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Works by Sargent, O'Keeffe Lead American Art Auctions in New York
ArtfixDaily / May 19th, 2016
Sotheby’s May 18 auction of American Art brought $27.1 million with the three top lots bringing over half of the sale's total. The 65-lot sale achieved a sell-through rate of 72% by lot. Liz Sterling, Sotheby's Head of American Art, noted that the sale was "a continuation of the ...
Oppenheimer Blue Diamond Sets Record in Geneva
Robb Report / May 19th, 2016
Robb Report: On Wednesday, Christie’s Geneva sold the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue, the largest and arguably the highest-quality fancy blue diamond ever to come to auction. It sold for $57.5 million, surpassing its $45 million estimated price and eclipsing the previous auction record ($48.5 ...
British Museum Closes During Greenpeace Protest
Telegraph / May 19th, 2016
The British Museum in London closed to visitors on Thursday after Greenpeace activists scaled its entryway columns in a protest against BP's sponsorship of the blockbuster exhibition "Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds." Police arrested about 11 people in the protest for aggravated trespass. ...
Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., Curator of American Art, Remembered
Washington Post / May 17th, 2016
Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., an art historian who became a curator at the National Gallery of Art, where he took a leading role in organizing several major exhibitions, including a 1995 retrospective of the works of painter Winslow Homer, died May 1 at his home in Washington. He was 83. Dr. Cikovsky, ...
Tour the Art Studios Where Whitney Museum Began
New York Times / May 17th, 2016
A $30,000 grant from the National Trust of Historic Preservation will in part support public tours of the New York City art studios where Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942) began her vision of an American art museum. Whitney's series of studios along West 8th Street in Greenwich Village ...
5 Things To Do During American Art Week
ArtfixDaily / May 16th, 2016
American Art Week is underway in New York City where historical and modern works get the limelight at galleries, museums and auction houses. Here are a few highlights: 1. Just Off Madison. This annual event is an open house at leading private American art galleries on May 18, from 10am-2pm. ...
George Lucas Eyes San Francisco Again For Museum Site
Chicago Tribune / May 15th, 2016
Months of legal entanglements over the Chicago lakefront site chosen for George Lucas's museum has the Star Wars creator looking again at San Francisco. Chicago Tribune reports: Aaron Peskin, a San Francisco supervisor, confirmed Sunday afternoon that preliminary discussions between the city ...
Peabody Essex Museum Receives Major Gift of American Art Collection With a New England Focus
Boston Globe / May 15th, 2016
A vast trove of 19th- and early 20th-century New England painting, a 1,000-work private collection rich in White Mountain landscapes, still lifes, and modernist works by painters who once flourished around Provincetown, is headed to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., reports the Boston ...
Ex-Sotheby's Contemporary Art Head Moves to Phillips
Wall Street Journal / May 15th, 2016
Cheyenne Westphal, who resigned as Sotheby’s world-wide head of contemporary art in March, confirmed Thursday she is joining Phillips to be its new chairman based in London. Ed Dolman, chief executive and chairman of Phillips, will cede the latter title when she starts next spring, reported Kelly ...
Kahlo Painting Sets Record at Christie's $141 Million Sale
ArtfixDaily / May 12th, 2016
An intimate and compelling work by Frida Kahlo, dating from 1939, resonated with a telephone bidder at Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on May 12. The sale's total slid to $141,532,000 with sell-through rates of 86% by lot and 89% by value. The total beat its $134.3 ...
Cy Twombly Tops Sotheby's $242 Million Sale
Wall Street Journal / May 11th, 2016
Cy Twombly's squiggly chalkboard painting fetched $36.7 million at Sotheby's on Wednesday. The contemporary art sale in New York brought some spirited bidding from U.S. and Asian buyers. There were a handful of lots that sparked bidding battles, including a Sam Francis abstract, titled Summer ...
Record-Smashing Basquiat Heads to Japan from $318 Million Christie's Sale
Bloomberg / May 11th, 2016
Christie's May 10 evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art realized $318,388,000 with sell-through rates of 87% by lot and 91% by value. The sale established 6 new world auction records for artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Agnes Martin, Mike Kelley, Richard Prince, Kerry James ...
Refugees Give Tours at Berlin's Museums
Breitbart / May 10th, 2016
Several museums run by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which administers the capital’s state museums, have recruited refugees to guide Arabic-language tours of Berlin museums for other refugees. Since December, some 3,000 refugees from war-torn Syria, Iraq and other places have taken ...
$7.25 Million Settlement for Near-Fatal Fall at Rodin Museum
Philly.com / May 10th, 2016
Philly.com reports: An engineer who nearly died after falling 38 feet through a glass ceiling of the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia more than three years ago has reached a settlement with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the museum's security company for $7.25 million, attorneys said ...
Artist Jeff Koons Collaborates With Google
ArtfixDaily / May 10th, 2016
Known especially for his monumental and expensive Pop art sculptures, artist Jeff Koons has launched a new venture priced for the everyman. Koons teamed up with Google on a new live case exclusively for Nexus devices, priced around $40. The limited edition Jeff Koons Live Case went on sale ...
Sotheby's Reports Quarterly Loss, Possible Investor, and a Record Rodin
ArtfixDaily / May 9th, 2016
Gigaweek at the New York auctions began with news from Sotheby's of a quarterly loss, followed by a boost from an announcement of investor interest and mixed results for its Monday sale. A wider-than-expected first-quarter net loss of $25.9 million in the quarter on revenues of $106.5 million ...
T Magazine Uncovers The Lost Frescoes of Rajasthan
T Magazine - New York Times / May 9th, 2016
In the desert, painted onto once-great — and now, mostly abandoned — houses, is dazzling proof of the Indian state's opulent history. Aatish Taseer writes of this extraordinary past in T Magazine's upcoming May 22 Travel issue: The pale hard land surrounding Delhi runs west into the ...
Auction 'Gigaweek' Kicks Off With Christie's $78 Million 'Bound to Fail' Sale
New York Times / May 7th, 2016
'Gigaweek' is underway at the New York auction houses with an estimated $890 million to $1 billion in Impressionist, modern and contemporary art up for sale at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips. Over the course of 5 days some 1,500 artworks are offered. But this May's marquee sales are not ...
Rediscovered Rembrandt Goes From New Jersey Basement to Getty Exhibition
Los Angeles Times / May 6th, 2016
A tiny, discolored painting found by auctioneer John Nye of Nye & Co. in the basement of New Jersey home turned out to be worth far more than its $500 - $800 estimate. Art blogger Bendor Grosvenor first noted the possible significance of the work up for sale. Reports the Los Angeles ...
Road Trip: Explore the New Frank Lloyd Wright Heritage Trail
Map the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail on Curbed / May 5th, 2016
In March, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed a bill to create the Frank Lloyd Wright Heritage Trail. Several of the seminal architect's most renowned structures are on the route, including Taliesin -- his famed home studio in the Prairie School style, with a history both incredibly ...