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Big Botero nude leads $14.7 million Latin American art sale
Reuters / November 18th, 2009
A one-ton nude sculpture by Colombian Fernando Botero sold for $1.14 million in a robust sale of Latin American art at Christie's in New York Tuesday night. Nearly 12-feet long, Botero's 'Smoking Woman' shows a jaunty woman sprawled on a sheet, daintily holding a cigarette. ...
Jury sides with Houston museum in $250 million dispute
Houston Chronicle / November 17th, 2009
Houston oilman Alfred Glassell Jr., who founded Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., left an estate of about $500 million when he died at age 95 in 2008. His 52-year-old daughter Curry Glassell challenged the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, a charity beneficiary named in her father's final will, ...
NC Museum of Art 'tunnels' collection into savvy new building
Associated Press / November 17th, 2009
At the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Associated Press got a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes designs making it possible to safely transfer invaluable pieces as part of an expansion that will cost $73.1 million in public money and $5.5 million in private funds. The work includes a ...
Like Egypt, China demands return of art treasures from abroad
Reuters / November 17th, 2009
China has ratcheted up pressure for imperial treasures to be repatriated, condemning overseas auctions of its relics. Now Chinese art authorities are planning to catalog Chinese pieces currently housed in overseas institutions. The poster child for this movement: Two bronze animal heads ...
Friend might (not) bail-out bankrupt art dealer
Bloomberg / November 17th, 2009
A sale of the 66-acre Millbrook, New York, property where indicted art dealer Lawrence B. Salander lives with his family was postponed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after a friend behind a $5.1 million bid said he hadn’t secured financing. The friend, Michael Lewitt, also bid on other assets such as ...
$7.5 million wine auction bullish on Burgundy
Bloomberg / November 16th, 2009
The world’s oldest charity wine auction, held every year in France for the Hospices de Beaune, Sunday night raised a hammer total of 5 million euros ($7.5 million) with fees, the second-highest in its 150-year history. Demand was boosted for the new vintage when a record 802 barrels were ...
Star-studded L.A. MOCA 30th Anniversary gala raises $3.5 million
Wall Street Journal Blogs / November 16th, 2009
Attended by artists such as Jeff Koons, and Hollywood stars including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, a lavish benefit for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art raised over $3.5 million on Sunday night. Famously on the verge of collapse less than a year ago, before a $30 million bail-out by ...
Maxxi: Italy's new contemporary art museum
NPR 1 / November 16th, 2009
In the city of the ancient Romans and Michelangelo, architecture buffs got a preview over the weekend of something decidedly modern: Rome's new museum of contemporary art. It was designed by Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid. The Maxxi is a rare example of the avant-garde in what's known as the Eternal City. ...
Bidders deem Madoff's stuff great holiday gifts, office decor
CNBC / November 16th, 2009
Bernard Madoff’s knick-knacks and personal effects raised about $1 million for his Ponzi scheme victims at a New York weekend auction. Ruth Madoff’s baubles were among the items that sold for the highest prices: an Edwardian-era diamond and emerald bracelet garnered $65,700. The ring buoy from ...
Yves Saint Laurent auction rich in sentimental value
New York Times Art / November 13th, 2009
Having wrapped up the "Sale of the Century" last winter, raking in a record €342.5 million ($441.8 million) in the middle of an art market meltdown, Christie's will tackle the "house sale" portion of Yves Saint Laurent's estate next week in Paris. Mid-19th-century Napoleon III furnishings will ...
Terra cotta warriors march through Washington
NPR 1 / November 15th, 2009
In 1974, a group of farmers digging a well in central China stumbled upon a buried figure. It turned out to be one of an estimated 7,000 life-sized terra cotta warriors in an underground tomb complex. The warriors and a host of other figures were created for China's first emperor, Qin ...
Art funds hope to ride a market recovery
Daily Finance / November 15th, 2009
Institutional investors are showing more interest in the world's oldest media: art. The entry of new art funds into the market certainly signifies this zeal for an unusual asset class. Following mulit-million dollar funds like the Fine Art Group, Emotional Assets Management and Research just ...
Munch's "History" stolen from Oslo dealer
UPI / November 15th, 2009
Pascal Nyborg, an art dealer in Oslo, Norway, says thieves smashed a window at his gallery and stole the lithograph "History" by Edvard Munch. Nyborg said the work would be difficult for the thieves to sell as it is unique and valuable. Radio Netherlands reported the hand-colored Munch work is ...
Sollo Rago hammers down Esherick buffet at $335,500
Auction Central News / November 12th, 2009
Low reserves and reasonable estimates brought Sollo Rago’s Modern Auction of Oct. 24-25 to a total of just over $3,000,000. (All prices include 22% buyer’s premium.) A Wharton Esherick buffet with a sculpted walnut top set upon a curved solid walnut base sold at the midpoint of its ...
Bullish bidding drives Sotheby's sale to $134 million
Bloomberg / November 12th, 2009
High selling rates may be attributed to the lowered estimates on 54 lots (2 unsold) at Sotheby’s Wednesday evening sale. While the $134 million total paled against the company’s May 2008 record tally of $362 million, prices for Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills" ($43.8 million), David Hockney’s ...
Warhol's Night: Images of money stoke art market
New York Times / November 12th, 2009
A seminal Warhol — one of the artist’s first silk-screen paintings — came on the block at Sotheby’s auction of contemporary art on Wednesday night. Bidding opened at $6 million for “200 One Dollar Bills,” which soared to $43.7 million (including fees). Also, the artist's 1962 sketch of a roll of ...
Major Boulle exhibition is a gilt-y pleasure
Financial Times / November 12th, 2009
The most famous of all cabinet-makers, arguably, was André Charles Boulle (1642-1732). Certainly he proved the most influential, his name becoming the generic for a distinctive style of elaborately inlaid furniture which continued to be made throughout 18th and 19th-century Europe. “André ...
UK and US Top List of Most Reported Art Thefts
UnBeige Mediabistro / November 11th, 2009
As writer Judith H. Dobrzynski puts it "If you live in Britain, better hide that Picasso." She's referring to a recent study released by the Art Loss Register that ranks countries by the total amount of reported art thefts. We would have said that Brazil was near the top, given those ...
Sculpture expert named as Tate Britain director
Guardian / November 11th, 2009
Penelope Curtis is to become director of Tate Britain, succeeding Stephen Deuchar, who has been appointed head of the arts charity the Art Fund. Currently curator of the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, and an expert in British sculpture, Curtis will ascend to the super-league of British museum ...
The pleasure principle: David Hockney at Nottingham Contemporary
Guardian / November 11th, 2009
Joyous, funny and inventive, David Hockney's early work was his bravest and his best. What better way to launch Britain's newest art gallery? From Nottingham Contemporary, which opens on Saturday, you can look straight in from the street and see glimpses of paintings: there's Hockney's ...