ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Sophisticated, Historical: What the Obamas like

Guardian / October 7th, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Obamas are decorating their private spaces with more modern and abstract artwork than has ever hung on the White House walls. Pieces by contemporary African-American and Native American artists are on display. Historical works by George Catlin and artifacts such as a ...

Calif. Collectors Named Suspects: Police want proof of art's existence

Boston Globe / October 7th, 2009

SALINAS, Calif. - A former Harvard Medical School professor and a Boston art dealer who reported that thieves broke into their rental home in the ritzy coastal enclave of Pebble Beach, and made off with more than $27 million dollars worth of art, were named as suspects in the case yesterday. ...

Off View: Steven Spielberg-owned Norman Rockwell in hiding

LA Times / October 6th, 2009

More than 20 Norman Rockwell paintings belonging to Steven Spielberg will be hung in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington -- along with more than 30 other Rockwells from the collection of his fellow filmmaker-to-the-masses, George Lucas. And then there's the ...

"Ridiculous Waste": Architect Robert Venturi blasts Barnes' move

LA Times / October 6th, 2009

Robert Venturi, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect and lifelong resident of Philadelphia, has written a stinging letter in opposition to a controversial plan to dismantle the suburban Barnes Foundation and relocate its unparalleled collection of postimpressionist and early Modern art from its ...

London News: Richard Green makes a stand on Bond Street

Telegraph / October 6th, 2009

LONDON - The old names of Bond Street have taken a pounding over the last year. But although Agnew’s may have moved out, and Partridge closed down, at 32 and 33 New Bond Street, painting purveyor Richard Green is expanding with grand plans for the entire building. On view will be Old ...

Collectibles Craze: Auction stars Amelia Earhart, Michael Jackson memorabilia

Bloomberg / October 6th, 2009

CALABASAS, CA. - Amelia Earhart’s goggles, Michael Jackson’s illuminated glove and “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry’s Apple computer headline an auction Oct. 8-9 of more than 1,000 items of Hollywood and historical memorabilia. Profiles in History, a Calabasas, California- based auctioneer, ...

Young Archer Gets an Audience: The Met will have early Michelangelo work

Associated Press / October 5th, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- A marble statue widely attributed to Michelangelo is being loaned to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art by the French government. The "Young Archer" is not traveling far; it's making its way across Fifth Avenue from the cultural services office of the French ...

He's Making a List: Umberto Eco signs on as Louvre's guest curator

Unbeige / October 5th, 2009

PARIS - Umberto Eco, the famous Italian writer/satirist/professor/political pundit, has signed on as a new guest curator at the Louvre. For the next few months, Eco will be given free reign to create "art exhibits, concerts, and conferences." Eco has decided that the thing he'd like to explore is ...

Hong Kong is Wine Hub: Mainland Chinese buyers increase 200%

Luxist / October 5th, 2009

HONG KONG - Art and dinosaurs may not be moving at auction, but in a tough market, you can count on people drinking. Sotheby's nearly sold out its entire auction in Hong Kong Saturday, raking in HK$61.5 million (US$7.9 million) from 1,010 lots offered from American private collections. A 6-liter ...

Monets on the Move: Barnes Foundation to unveil new museum plans

Philadelphia Inquirer / October 5th, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - Nine years after the Barnes Foundation stunned the art world with a high-risk proposal to escape its litigious neighbors in suburban Merion by moving its renowned collection of Impressionist art to Philadelphia, it is getting ready to reveal its most closely guarded secret: what ...

Nan Tull: Sensuously blending nature, abstraction

Boston Globe 2 / October 3rd, 2009

FRAMINGHAM, MA. - Nan Tull’s 25-year retrospective at the Danforth Museum of Art begins at a dark moment for her. In 1983, her life was wracked with personal loss and illness that required months of recovery. Friends brought her amaryllis plants as get-well offerings, but the heating unit in her ...

Dinosaur Auction: Some record prices, but 'Samson' unsold

/ October 4th, 2009

LAS VEGAS - “Samson,” the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex that has been on display at the Venetian for the last two weeks, wasn’t sold at Saturday’s auction, as was planned. The auction still sold more than $1.7 million worth of dinosaur fossils and set world records. And Samson could have a new owner ...

Reclaimed Old Masters: Art from largest restitution in Netherlands on display

My San Antonio / October 4th, 2009

SAN ANTONIO - Part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the Third Reich was the Fuhrermuseum, which would be the centerpiece of a cultural district in Linz, Austria, a spectacular storehouse of the world's art. To fill his museum, Hitler directed his men to plunder millions of works of art from conquered ...

Deaccession Decried: Heade sale swirls with controversy

The St. Augustine Record / October 4th, 2009

St. AUGUSTINE, FLA. - The story of the Martin Johnson Heade sale twists and turns with claims and counter-claims, charges and counter-charges. The St. Augustine Historical Society's collection contained 24 oil sketches, the artist's preliminary drawings for some finished works. They reportedly ...

Souvenir Painting Appeals: 'School of Canaletto' reaches six-figures in Maryland

Washington Post / October 1st, 2009

An 18th-century unsigned oil painting of the Grand Canal in Venice, estimated at a modest $6,000 to $8,000, sold for $687,125 Sunday afternoon at Sloans & Kenyon auction house in Chevy Chase. It is believed to be the most expensive painting ever sold at a Washington area auction. Thirteen ...

Lost Masterpiece Recreated: Ga. museum displays forgotten da Vinci sculptures

Associated Press / October 1st, 2009

ATLANTA (AP) -- Leonardo da Vinci once spent nearly two decades creating a 26-foot sculpture of a horse to honor a royal Italian family, only to have the plaster masterpiece destroyed by French soldiers. A rare U.S. exhibit of the remaining few sculptures and dozens of sketches by da Vinci ...

Building a Taste for Contemporary: Seoul auctioneer aims to corner art market in Asia

Reuters / October 1st, 2009

SEOUL - South Korean auction house Seoul Auction is hoping to interest Chinese and other Asian collectors in modern Western and contemporary art, with the lofty aim of beating Sotheby's and Christie's in the region. The 11-year-old auction house, which earlier this year sold British artist Damien ...

Weekend Getaway: City of Lights is aglow with art and fashion

New York Times / October 1st, 2009

During Fashion Week, Paris teases with fun art exhibitions. The Pompidou Center just opened “The Subversion of Images: Surrealism, Photography, Film,” a collection of almost 400 works by the photographers Man Ray, Hans Bellmer and Claude Cahun alongside various artists. Acte2galerie has a ...

The 'Lost Ed Ruscha' and other Tales: Remembering Henry Hopkins

LA Times / September 30th, 2009

When he was director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Henry T. Hopkins gave the green light to the first major retrospective of Ed Ruscha's paintings. The show was instrumental in securing Ruscha's reputation as a critically important artist -- both for Los Angeles, where he began to ...

Strong Sales for 50 Years: Florence Antiques Fair

Artinfo / September 30th, 2009

FLORENCE— The Florence International Antiques Fair — held in the beautiful 17th-century Palazzo Corsini on the bank of the Arno River — certainly has plenty to offer in terms of ambience. Add to that 90 dealers bringing a superb collection of paintings, European furniture, maiolica, medieval and ...