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ARTFIXdaily Closed for Independence Day - Enjoy Landscapes of the Early American Republic at PAFA, Moon-centric Momentos at Christie's

ArtfixDaily / July 1st, 2019

ARTFIXdaily will be closed and subscriber e-newsletter service will resume July 15. Happy Independence Day! This July, lunar mission artifacts are offered in New York to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Christie's sale on July 18 has important space exploration ...

Innovative Artist Ruth Asawa Noted With a Google Doodle

ArtfixDaily / May 1st, 2019

Japanese-American artist Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was highlighted with a Google Doodle (in some countries) on Wednesday as May kicks off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The Google feature would have exposed Asawa's work to millions of people. The doodle above the Google search bar depicts ...

An Important Book of Botanical Drawings Is Rediscovered in New York After Nearly 200 Years

National Geographic / April 29th, 2019

A book of exquisitely-rendered scientific drawings depicting Cuban botany was thought to be "lost" until one intrepid researcher rediscovered it in a New York library. Specimens of the Plants & Fruits of the Island of Cuba by Mrs. A.K. Wollstonecraft was tucked away in Cornell University's ...

The Art of Carl Gustav Jung Is Brought Together in a Slightly Mind-Blowing Exhibition

ArtfixDaily / February 5th, 2019

The Illuminated Imagination: The Art of C. G. Jung, an exhibition now on view at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Art, Design, and Architecture Museum, through April 28, 2019, shows that the famed Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung had a whole other side ...

Judy Garland's Ruby Slippers Found After Museum Theft 13 Years Ago

Star Tribune / September 4th, 2018

The FBI announced Tuesday that they have found the stolen red sequined slippers worn nearly 80 years ago by actress Judy Garland as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." Pilfered from a museum in the actress' hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn., the shoes have been missing for 13 years. On loan from ...

Brazil's Oldest Museum Consumed by Fire

The Guardian / September 3rd, 2018

A massive fire ripped through Brazil's oldest museum on Sunday night, possibly destroying some 20 million artifacts. The 200-year-old Museu Nacional (National Museum) housed natural history collections including fossils and indigenous artifacts found in Brazil as well as antiquities from Egypt ...

Disneyland Memorabilia Collection Fetches $8.3 Million at California Auction

Mercury News / August 30th, 2018

Disneyland collectibles that a man had amassed since 1993 sold for $8.3 million at a Sherman Oaks, Calif., auction last weekend. The consignor, Hollywood agent Richard Kraft, offered up his 900-piece Disney collection, in part to help fund charities that benefit children with special needs, ...

AI-Generated Artwork Heads to Christie's in a First-Ever Sale

Christie's / August 21st, 2018

A portrait created by artifical intelligence will the hit auction block this fall. An artist collective's algorithm has made an abstracted 18th/19th century-looking man, Portrait of Edmond Belamy, which will test the waters for AI art in the Prints & Multiples sale at ...

'The Brady Bunch' House Will Get a 70s Style Restoration by HGTV

CNN / August 7th, 2018

HGTV is the new owner of a North Hollywood, Calif., home that was featured as the exterior setting for the popular 1970s series, "The Brady Bunch." Listed at $1.9 million, multiple offers, including one from singer Lance Bass, likely drove up the price for the split-level. "This iconic ...

Gerry Lenfest, Philadelphia Philanthropist and Arts Patron, Remembered

ArtfixDaily / August 6th, 2018

H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, 88, passed away on Aug. 5, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. A leading philanthropist and driver of civic causes and the arts for the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region, Lenfest gave away over $1.3 billion in just two decades. After building a fortune in ...

Artists in Protest Art Exhibition Protest the Museum Hosting It

New York Times / August 5th, 2018

Artists represented in an exhibition of protest art in London voiced concerns to the museum over its hosting of an event for a defense contractor. Then, in an ironic twist, some artists of the protest art came to withdraw their artwork from the Design Museum in London, in protest. Artist ...

Thomas Jefferson's Books Discovered in a Lake Tahoe Dumpster

Sacramento Bee / July 30th, 2018

A man who was picking through a dumpster in 2014 for a community service project unexpectedly recovered a slice of American history. For two years, Max Brown researched his find: a pile of 15 worn books, retrieved from a trove of many more volumes that he left behind, in the Incline Village, ...

Van Gogh Museum Teams Up with Vans on Wearables

ArtfixDaily / July 26th, 2018

Vans goes van Gogh... Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum has collaborated with classic sneaker maker Vans on a line of shoes and attire emblazoned with the seminal artist's work. Vincent van Gogh's most iconic images such as Sunflowers and a Self-Portrait will debut next week on sneakers and ...

Houston Man Sells Picasso Artwork on Nextdoor

Austin360 / July 18th, 2018

A Houston man recently offered up a portrait that he listed as by Pablo Picasso on Nextdoor. Known as an online forum for neighbors to share local information, sell items, and (oftentimes) complain to eachother, Nextdoor seems an unlikely platform to have success with art-selling, yet the ...

Napoleon's Hat From Waterloo Battle Brings $400,000 at Auction

New York Times / June 18th, 2018

A hat said to have been dropped by Napoleon Bonaparte on the battlefield of Waterloo catapulted to about $400,000 at an auction in France. The over 200-year-old artifact, one of 19 extant of Napoleon's iconic black bicorns, sold in Lyon for 350,000 euros, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of ...

New V&A Location Part of £1.1 Billion Transformation of East London Into Cultural Hub

The Times / June 5th, 2018

A new outpost for the V&A is part of a £1.1 billion plan for London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford to be transformed into the “East Bank,” a cultural hub hosting branches of Sadler’s Wells, London College of Fashion and University College London (UCL). London Mayor Sadiq Khan ...

Digital Art Jumps on the Blockchain Bandwagon

fivethirtyeight / March 8th, 2018

From fivethirtyeight: "A small triumvirate of artists, technologists and financiers are using the blockchain to render art rare and then selling it. In the process, they’ve figured out a way to make digital art valuable... Technology like the blockchain, they say, democratizes art by creating ...

Mystery Lingers Over Fate of Huguette Clark's Bellosguardo

Independent / February 20th, 2018

Huguette Clark, the copper heiress who died at age 104 in 2011, left a will that envisioned her California mansion be turned into an arts nonprofit. Years later, the fate of the reclusive multimillionaire's 23-acre estate in Santa Barbara is still not clear. Her oceanside Bellosguardo estate ...

Most Members Quit National Park Service Advisory Panel in Protest

Washington Post / January 17th, 2018

This week, 10 out of 12 National Park System Advisory Board members have resigned, leaving the federal government without a functioning body to designate national historic or natural landmarks, reports the Washington Post. In a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, departing board ...

George Washington's Diamond Eagle Medal On Display With Newly-Discovered 7-Foot Watercolor in Philadelphia Exhibition

ArtfixDaily / December 6th, 2017

The Diamond Eagle — an exquisite jewel-encrusted medal owned and worn by George Washington — is now on display in Philadelphia for the first time since it was presented to Washington in the city 233 years ago, and it will be shown this winter with a rare, newly-found Revolutionary War-era ...