ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Two Iconic Warhol Paintings Are Missing After Museum Loan

Mirror / August 20th, 2015

The Andy Warhol Museum of the Modern Art in the town of Medzilaborce, Slovakia, is missing two major works by Andy Warhol. A loan was made to an individual who has vanished, along with both the paintings, since March. Slovak police are investigating. One of the missing works is from the ...

Digital Catalogue Raisonnes Underway for Fitz Henry Lane and Other 19th Century American Painters

New York Times / August 15th, 2015

A consortium of museums will present a new website of works by famed 19th-century marine artist Fitz Henry Lane next month. Fitzhenrylaneonline.org is one of several catalogue raisonnes, those exhaustive tomes that document an artist's oeuvre, in the works for American artists. So far, ...

Lawsuit Brews Over Wyeth's Ice Storm

Courthouse News Service / July 26th, 2015

A former TV news anchor from Tennessee is suing a Japanese gallery over the sale of Andrew Wyeth's painting "Ice Storm." The Wyeth sold for $820,000 at Christie's in May, reports Courthouse News Service. Plaintiff Reed Galin says he had a one-third interest in the Wyeth and was never paid. ...

Marcel Breuer's Stillman House with Calder Mural at Auction

ArtfixDaily / July 23rd, 2015

The Marcel Breuer-designed Stillman House, in bucolic Litchfield, Connecticut, will be offered by Wright at a Design Masterworks auction on Nov. 19. Considered a masterpiece of modern architecture and art—with murals designed by Alexander Calder and Xanti Schawinsky—the 2.8-acre property ...

Art, Offerings in Leonardo DiCaprio Gala Auction Set to Raise Major Funds for Environmental Causes

Forbes / July 19th, 2015

At a private villa in St. Tropez on July 22, a massive auction organized by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will offer up a host of fine art, jewelry, properties, goods and experiences to raise funds for environmental conservation. The first edition of the event raised $25 million last year, ...

Co-Defendant in Theft of NC Wyeth Paintings Sentenced

Bangor Daily News / July 14th, 2015

A New England man who admitted transporting stolen N.C. Wyeth oil paintings to California, where four of them were sold to a high-end pawn shop for $100,000, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine. Lawrence Estrella, 65, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to ...

Questions Raised Over Bill Cosby Art Collection on Exhibit at Smithsonian

SJ Mercury News / July 12th, 2015

Accusations of sexual assault lodged at comedian Bill Cosby have not derailed an exhibition of artworks from his collection on view in DC. The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art's 50th anniversary exhibition shows works from Bill and Camille Cosby's African-American art collection ...

Clients Sue London Art Dealer Over Missing Millions

Daily Mail / July 5th, 2015

One of Mayfair’s most high-profile art dealers is at the center of a number of multi-million-pound international claims after wealthy clients who used him as an agent to sell masterpieces by artists such as Van Gogh, Canaletto, Picasso, Chagall, Modigliani and Magritte were not paid, reports the ...

Sotheby's Sells Warhol $1 Dollar Bill for $32.8 Million

ArtfixDaily / July 1st, 2015

Andy Warhol once said, “I like money on the wall." The Pop artist would likely be pleased that his six-foot wide dollar bill canvas, One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate), from 1962, found a buyer to pay $32.8 million at Sotheby's London on Wednesday. The work was Warhol's first and only ...

Delaware Art Museum Sells Works by Homer, Wyeth

Delaware Art Museum / June 30th, 2015

The Board of Trustees of the Delaware Art Museum announced Monday the private sales of Arthur Cleveland by Andrew Wyeth and Milking Time (1875) by Winslow Homer. The sales are said to be the last of the museum's deaccessions to satisfy a $19.8 million bond debt and replenish its ...

Cooper Union President, Trustees Resign Amid Turmoil

Inside Higher Ed / June 11th, 2015

Five trustees and the president of the Cooper Union resigned this week following years of turmoil at the elite New York college that trains artists, architects and engineers. President Jamshed Bharucha resigned Wedsnesday, a day after the trustees. The exodus follows backlash from students, ...

Crystal Bridges Museum to Reveal Major Acquisitions

NYTimes / June 3rd, 2015

Walmart heiress Alice Walton has spent nearly $150 million on art in the last year, reports the New York Times, and some of her most recent purchases are yet to be made public. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Bentonville, Ark., museum largely bankrolled by Walton, is expected to make ...

Monet and American Impressionism

ArtfixDaily / May 31st, 2015

Monet and American Impressionism opens at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga on June 27. The exhibition features several Monet paintings and highlights twenty-five American artists who launched a new way of painting in response to the influence of French ...

Barbra Streisand to Donate John Singer Sargent painting to LACMA

LA Times / May 27th, 2015

A rarely-exhibited painting by American master John Singer Sargent is headed for permanent display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. But when the Sargent will arrive at the musuem is unknown. The LA Times reports that Oscar-winning actress and singer/songwriter Barbra Streisand will ...

Andrew Wyeth's Iconic Image Remade with Oil Spill by UK Artists in Shell Protest

Guardian / May 26th, 2015

The open field and quaint house depicted in Andrew Wyeth's famous painting "Christina's World" have been replaced with the dirty gloom of an oil spill by a group of UK artists. The figure's pink dress appears in stark contrast to dark and smoky oil fields. British art collective ...

Arthur Dove Painting Fetches $5.4 Million at Christie's; Thomas Moran Leads Western Art from William I. Koch Collection

ArtfixDaily / May 21st, 2015

Two marquee lots fell flat in Christie's American Art Sale on May 21 while definitive works by several artists far exceeded estimates. Topping the $29,822,500 (with fees) total sale was Arthur Dove's early modernist masterpiece "Boat Going Through Inlet" (circa 1929) which brought $5.4 ...

Estate of Pop Artist Marjorie Strider Sues Over Art Sales

NY Daily News / May 14th, 2015

Art collector Michael Chutko of Morristown, N.J., wants to sell works by Pop artist Marjorie Strider at a Chelsea gallery this month. But the sales of Strider's art, valued at $6 million, are on hold after the artist's estate alleged that Chutko does not own the artworks. Chutko maintains he ...

Auction Series Could Hit $2.5 Billion Estimate

Telegraph / May 5th, 2015

Impressionist, modern and contemporary art hitting New York auction blocks could bring a record $2.5 billion for the sale series. The record for the series is $2.26 billion achieved just last fall. This May, big-ticket artworks and hefty guarantees on offered lots are boosting the sale total ...

Accused Fraudster in $11M Scam Gets Jail Time for Bullying Art Dealer

Courthouse News Service / April 30th, 2015

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup sentenced accused art thief Luke Brugnara to jail for 21 days after he bullied a witness on the stand, reports Courthouse News Service. Brugnara, who is representing himself, landed contempt "for abusing the art dealer he allegedly conned ...

Inside the Sordid Saga of Russian Billionaire Rybolovlev Taking Down His Art Dealer

Bloomberg / April 28th, 2015

In February, Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier thought he was meeting his top cient, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, to work out the final payment for Mark Rothko’s No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red). Considered to be among the finest works in the abstract expressionist's oeuvre, the Rothko was to ...