ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Peabody Essex Museum Receives Major Gift of American Art Collection With a New England Focus

Boston Globe / May 15th, 2016

A vast trove of 19th- and early 20th-century New England painting, a 1,000-work private collection rich in White Mountain landscapes, still lifes, and modernist works by painters who once flourished around Provincetown, is headed to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., reports the Boston ...

Kahlo Painting Sets Record at Christie's $141 Million Sale

ArtfixDaily / May 12th, 2016

An intimate and compelling work by Frida Kahlo, dating from 1939, resonated with a telephone bidder at Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on May 12. The sale's total slid to $141,532,000 with sell-through rates of 86% by lot and 89% by value. The total beat its $134.3 ...

Cy Twombly Tops Sotheby's $242 Million Sale

Wall Street Journal / May 11th, 2016

Cy Twombly's squiggly chalkboard painting fetched $36.7 million at Sotheby's on Wednesday. The contemporary art sale in New York brought some spirited bidding from U.S. and Asian buyers. There were a handful of lots that sparked bidding battles, including a Sam Francis abstract, titled Summer ...

Record-Smashing Basquiat Heads to Japan from $318 Million Christie's Sale

Bloomberg / May 11th, 2016

Christie's May 10 evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art realized $318,388,000 with sell-through rates of 87% by lot and 91% by value. The sale established 6 new world auction records for artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Agnes Martin, Mike Kelley, Richard Prince, Kerry James ...

Auction 'Gigaweek' Kicks Off With Christie's $78 Million 'Bound to Fail' Sale

New York Times / May 7th, 2016

'Gigaweek' is underway at the New York auction houses with an estimated $890 million to $1 billion in Impressionist, modern and contemporary art up for sale at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips. Over the course of 5 days some 1,500 artworks are offered. But this May's marquee sales are not ...

MoMA Offers Voluntary Buyouts to Staffers

New York Times / May 3rd, 2016

Following the Met's announcement recently of possible layoffs to balance a $10 million deficit, the Museum of Modern Art says it will offer buyout packages to senior staff. Those with over nine years at the museum, age 55 and over, will be eligible. “The museum is in a transitional stage in ...

Chicago Mayor Defends $1.2 Billion Lucas Museum Plan

Chicago Tribune / April 19th, 2016

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday defended his latest plan to bring movie mogul George Lucas' museum to the lakefront, a day after revealing that it would require borrowing nearly $1.2 billion, extending five taxes beyond their expiration dates and securing the approval of a ...

National Academy Museum Buildings Hit Market at $120 Million

ArtfixDaily / April 18th, 2016

Historic and stately buildings that house the National Academy Museum and School along Fifth Avenue have come to market with an asking price of $120 million. In March, the museum stated the property would be sold to create an unrestricted endowment, enabling it to eliminate debt. The sale would ...

Knoedler Gallery's Beleaguered Ex-Director Ann Freedman Speaks Her Mind

The Art Newspaper / April 18th, 2016

Ann Freedman, the former head of the now-defunct Knoedler Gallery, spoke to the Art Newspaper in an exclusive interview. Freedman has maintained her innocence ever since the Knoedler scandal broke in 2009, closing the once esteemed Manhattan gallery. A string of lawsuits ensued over $70 ...

Iconic Andy Warhol Works Stolen From Missouri Museum

ArtfixDaily / April 10th, 2016

An unknown number of prints from Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" series were stolen from the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri last week. The chair of the museum's board, Sally Scheid, said: "We're shocked and totally saddened," reports the Springfield News-Leader. The museum was broken ...

New Biography Delves Into the Life of Audrey Munson, Beaux-Arts Muse

New York Times / April 6th, 2016

In a new biography, “The Curse of Beauty,” journalist James Bone uncovers the rise and fall of Audrey Munson, a Gilded Age model and silent-film star whose graceful image is ever-entwined with the beaux-arts style. Munson was the model for three-quarters of the sculptures in the ...

Andy Warhol's First New York City Studio For Sale

Realtor / March 31st, 2016

Andy Warhol's first New York City studio, the former firehouse Hook & Ladder 13, has hit the market. The list price is $9.975 million for the nearly 5,000-square-foot red structure. The Realtor.com listing: Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has been retained on an exclusive basis to offer for ...

Banksy, Warhol Exhibitions to Open New Moco Museum in Amsterdam

LA Times / March 30th, 2016

The works of British street artist Banksy and pop artist Andy Warhol will represent the debut exhibitions at the Modern Contemporary Museum, or Moco Museum, which is scheduled to open April 9. Moco has a vaunted location in the Dutch city’s Museum Square, with the Van Gogh ...

Thomas Moran Painting Fetches $3.6 Million in The Russell Auction

ArtfixDaily / March 22nd, 2016

An iconic landcape by Thomas Moran sold for $3.6 million at The Russell auction in Great Falls, Montana, last weekend.      Moran's oil Castle Rock, Green River, Wyoming was the top lot in the benefit sale for the C.M. Russell Museum. The Western art sale, held annually, ...

U.S. Prosecutors to Join Probe of Art Dealing 'Freeport King' Yves Bouvier

Bloomberg / March 9th, 2016

U.S. federal prosecutors will investigate criminal allegations against Yves Bouvier, Luxembourg's former "Freeport King," who sold billions of dollars worth of art to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, and other clients, according to Keri Geiger for BloombergBusiness. Accused of fraud, ...

The Art Show Serves Up Surprises

ArtfixDaily / March 2nd, 2016

New York's Park Avenue Armory is afire with art sales as 72 exhibitors from the Art Dealers Association of America present the annual ADAA Art Show (through March 6). A preview night kicked off the week on March 1, hosting the likes of Leonard Lauder, Agnes Gund, and comedian Steve ...

This Week's New York Art Fairs in a Nutshell

New York Times / March 1st, 2016

The New York Times delivers a succinct guide to this week's several art fairs --- featuring modern masters to emerging artists --  in New York. Art critic Ken Johnson notes these fairs "provide the chance to take the temperature of global culture." Visit the show's websites to ...

Heirs of Famed Designer Viktor Schreckengost Scrap Museum Plans In Favor of Auction, Donations

Cleveland.com / February 29th, 2016

The heirs of industrial designer, artist, and sculptor Viktor Schreckengost (1906-2008) have dropped the idea of creating a new museum to house his legacy in Cleveland and have decided instead to auction key pieces and to donate others to the Western Reserve Historical Society. ...

Hudson River School Artists Celebrated in New PBS Documentary

Trailer, The Hudson Riv­er School: Artistic Pioneers / February 24th, 2016

A new PBS documentary explores the roots of the Hudson River School of painting, active from about 1825 to 1880, in America. The lives, careers, and works of artists Cole, Durand, Bierstadt, Church and Cropsey are explored in “The Hudson Riv­er School: Artistic Pioneers,” providing a rich look at ...

Frank Lloyd Wright Sturges House Withdrawn From Auction, Its Contents Snapped Up

ArtfixDaily / February 23rd, 2016

Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) withdrew the George D. Sturges Residence, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939, from its February 21 sale of Modern Art & Design. The cantilevered redwood-and-brick residence, the only Californian example of Wright's Usonian housing, carried a ...