ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World
News Feed Search
Exhibition, Database to Aid Search for Missing Public Art in England
Historic England / December 15th, 2015
England's post-war public art, created by some of the most important artists of the 20th century, is "disappearing before the public's eyes," according to Historic England, a government agency that protects English heritage. They have discovered that a growing number of sculptures, ...
Indian Police Probe Deaths of Acclaimed Artist Hema Upadhyay and Her Lawyer
Times of India / December 14th, 2015
Hema Upadhyay, the renowned Indian artist, and her legal counsel, Harish Bhambhani, were found dead in Mumbai on Dec. 12. Police are investigating the deaths as murders and several people have been questioned, including Upadhyay's ex-husband. The 43-year-old artist and her lawyer were ...
Stolen Caravaggio Nativity Scene Replaced with Replica
Guardian / December 13th, 2015
The theft of Caravaggio’s Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence from an oratory in Palermo in 1969 is still considered one of the worst art crimes in history. But now a new twist has emerged in a tale that for decades has come to symbolise the Cosa Nostra’s enduring hold over Sicily. A ...
Museum Sues Wikimedia Over Usage of Artwork Images
Hyperallergic / December 9th, 2015
Hyperallergic reports that the Reiss Engelhorn Museum (REM) in Mannheim, Germany, filed a lawsuit on Oct. 28 against the Wikimedia Foundation for "making high-resolution images of public domain artworks from its collection available for download." The museum ...
Hidden Portrait Underneath Mona Lisa: Is it Another Sitter?
Guerdian / December 8th, 2015
A French scientist claims ten years of analysis reveals Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa has got another portrait underneath its layers of paint, and it is the face of another person. Pascal Cotte says his use of Layer Amplification Method (LAM) shows another woman's portrait was painted ...
Miami Art Week Wraps on a High Note
ArtfixDaily / December 8th, 2015
Driving rain and a random stabbing of a patron at Art Basel Miami Beach failed to keep crowds away from shopping and browsing at Miami's art fairs. More than 20 fairs took place from Dec. 1 to 6, along with art openings and parties around town, with $3 billion in art offered at Art Basel ...
Ukraine Militia Tries to Sell Stolen Dutch Golden Age Paintings
ABC News / December 7th, 2015
A Dutch museum released a statement on Monday that two dozen Dutch Golden Age artworks stolen nearly 11 years ago have been traced to a nationalist militia in Ukraine. The public announcement by Westfries Museum in Hoorn was made to deter sales of the 24 paintings taken in a burglary on Jan. 9, ...
Marc Porter Exits Christie's for Sotheby's
NYT / December 7th, 2015
A dealmaker at Christie's for 25 years, Marc Porter has resigned and will head over to rival auction house Sotheby's. He will presumably start after his non-compete runs out in about one year. Porter, 55, served as Chairman of Christie's Americas, and from 2012-2015 led international private ...
Turner Prize Goes to...Architects
BBC / December 7th, 2015
Britain's top award for contemporary visual art, the prestigious Turner Prize, has on-and-off-again stirred controversy for 31 years. This year the annual prize ventured even further with the question, "But is it art?" Assemble, a 15-person architecture and design collective, won on Monday for ...
CBS News Digs Into the Mystery of the World's Biggest Art Heist
CBS / December 6th, 2015
Twenty-five years after the rattling theft of masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, CBS News revisits the crime scene and the known suspects. Still missing are masterworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Manet, and more. "These thieves definitely had inside information," ...
Thrift Store Finds Considered 'Billy the Kid' Images Worth Millions
Daily Mail / December 6th, 2015
Since billionaire businessman Bill Koch bought the only authenticated photograph of gunslinger Billy the Kid for $2.6 million in 2011, two more alluring images (possibly) of the legendary outlaw have surfaced. Recently, North Carolina attorney Frank Abrams began sleuthing the identities of ...
An Actual Stabbing Mistaken as Performance Art at Art Basel
Miami Herald / December 6th, 2015
A section of exhibitor space at Art Basel Miami Beach was cordoned off with police tape after a stabbing on Friday night. Some visitors to the NOVA section, which promotes young artists, thought a woman being stabbing was a performance art piece while others later considered the police tape as ...
Art Basel Miami Beach Takes Off with VIP Opening
Bloomberg / December 3rd, 2015
A star-studded opening of Art Basel Miami Beach on Wednesday saw a flurry of sales, yet the world's most deep-pocketed buyers were somewhat cautious. The sweet spot for fast sales came in below $500,000 while marquee works by the likes of Andy Warhol and Francis Bason, priced upwards of $15 ...
Leslie Waddington, Pioneering Art Dealer, Remembered
ArtfixDaily / December 1st, 2015
A fixture on the international art scene for more than five decades and an esteemed promoter of 20th-century modernist masters, London art dealer Leslie Waddington, 81, passed away on Nov. 30 surrounded by his family. He was born in 1934 in Dublin. Leslie Waddington was Chairman of Waddington ...
Art World Figures Featured in Pirelli Calendar
New York Times / November 30th, 2015
The New York Times reports that when Agnes Gund, the 77-year-old philanthropist and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, got the call about posing for the 2016 Pirelli calendar, she thought: “That’s odd. What’s that got to do with someone like me?” Known for its scantily clad and ...
Philippines Launches Website for Tips on Missing Marcos Art
Telegraph / November 30th, 2015
Following appraisals of jewelry recovered from Imelda Marcos and stored for decades in a vault, the Philippine government has announced the launch of a website to crowd-source tips on the whereabouts of some 200 missing art works, including paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rembrandt that were ...
Senators Scrutinize Tax Status of Private Museums
New York Times / November 30th, 2015
The Senate Finance Committee is reviewing the tax-exempt status of several private museums, questioning whether they provide the public with benefits that allow for the equivalent of a government subsidy, The New York Times reports. Leading the inquiry is Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the ...
Miami Art Week Organized with App
Miami Herald / November 29th, 2015
It's a whirlwind of activity from Dec. 1 to 6, so the modern and contemporary art mecca dubbed Miami Art Week has got an app. The Miami Herald offers the free Art Finder Miami app for the tens of thousands of visitors descending on the city this week who will navigate Art Basel Miami Beach, ...
Scholar Finds 1,700-Year-Old Gospel Fragment on eBay, Starting at $99
Verge / November 27th, 2015
Geoffrey Smith, an assistant professor of early Christianity at the University of Texas, was searching eBay when he discovered a 1,700-year-old papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John offered with a starting bid of $99. Recognizing it as a rare scroll in Greek with a fragment of text from John ...
Tiny English Town Chosen for Philanthropist's World-Class Spanish Art Collection
Independent / November 27th, 2015
Philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer recently donated £25m to Auckland Castle, the historic home of the bishops of Durham, near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. He also gave £5.5m to create a Spanish art gallery and research institute in town. Ruffer plans for the tiny town to ...