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Contemporary art prices recalibrated in '09
Bloomberg / December 16th, 2009
Annual sales of contemporary art slumped 75 percent at the two largest auction houses’ evening sales in 2009. Sotheby’s and Christie’s International made a combined total of $482.3 million with fees from their five regular “Part I” sales of high-value art in New York and London, down from $1.97 ...
Market for Czech art thriving in downturn
Prague Monitor / December 16th, 2009
Art prices in the Czech Republic rose in 2009 in spite of the economic crisis. Last year art collectors spent 660 million crowns at Czech auctions, while this year the total sum will amount to over 700 million. A painting by modernist Frantisek Kupka (1871—1957), "En degrades/Verticales," sold ...
Holiday gift idea: An armchair transport to Colonial-era island homes
Memphis Flyer / December 15th, 2009
Michael Connors, author of the new Caribbean Houses: History, Style, and Architecture (Rizzoli), provides an in-depth look at the beauty found in Colonial-era architecture and furnishings, a material culture built on the labor and skills of indigenous Amerindians and African West Indians and ...
Analysts say art market upswing on horizon
Street Insider / December 15th, 2009
Wedbush upgraded Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) to Outperform: "In our view, rising global demand, better-than-expected recent auction results, and positive feedback from industry contacts point to meaningful recovery next year in the global art auction market. After suffering a year of difficult ...
Rare blue Wittelsbach-Graff diamond will go on display
Washington Post / December 15th, 2009
Once owned by Spain's Infanta Margarita Teresa, the huge, rare, deep-blue Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond will join other gems at Washingon, D.C.'s National Museum of Natural History for seven months next year. Weighing 31.06 carats, the diamond may be from the same mine as the Hope Diamond. Current ...
Art dealers' detective work proves mistaken identity
Scotsman / December 15th, 2009
It has become the "official" portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, regarded by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as the best likeness of the Jacobite hero. But now, in an embarrassing climbdown, the National Galleries of Scotland has admitted that the painting – purchased by them for ...
Chicago's forgotten Renaissance man
NPR / December 14th, 2009
If you want to see a work of art by Edgar Miller, you basically have to go to Chicago where the masterpieces he built reside. Richard Cahan and Michael Williams have made it easier; their new book, Edgar Miller and the Handmade Home showcases the incredibly original style of this 1920s-30s ...
Mississippi museum displays 75 new acquisitions
Hattiesburg American / December 14th, 2009
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art's "Recent Acquisitions: 2004-2009," opening Dec. 15, reveals 75 works of art acquired over the last five years through purchase, bequests, and gifts. Additions to the American Art collection include William Merritt Chase's "Shinnecock Hills." Several works were added ...
Louvre returns five frescoes to Egypt
BBC / December 14th, 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented one of the slabs, or steles, to his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, who was on a visit to Paris. The Egyptians had demanded the return of the Pharaonic fragments and had broken off ties with the Louvre. They are believed to be from a 3,200-year-old ...
400-year-old Japanese armor finds home in Minneapolis
Star-Tribune / December 14th, 2009
Signaling an aggressive new strategy to upgrade its collection, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts has paid a record-setting $602,500 for a rare set of 17th-century Japanese armor. Sold by the Idemitsu Museum of Art in Tokyo at an October Christie's auction, the intricate iron and leather suit, ...
Cucci Cabinet commands £4.5 million
Mail Online / December 13th, 2009
An ornate cabinet from the era of the Sun King has become one of the most expensive pieces of furniture ever sold. The Cucci Cabinet - one of just three cabinets crafted by Italian artist Domenico Cucci during the reign of French King Louis XIV - fetched more than £4.5 million at Christie's in ...
Tate’s Christmas Tree Shocks -- It’s Festive
Bloomberg / December 13th, 2009
There have been strange developments recently at Tate Britain. First we had a near controversy-free Turner Prize, won by a painter, Richard Wright, whose work could actually be described as beautiful. Now, the Tate Christmas Tree 2009 has been put on show, “Weihnachtsbaum” by Tacita Dean (until ...
Winds of change propel China's new art stars
Toronto Star / December 13th, 2009
Somewhere between the jam-packed news conference and the moment, hours later, when the gallons of bulk-quality wine ran dry, China's million-dollar men clustered together for a snapshot: Liu Xiaodong, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun and the man of this particular hour, Zhang Xiaogang, whose work filled ...
Book review: "Sargent's Daughters"
New York Times / December 13th, 2009
The Edward Darley Boit family was from New England, but John Singer Sargent painted the four daughters in the foyer of a grand Paris apartment, deliberately situating them in a locus of uncertainty — perpetually on a threshold, like their roving expatriate parents. Sargent makes you feel ...
Re-discovered John Sloan WPA work journeys from trash to museum
Chicago Tribune / December 13th, 2009
A painting created by American artist John Sloan 75 years ago and missing for 65 of them now hangs on a wall inside the Detroit Institute of Arts. Sloan painted "Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue" in 1934 for the Public Works of Art Project, which was created to employ artists during the Great ...
Texas museum acquires a rare Bonington
Star-Telegram / December 13th, 2009
The Kimbell Art Museum has purchased---through art dealer Richard Feigen---a painting of Venice’s Grand Canal by British artist Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828). "Bonington was one of the true giants of English landscape painting on a par with Turner and Constable yet not as well known as ...
Semi-frugal White House Christmas: 390-pound gingerbread house, vintage ornaments
AP / December 9th, 2009
The White House is going vintage this year with its Christmas decorations and ornaments, reusing ones from past presidents. Yet, with Barney's creative director Simon Doonan decorating, it's a long way from the days of Abigail and John Adams, the first couple to spend Christmas at the White ...
Audacious museum director made arts the main event
Wall Street Journal / December 10th, 2009
During his decade as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas Hoving transformed not just the Met but popular perception of the art museum. Mr. Hoving, who died Thursday at age 78, ends one of the most influential and controversial careers in postwar American cultural life. ...
Van Dyck self-portrait soars to record price
Bloomberg / December 10th, 2009
The last self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck doubled its estimate to set an artist auction record at Sotheby’s in London as buyers fought for the best work and rejected other paintings. The event totaled a mid-estimate 15.1 million pounds ($24.6 million), including fees. “It’s a ...
New York Times' museum and gallery show 'best bets'
New York Times / December 10th, 2009
‘THOMAS CHAMBERS (1808-1869): AMERICAN MARINE AND LANDSCAPE PAINTER,’ is on through March 7 at the American Folk Art Museum. With this extraordinary show, a star is born, or at least the 19th century folk art painter is given a big museum survey for the first time since 1942. Also, a few others ...