ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Patek Philippe Watch Smashes Auction Record to Fetch $31 Million

Bloomberg / November 11th, 2019

A Patek Philippe wristwatch sold for $31 million at a charity auction at Christie's in Geneva on Saturday. The steel Grandmaster Chime set the auction record for a wristwatch, beating out a previous top price of $17.8 million for a Daytona Rolex once owned by Paul Newman that sold in ...

The American Art Fair Celebrates Its 12th Year

ArtfixDaily / November 8th, 2019

The American Art Fair celebrates its twelfth year from November 16-19, 2019 at Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, New York City. The Fair opens American Art Week in New York. Inaugurated in 2008, The American Art Fair is the now the only one that focuses on American 19th and 20th ...

Marciano Art Foundation Closes Following Employees' Plans to Unionize

LA Magazine / November 7th, 2019

Marciano Art Foundation, the new private museum in Los Angeles, announced that it would close its Wilshire Boulevard location with "no present plans to reopen." The news came after all 70 visitor-facing employees were laid off on Thursday, and just days after employees announced plans to ...

British High Court Rejects Antiques Trade Challenge of Ivory Ban

Guardian / November 5th, 2019

A court claim from the Friends of Antique Cultural Treasures (Fact) failed Tuesday to compel the British High Court to make exceptions to a total ivory ban in the U.K. The U.K.'s 2018 Ivory Act is set to cease trade in ivory pieces of all ages with a few artistic exemptions, notes the ...

'Safe Return Doubtful': Discover Intrepid Heroes in Spink's London Exhibit Covering 200 Years of Polar Expedition in Historic Images and Memorabilia

ArtfixDaily / November 5th, 2019

From an advertisement (attributed both to Shackleton’s Nimrod and Endurance expeditions): “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” This fall, an unprecedented display will cover ...

U.S. Museum Coalition Plans Exhibitions of Female Artists Ahead of 19th Amendment Centennial and 2020 Presidential Election

ArtfixDaily / November 6th, 2019

On November 5, election day across the U.S., a new website launched as a platform to help promote women artists in museum exhibitions nationwide. Feminist Art Coalition is the brainchild of Apsara DiQuinzio, the senior curator of Modern and contemporary art at the Berkeley Art Museum ...

This Fall, View the First Exhibition Exploring the Remarkable Career of Influential American Art Dealer Edith Halpert

ArtfixDaily / November 5th, 2019

New York's Jewish Museum now presents Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art, the first exhibition to explore the remarkable career of Edith Gregor Halpert (1900-1970), the influential American art dealer and founder of the Downtown Gallery in New York City. A pioneer in the field and ...

Curators Note Other Versions Exist of Nazi-Looted Painting Recovered by the FBI

Philadelphia Inquirer / November 4th, 2019

Last month, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) curator Anna Marley picked up on the story of a Nazi-looted American painting discovered in the collection of the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, New York. That artwork will be returned by the FBI to heirs of the Mosse family, Jewish ...

Steep Rent Hikes Force Out Artists in L.A.'s Historic Santa Fe Art Colony

LA Times / November 1st, 2019

A community of practicing artists in Los Angeles that has thrived for three decades is facing extinction. A new owner of the downtown complex is implementing rent hikes that will likely force the artists to leave their homes and studios. LA Times reports: "The Miami-based development agency ...

In New Exhibits, Art Collectives Meow Wolf and teamLab Are Optimizing the Experience of Art on Their Own Terms

CBS News / November 3rd, 2019

Operating outside of traditional gallery and museum spaces, two art collectives are bringing their work directly to ticket-buying, Instagramming audiences in new exhibitions across the U.S. and in Asia. Meow Wolf, the Santa Fe-Based art collective, creates immersive exhibitions in multimedia ...

'Pre-Raphaelite Sisters' Presents A New Narrative of the Iconic Art Movement

ArtfixDaily / October 30th, 2019

170 years after the first pictures were exhibited by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1849, "Pre-Raphaelite Sisters" at London's National Portrait Gallery, explores the overlooked contribution of twelve women to this iconic artistic movement. Featuring new discoveries and unseen works from ...

Tales of Two Leonardos Not in the Louvre Blockbuster

Daily Beast / October 29th, 2019

Along with the current Louvre spotlight, Leonardo-mania gets stirred up with a legal snarl over a contested "twin" Mona Lisa and fresh fuel for the Salvator Mundi rumor mill... The Louvre's well-publicized blockbuster celebrating Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci is underway with ...

An 'Essential' Midcentury Modern House Lost, Getty Museum Remains Closed in SoCal Fire

ArtfixDaily / October 28th, 2019

Update, Tuesday, 9:45pm: The Getty Center and Getty Villa remain closed this week (through Nov. 1) due to continuing threat from the Getty Fire in Los Angeles during possibly historic high winds. The nearby landmark Eames House also closed. Curbed LA reports that one known casualty of the Getty ...

Cimabue Masterpiece Found in French Kitchen Fetches $26.6 Million

SFgate / October 28th, 2019

A 13th century work by Italian master Cimabue, rediscovered in a French kitchen earlier this year, brought 24 million euros ($26.6 million) at auction on Sunday. Dominique Le Coent of Acteon Auction House said the sale represented a "world record for a primitive, or a pre-1500 work." It was ...

Yayoi Kusama Balloon Design Will Float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

ArtfixDaily / October 24th, 2019

Wildly-popular Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama will take part in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade® in New York with her own balloon design. On Thursday, November 28, 2019, Kusama’s Love Flies Up to the Sky balloon will debut in the annual holiday tradition, seen by more than 3.5 ...

Mary Margaret 'Moo' Anderson, Pioneering Art Collector and Museum Donor, Remembered

Stanford News / October 24th, 2019

Art collector Mary Margaret “Moo” Anderson died Oct. 22 at her home in the San Francisco Bay Area, reports Stanford News. She was 92. Boston-born Moo Anderson was known for amassing a significant collection of post-World War II American art with her late husband, Harry "Hunk" Anderson ...

FBI Recovers Nazi-Looted American Painting in a New York Museum

BBC / October 24th, 2019

A painting taken from a Nazi-persecuted Jewish family in 1930s Germany was discovered in a New York museum and seized by the FBI on Sept. 10. The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie waived its rights to the painting when it was revealed that "Winter," by American artist Gari Melchers, was stolen by ...

Hollywood Exec Sues Art Dealers Over Rothko 'Total Forgery'

Hollywood Reporter / October 20th, 2019

NBCUniversal chairman Ron Meyer is suing two art dealers for $10 million in damages over the sale of a painting he says is a "total forgery." California-based art dealer Jamie Frankfort in 2001 introduced Meyer to New York dealer Susan Seidel. She sold him a "Mark Rothko" that Meyer says he was ...

Art Scammer's San Francisco Home Offered at $15 Million

SFGate / October 17th, 2019

The home of a notorious art scammer, an enviable Mediterranean style mansion in the posh Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco, is now offered for sale at $15 million, after a previusly listing at $19 million. In 2015, Luke Brugnara,  a.k.a. "Lucky Luke," was sentenced to seven ...

Three Arrested for Theft of Cattelan's Gold Toilet From Blenheim Palace

Guardian / October 17th, 2019

Arrests have been made in the theft of an 18-karat solid gold toilet sculpture titled America -- part of a Maurizio Cattelan exhibition at Blenheim Palace in the UK -- that was stolen last month. The burglary took place in an overnight heist at the 18th-century palace, known ...