
Telegraph / February 15th, 2010
She is portrayed as a repressed and melancholy widow who spent much of her life clad in black. But a new art exhibition will challenge this traditional view of Queen Victoria by revealing her as a passionate, open-minded woman. Opening March 19 at the The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, the ...
An artist's Kodak Brownie snapshots capture reality of South
Washington Post / February 13th, 2010
William Christenberry, who is 73, has been one of Washington's most important artists for something like 40 years, working as a painter, fine-art photographer, sculptor and installer of found things. But the best way back to the origins of all his varied work, and to the heart of what it means, ...
It was a stunning work of art – so why is the Wall hanging in a Las Vegas loo?
Guardian / February 14th, 2010
The greatest artwork of the 20th century was 100 miles long and nearly 12ft high. A multitude of hands took 13 years to make it. They had to work fast to evade the border police, for they were working inside the perimeter of East Berlin. Until recently, no concerted attempt was made to ...
Gauguin's 'Nevermore' voted Britain's most romantic painting
Telegraph / February 14th, 2010
The Courtauld Gallery's painting of a Tahitian girl reclining on a bed, against a background of a raven on a ledge and two figures in conversation, won a poll conducted by The Art Fund charity. A shortlist of five paintings from British collections by artists including Samuel John Peploe, Jan van ...
Renoir's influential late period work at LACMA
Los Angeles Times / February 14th, 2010
With subjects like his estate in the south of France and portraits of the family nanny---with and without her clothes on---the late work of Auguste Renoir offers an intimate look at the great Impressionist's surroundings and companions. A traveling exhibition, now at the ...
Everett Ruess: Enigmatic hiker-artist drawn into the wild
The Daily Sound / February 11th, 2010
When 20-year-old Everett Ruess trekked into the scorching canyon country of southern Utah in 1934, he likely had little notion that the fragments of his life that he’d left behind would serve as a mysterious reminder of his healthy lust for wilderness. Ruess disappeared, but the budding artist's ...