ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Original Norman Rockwell Painting Surfaces in Hospice's Labor Day Auction

Lancaster Online / August 31st, 2016

An original work by famed illustrator Norman Rockwell will be offered among Amish-made food, quilts, and "awesome stuff" at a Pennsylvania charity auction this weekend. A local donor gave the Rockwell painting, “Swords at Weehawken,” to the 32nd annual Hospice & Community Care's Labor Day ...

SF Chronicle: Sneak Peek Inside the George Lucas Museum

San Francisco Chronicle / August 30th, 2016

San Francisco Chronicle's Charles Desmarais visited the George Lucas estate in California for an initial look at the fimmaker's vast collection that would form the planned Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Previous attempts to create the museum in San Francisco and Chicago have fallen ...

Export Ban Placed on $6.5 Million Queen Victoria Crown

BBC / August 29th, 2016

The BBC reports: A temporary export ban has been placed on a sapphire and diamond coronet that belonged to Queen Victoria, preventing it from being sold abroad. The coronet, designed by Prince Albert for their wedding in 1840, is at risk of being exported unless a UK buyer matches the £5m ...

The Art of Burning Man Is On Fire Again

ArtfixDaily / August 28th, 2016

Tens of thousands of participants and artists will gather for the 30th anniversary of Burning Man, running Aug. 28 to Sept. 5, in the Nevada desert. It's a "crucible of creativity," explains the event's website. Art enlivens the dusty playa of this eclectic festival in temporary Black Rock ...

Two Bronx Museum of the Arts Trustees Resign

Wall Street Journal / August 28th, 2016

Management style and issues surrounding an exchange project involving Cuban art has unsettled some serving on the board of trustees at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Wall Street Journal reports: A schism over governance at the Bronx Museum of the Arts has prompted two top trustees to ...

Proceeds From Museum Visits in Italy on Sunday to Help Repair Quake Damage

ArtfixDaily / August 25th, 2016

The deadly magnitude-6.2 earthquake that struck central Italy on Wednesday devastated the medieval towns of Amatrice and Accumoli, the village of Pescara del Tronto, and the surrounding region. By Thursday, the death toll came to 250 with victims still being pulled from ...

Portrait Bought Online for $500 Deemed a Lost De Kooning

Telegraph / August 24th, 2016

On the BBC series Fake or Fortune? art expert Philip Mould helped a Belgian couple discover that a portrait they bought online for 450 euros was a lost early work by Dutch abstract artist Willem de Kooning. The painting of a child could be worth £50,000 ($113,000), say the ...

Artist Peter Doig Wins Trial Over Authentication of His Own Work

BBC / August 24th, 2016

Scottish-born artist Peter Doig has won a long and strange trial over artwork authentication --- the living artist had to prove a painting was not his own. A Chicago court ruled that Doig did not paint a landscape that former Canadian prison official Robert Fletcher said he bought ...

Discover Dance-Inspired American Art in Traveling Exhibition, Catalog

Museum Shop / August 24th, 2016

On view now through Oct. 2, 2016, at the Denver Art Museum is a traveling exhibition centered on American art from 1830 to 1960.  The 304-page exhibition catalog can be ordered online through the Denver Museum Shop: As an enduring wellspring of creativity for many artists throughout history, ...

New Book Compiles the Best in Botanic Imagery

PHAIDON / August 24th, 2016

Plant: Exploring the Botancial World is a new compilation of 300 of the most beautiful and pioneering botanical images ever made. From Phaidon, the 353-page book will be released in September and includes a seminal Georgia O'Keeffe painting, exquisite images assembled by the Royal Botanic Garden ...

Militant Who Destroyed Cultural Sites Pleads Guilty in War-Crimes Trial

NPR / August 23rd, 2016

A Malian Islamist militant who led the 2012 destruction of cultural heritage sites and ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu has pleaded guilty at the International Criminal Court.  Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. His trial for destroying cultural ...

Digging Into the SFMOMA Deal with the Fisher Family

San Francisco Chronicle / August 22nd, 2016

San Francisco Chronicle's Charles Desmarais reports on the Fisher Collection of contemporary art on display at the expanded SFMOMA, and the scant details provided on the deal between the museum and the Fisher family. As Donald Fisher’s health failed, a new deal was struck with SFMOMA, resulting ...

Judge Rules For Norton Simon Museum To Keep Cranach Paintings

Pasadena Now / August 18th, 2016

A U.S. District Court judge ruled this week that Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum legally owns Lucas Cranach’s “Adam and Eve,” a pair of masterpieces painted around 1530, when he dismissed the claim by an heir to a former owner in a case that has dragged on for a decade. Judge John Walter ruled ...

Sebastian Smee's The Art of Rivalry Covers Riveting Relationships of Modern Masters

Indiebound / August 16th, 2016

The Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize winning art critic Sebastian Smee has penned a spellbinding 416-page tome about eight of modern art's most hallowed names -- and the artists' very complicated relationships with each other. The book The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, ...

Magnificent Italian Castle to be Auctioned Fully Furnished

Concierge Auctions / August 14th, 2016

Castel Valer, a restored medieval fortress at the edge of the Dolomites mountain range in northern Italy, goes under the gavel on Sept. 8. The historic property has descended in the same family for about 650 years. Steeped in history while updated for the 21st century, the castle combines ...

Alec Baldwin at Odds With Art Dealer Over Alleged "Copy"

New York Times / August 14th, 2016

Actor Alec Baldwin claims that he paid $190,000 in 2010 for a painting that was not the one he requested to buy, reports the New York Times. Baldwin alleges that Manhattan dealer Mary Boone sold him a different work by artist Ross Bleckner, a version worked on up to 2010, instead of his ...

Is Wydr the Tinder for Artists?

Independent / August 11th, 2016

"Adopting Tinder’s swipe model, Wydr’s algorithm works behind the scenes, assessing users’ tastes to calculate what to display in the future," reports The Independent of the Swiss-made app. "Artists on Wydr must catch the eye of potential customers flicking through their tiny phone screens." ...

Artist Peter Doig Defends Himself in Court Over Disavowed Painting

Yahoo / August 11th, 2016

Artist Peter Doig is famous for landscape paintings that fetch millions of dollars, but he has disowned one particular desert scene. Is he telling the truth, or trying to hide from an embarrassing past? A US federal judge in Chicago will decide. Robert Fletcher, a retired Canadian corrections ...

Texan Tourists Make Archeological Discovery in Hawaii

newser / August 10th, 2016

A pair of vacationers from Texas discovered previously-unknown petroglyphs thought to be at least 400 years old on a Hawaiian island beach. Lonnie Watson and Mark Louviere made the archeological find on Oahu. They located 10 unusually large (5-foot) images carved in sandstone across 60 ...

Will New York State's Sales Tax Pursuits Increase Art Prices?

Forbes / August 9th, 2016

The aftermath of a recent settlement between New York State and international art dealer Gagosian Gallery has yet to be measured on the market. Last month, New York State reached a $4.28 million settlement with Gagosian and its California affiliate for "noncompliance in two surprising areas," ...