ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

WSJ's Guide to the Armory Show

Wall Street Journal / March 3rd, 2011

Each year the Armory Show attracts 60,000 visitors to both ogle and buy modern masters and contemporary art. Combined with other art shows across Manhattan, the Armory week should generate more than $40 million in economic activity in the city, according to Mayor Bloomberg's office. The Wall ...

Billionaire computer mogul sues Santa Fe gallery

Santa Fe New Mexican / February 28th, 2011

Art collector Norman Waitt, whose billion-dollar fortune came from the 1991 sale of his Gateway computer company, has filed a lawsuit against a Santa Fe art dealer over a painting he says is worth only...

Paintings from Questroyal Fine Art will star at Oscars

ArtfixDaily / February 21st, 2011

Six spectacular American paintings from New York City's Questroyal Fine Art have been selected to adorn the Architectural Digest green room at the Oscars. Film stars and glitterati will gather for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 27th. Celebrated ...

Legislator proposes pawning Pollock

Quad-City Times / February 13th, 2011

Iowa State Rep. Scott Raecker has an idea about how to fund art student scholarships at the University of Iowa. Sell the school's Jackson Pollock "Mural," a massive painting valued at $140 million. It is Pollock's seminal work that reshaped his style and transformed American art in the 1940s. ...

Renoir to Richter, antique pistols to rare gems shine at Palm Beach fair

artinfo / February 9th, 2011

Nearly 8,000 guests flocked to the gala preview of the American International Fine Art Fair in Palm Beach last weekend. About 40,000 visitors are expected altogether to peruse the booths of 66 dealers, down from 84 last year. The 15th edition of the fair, which runs through Feb. 13 at the Palm ...

Google Art Project could be a game-changer

Huffington Post / February 7th, 2011

Introduced last Tuesday, Google's Art Project is a new kind of interactive online showcase that allows users to virtually browse through some of the world's greatest museums using a Google Street View-like interface. From London's Tate to New York's Met, 17 renowned museums can be viewed inside ...

New York Observer's Top 50 Art Collectors

New York Observer / February 3rd, 2011

From stockpiles of Matisses to flocks of duck decoys, early works by Koons to ravishing Rothkos and Renoirs and rooms full of Chippendale and Biedermeier furniture, or even Damien Hirst's infamous shark, New York's leading collectors have amassed a wide array of art and antiques. View the New ...

Eskimo masks bring $4.6 million at Winter Antiques Show

Canadian Press / January 26th, 2011

Two highly expressive ceremonial masks, created by Yup'ik Eskimos in Alaska over a century ago, sold for $4.6 million at the Winter Antiques Show, which continues through Jan. 30 at Manhattan's Park Avenue Armory. Exhibitor Donald Ellis believes the masks garnered a record price for Native ...

Stark Museum of Art unveils new acquistion

Dallas Art News / January 23rd, 2011

The Stark Museum of Art invites the public to a gallery spotlight and a reception on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. to celebrate the life and artistry of internationally acclaimed African American sculptor Edmonia Lewis. During this event, the Museum will unveil its newest ...

Antiques Week in New York: Showstoppers at the fairs

New York Times / January 20th, 2011

A bevy of antiques shows, auctions, museum exhibitions and gallery events are underway in New York City through this weekend. At the Park Avenue Armory, 75 dealers in the Winter Antiques Show (through Jan. 30) represent the creme-de-la-creme of high-end antiques. Among this year's show ...

Critics question strategy behind PAFA sales, acquisitions

CultureGrrl on ArtsJournal / January 13th, 2011

Art critic Lee Rosenbaum, aka CultureGrrl, posted a blog titled "PAFA's folly; Art sales v. Acquisitions," which scrutinizes the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts' latest decisions in deaccessioning and acquiring works of art for its permanent collection. "The disposal of traditional, historic ...

Dennis Hopper's bullet-ridden Warhol nets $302,500

KEYC / January 12th, 2011

An Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong from 1972---which "Easy Rider" star and director Dennis Hopper shot two bullet holes through---went for $302,500, more than ten times the high estimate, at a Christie's auction this week. Warhol later called Hopper a collaborator on the piece. The late ...

Calder mobile stars in Antiques Roadshow season premiere

PBS / January 4th, 2011

The 2011 season of Antiques Roadshow on PBS started off on a high note in Miami Beach with a $1 million find, the second highest valuation in the popular TV show's 15-year history. In Monday night's episode, decorative arts appraiser Christopher Kennedy was presented with a colorful mobile made ...

Art collector and financier Roy Neuberger remembered

Bloomberg / December 28th, 2010

Roy Neuberger, the legendary investor and art collector, died at age 107 in New York City on Dec. 24. As the successful cofounder of the money manager Neuberger Berman, he was able to collect a wide swath of American artists such as Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, ...

Edmonia Lewis sculpture achieves $287,500 at auction

Antiques and the Arts / December 28th, 2010

A rare carving by Edmonia Lewis, the 1898 work "Three Native Americans in Battle," or "Indians Wrestling," soared to $287,500 at Gabriel's Auctioneers/Appraisers in Norwood, Mass., on November 29. The 30-inch sculpture, made of white Carrara marble...

"The Art of Collecting" goes inside private collectors' homes

Boston Globe / December 26th, 2010

“The Art of Collecting: An Intimate Tour Inside Private Art Collections, with Advice on Starting Your Own” (Antique Collector's Club) is a new coffee-table book by Boston-area art dealer Diane McManus Jensen with a foreword by Wendell Garrett. Included are fifteen collecting-specific essays ...

Successful sales, turn-out for 14th Boston International Fine Art Show

Antiques and the Arts / December 15th, 2010

Attendance and sales were strong for the fourteenth edition of the Boston International Fine Art Show, held at Boston's Cyclorama from Nov. 18 to 21, and beginning with a benefit preview party for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Forty international dealers exhibited historic to contemporary art, ...

News Briefs: Audubon fetches $11.5 million; Getty loses goddess

ArtfixDaily / December 7th, 2010

A rare first edition copy of John James Audubon’s masterpiece “Birds of America,” which includes 435 hand-colored illustrations, sold at Sotheby's in London Tuesday night for 7.3 million pounds ($11.5 million), a record for any printed work. Paying well above the previous record of $8.8 million ...

$4.2 million Edmund Tarbell painting tops American art sales

ArtfixDaily / December 2nd, 2010

Sotheby's netted the most during the week of American paintings auctions in New York with a total of $27,010,125 (prices include buyer's premiums) for 133 lots on Dec. 2. Ruling the day was the cover lot, Boston School artist Edmund Tarbell's idyllic seaside scene of ...

Quick tour of the new wing at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

ArtfixDaily / December 1st, 2010

With only three hours to take in the magnificent, $504 million-dollar Art of the Americas Wing addition to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, first impressions made all the difference. Beginning in the clean-lined and airy Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard, an impressive new feature ...