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Leigh Keno's auction premiere to offer a boat-load of Americana
Hartford Courant / February 11th, 2010
Recently, American antiques expert Leigh Keno, of "Antiques Roadshow" fame, has been making many housecalls looking for objects for his newest venture — the inaugural auction of Keno Auctions, to be held at the Marriott Stamford (CT.) on May 1 and 2. He's already amassed an impressive sale ...
Italian judge demands return of the Getty Bronze
Los Angeles Times / February 11th, 2010
A judge in Italy has ordered the confiscation of the famed Statue of the Victorious Youth, which is also known as the Getty Bronze. The artwork, which dates from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., is currently a star in the collection at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In the past, the Getty has stated that ...
Two works by watercolor master Whorf on the block
Auction Central News / February 11th, 2010
Coming up at Jenack's Feb. 21 auction in Chester, New York, are two marine-themed watercolors by impressionist John Whorf (Massachusetts/California, 1903-1959). In The Sand Dunes, Provincetown, Mass., dated 1954, is estimated at $3,000-$5,000. The other work, Mediterranean Fishermen, is a vibrant ...
Re-visiting Margi Hofer's 2007 book "A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls"
Tallmedge Express / February 10th, 2010
In 1906, the highest paid female in the U.S. was a woman born and raised in Tallmadge, Ohio, who was making it big in the big city. Clara (Wolcott) Driscoll moved to New York City and became Louis Comfort Tiffany's go-to designer. Driscoll is noted for her jewelry ...
Arshile Gorky's mysterious paintings at Tate Modern
Guardian / February 10th, 2010
Arshile Gorky, a master of reinvention, was perhaps once the greatest painter in America. Having spent two decades catching on to the coat-tails of style he had developed a tentative yet expansive originality just before total despair overwhelmed him. His death at a young ...
Bob Dylan canvases unveiled in London
Citizen - AFP / February 10th, 2010
On view Feb. 13 to April 10, "Bob Dylan on Canvas" at the Halcyon Gallery in London's upmarket Mayfair district includes pieces with price tags ranging from 95,000 to 450,000 pounds (150,000-700,000 dollars, 110,000-510,000 euros). Says the musician-artist, "I just draw what's interesting to ...
In China, Sotheby's to pursue legal action for non-payments
Luxist / February 10th, 2010
Sotheby's is suing two Chinese buyers for $270,300 because they never paid the tabs they bid up. According to Sotheby's, one winning bidder of a Qing Dynasty cloisonné censer and cover didn't pony up the cash required, "despite repeated requests and demands." With Hong Kong now the ...
Biblical brothers, scorched saints intrigue in Met's Bronzino show
Bloomberg / February 9th, 2010
An exhibition on Florentine artist Agnolo Bronzino (1503-72) at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art serves up almost 60 pieces by this master draftsman ranging from doodles and rough sketches to dazzling figures and portraits -- all serving the function of practice for a separate finished work. ...
Be-dazzled: 'Cartier and America' on view
1st Dibs / February 9th, 2010
On 1st Dibs, Anthony Barzilay Freund interviews curator Martin Chapman, of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, about the comprehensive exhibition "Cartier and America" (thru April 18). Read how American taste evolved in decorative arts and jewelry design from the neo-Byzantine ...
Royal plate smashes Roadshow price record
Daily Mail / February 9th, 2010
When her husband headed to a taping of "Antiques Roadshow" with some old books to be valued, a Welsh woman stuffed a plate from her "rickety" sideboard into a shopping bag to bring along. To Mrs. Jones's surprise, an expert gave the plate a value of £100,000, a record ...
Picasso blockbuster to hit Seattle
Seattle Times / February 9th, 2010
When the Musée National Picasso, Paris, closed its doors in August for a $28 million renovation, the scoop was that its 5,000 artworks by Pablo Picasso would be locked away for more than two years. Instead, 150 highlights from the collection, including "Portrait of Dora Maar" (1937) and ...
Collecting Federal-period Tucker china
Cape May County Herald / February 8th, 2010
Made briefly from 1826 to 1838, fragile Tucker china pieces are rare. William Ellis Tucker was a bright, enterprising Quaker in Philadelphia who taught himself the process of making porcelain. He enlisted other painters to depict American landscapes and city scapes on pieces ...
Church's vision of the sublime: Romantic, dramatic, scientific
Wall Street Journal / February 8th, 2010
For a big dose of Hudson River School, Frederic Edwin Church's massive 'Heart of the Andes,' is currently on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Lehman Wing. Painted in 1859, this 10-foot-by-5-foot canvas embodies Church's overriding belief that God is revealed in the wonders of ...
Iran to sever ties with British Museum over loan no-show
Washington Post / February 8th, 2010
On Monday, Iran stated it would cut ties with the British Museum because of the museum's failure to abide by an agreement to loan the Cyrus Cylinder, a 6th c. B.C. clay tablet. Considered to be the world's first bill of rights, the ancient Babylonian artifact has, for some, turned ...
SFMOMA antes up
Los Angeles Times / February 7th, 2010
News that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has raised $250 million in the last six months for an expansion of its building and program is nothing if not jaw-dropping. The first $100 million of the pledge will go toward doubling SFMOMA's endowment. Perhaps a fund-raising motivator: The Doris ...
Kansas museum to get infusion of Impressionists
Kansas City Star / February 7th, 2010
Long renowned for its Chinese art collection, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will eventually become a destination for French impressionism as well. Friday the museum announced a promised gift of 29 works by impressionist masters such as Renoir, Monet and Seurat from the collection ...
Picasso goes home with Graff
Bloomberg / February 7th, 2010
Russian collectors and a U.K.-based diamond dealer emerged as big buyers in this month’s record-breaking London art auctions. They battled for trophies by 20th-century artists at Christie's and Sotheby's, spending about 258.9 million pounds with fees. Among the bidders was Laurence ...
Part of Crichton's art trove going under gavel
Independent (UK) / February 7th, 2010
Best-selling science fiction writer Michael Crichton, creator of TV's ER drama and film-adapted books such as Jurassic Park, also left the legacy of a first-class art collection. Two years after his death in 2008, four of his privately-held paintings, worth an estimated £20m, are to be put up for ...
Palm Beach show season starts strong
Artdaily / February 7th, 2010
Last Tuesday evening, a record 5,100 collectors thronged the American International Fine Art Fair opening Vernissage honoring the Norton Museum of Art at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. A few of the big-ticket sales included Eugene von Blaas’s “Conversation on the Terrace, ...
Record-setting Sotheby's sale boosted by partially restituted art
/ February 4th, 2010
Estimated at £12–18 million, a rare 1913 landscape by Gustav Klimt - looted in Vienna by Nazis or Soviets during the Second World War from the family of a Canadian man - fetched £58 million ($45.4 million), including buyer's premium, at a breathtaking £146.82 million (about $233 million) sale at ...