ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Modern Masters from Stein Collection in Paris Exhibition

AP / ABC News / October 4th, 2011

On view beginning Wednesday at Paris' Grand Palais are 200 masterpieces by the likes of Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Bonnard, and Manet collected by American writer Gertrude Stein and her two brothers over one hundred years ago.

Artelligence Conference Asks: Is Miró the New Picasso?

Art Market Monitor / October 3rd, 2011

“Miró is one of the most undervalued of the 20th century masters,” Helly Nahmad stated at the Artelligence conference held last week. “We have yet to see a $100 million Miró like we have with Picasso or Giacometti.”

Duchess of Windsor to Become a Patron of the Arts

Telegraph / October 2nd, 2011

The Duchess is considering lending her patronage to a number of British arts institutions, thought to include The Tate, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A.

Irish auction market heats up with record prices

Irish Times / October 2nd, 2011

A Jack B. Yeats painting of Irish small-town life fetched a record artist price of €1 million last week to become the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction in Ireland. An unidentified Irish buyer bought the Yeats, paying well above the estimate of €500,000-€800,000 at an Adam's ...

German Artist Tells Court His Forgeries Were "Too Good"

ArtfixDaily / September 28th, 2011

In Germany's biggest art forgery trial, the artist accused of faking millions of euros worth of expressionist paintings has told the court that he enjoyed fooling the art market. Wolfgang Beltracchi, 60, said, "I really enjoyed doing it. You have to know how the art market functions and where the ...

Polish Outbuilding Yields 300 Paintings Worth Millions

Telegraph / September 28th, 2011

Police have discovered 300 paintings in a garden outbuilding owned by a 92-year-old former bricklayer in Poland. Primarily consisting of Renaissance and German baroque paintings, the collection was presumably stored since World War II...

American Museums De-Accession Russian Works at Auction

ArtfixDaily / September 27th, 2011

Two museums in the U.S. are offering Russian art from their collections at a Sotheby's auction in New York this fall. The Nov. 1 Important Russian Art sale will feature a masterpiece by Russian-American artist Nicolai Fechin (1881-1955), offered on behalf of...

A Peek Inside Mayor Bloomberg's "Baronial" Homes

New York Times / September 20th, 2011

Philanthropist, businessman and billionaire mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg has kept his personal life relatively quiet. But his two homes' lavish interiors and pricey art collections slipped into the spotlight momentarily when...

Tate ranks second most popular arts organization in world

ArtfixDaily / September 8th, 2011

Tate, Britain's family of four art galleries, attracted a record number of visitors in 2010-11 with 7.4 million people visiting its various locations, and 19 million unique users hitting its website during the same period. The Tate says the increased attendance makes it the most popular arts ...

Klimt painting discovered in Dutch home

Dawn/AP / September 7th, 2011

A previously unknown painting by Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) has been discovered in a private home in the Netherlands. The 35 by 35 inch work was determined to be by the famed Vienna Secessionist painter after...

Massive art forgery trial begins in Germany

BBC / September 1st, 2011

The trial of four people behind an alleged art forgery scandal in Germany began in Cologne on Thursday. The multi-million-dollar art scam with victims that include actor Steve Martin...

"Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement" opens at Royal Academy

ArtfixDaily / August 29th, 2011

A certain crowd-pleaser of an exhibition will be staged by London's Royal Academy of Arts this fall with the debut of "Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement." Edgar Degas's preoccupation with ballet imagery is traced throughout his career, from the documentary mode of the early 1870s to the ...

Cook Fine Art sued by collector for $5m in missing art

Courthouse News Service / August 28th, 2011

A New York art dealer has taken off with about $5 million worth of art, or the proceeds of their sale, claims one collector. Works by the likes of Picasso, Klee, and Matisse are missing. The "money has been spent"...

Art collector wins $3m civil suit for decades-old theft

Boston Globe / August 24th, 2011

In 1978, Michael Bakwin and his wife left their Berkshires home for a weekend trip only to find seven paintings missing upon their return. Among the couple's stolen artwork was...

Art Institute of Chicago names Douglas Druick as director

ArtfixDaily / August 24th, 2011

Douglas Druick, a 26-year veteran curator and department chair at the Art Institute of Chicago, was named its new president and director on Wed. An internationally recognized scholar and curator...

Heir receives $1.43 million for Nazi-looted art

Bloomberg / August 15th, 2011

The daughter-in-law of noted Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker was awarded 1 million euros ($1.43 million) for a fragment of a painting looted by Hermann Goering.

Sotheby's tallies record $3.4 billion first half sales

ArtfixDaily / August 3rd, 2011

Competitive bidding for high value works combined with commissions from booming private transactions pushed Sotheby's consolidated sales to a record $3.4 billion in the first half of 2011. Sotheby's private sales were up 114% in the first half.

Battle over the Barnes bubbles up again

AP / August 2nd, 2011

With its new building scheduled to open in Philadelphia next spring, the Barnes Foundation has met another challenge to its impending move from suburban Lower Merion, Penn. On Monday, Judge Stanley Ott presided over a hearing requested by...

A last look at the old Barnes

New York Times / July 27th, 2011

The New York Times gives an interactive final tour through the Barnes Foundation, the amazing collection of Impressionist, post-Impressionist, and early modernist art that was displayed in a neoclassical home in Merion, Penn., until June. Pharmaceutical tycoon Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951) created ...

Figurative painter Lucien Freud dies at 88

The economist / July 22nd, 2011

"He wasn't cruel--he painted what he saw," remarked a robust model for one of Lucien Freud's nude portraits. Freud, who died in London on July 20, at age 88, painted raw and unsettling images of people he knew, often naked with skin of a pasty hue. The German-born artist, a grandson of ...