ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Broad Art Museum's Min Jung Kim is Tapped to Lead New Britain Museum of American Art

Hartfoed Courant / August 31st, 2015

Min Jung Kim was named director of the New Britain Museum of American Art on Friday. She currently serves as deputy director for external relations of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Kim follows Douglas Hyland who held the role for 16 ...

First House Designed by Gaudi to Open as Museum

Art Newspaper / August 31st, 2015

Casa Vicens, the first house designed by famed Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, will be renovated and made into a museum. The 1888 residence, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is scheduled to open for public visiting hours in the fall of 2016, reports the Art Newspaper. Gaudi's ...

Judge Rules Hospital Won't Owe Manet or Millions to Huguette Clark Estate

NY Post / August 31st, 2015

Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan has dodged a lawsuit to recoup $4 million in gifts filed by the estate of copper mine heiress Huguette Clark in 2013. The elderly multimillionaire spent nearly 20 years in the hospital until her death at age 104 in 2011. Her estate's lawyers and a ...

The Hyde Collection Receives 55 Works from Major Modern Art Collection

Times Union / August 30th, 2015

The Hyde Collection, in Glen Falls, N.Y., has received its largest gift of modern art in 30 years - a remarkable group of paintings, drawings,  prints, mixed media, and sculpture by many of the world's leading modern artists. The collection of 55 works of art, including works by Josef ...

Crocker Art Museum Acquires Portrait of 18th-c. French Artist Anne Vallayer-Coster

BizJournal / August 27th, 2015

Among 400 new acquisitions last year to the Crocker Art Museum collections is a significant addition of 18th-century French portraiture. Swiss-born artist Alexandre Roslin's 1783 portrait depciting fellow painter Anne Vallayer-Coster with her brush and palette in hand is now ...

Museum Mishaps: Kids Accidentally Break Baroque Painting, 2,000-Year-Old Vase in Separate Incidents

Haaretz / August 25th, 2015

Two kids had their worst museum visits ever this week. A 12-year-old boy on a school field trip to Taipei's Huashan 1914 Creative Park tripped and accidentally punched a hole through a Paolo Porpora floral still-life valued at $1.5 million.  The work was a casualty on the group's ...

Singapore Unfreezes Assets of Sued Art Dealer Yves Bouvier

The Local / August 25th, 2015

In an August 21 order, the Singapore High Court  lifted a freeze on the assets of the Swiss "king of freeports" and art dealer Yves Bouvier that were imposed earlier this year. Bouvier, a Singapore resident, had been accused of fraud by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.  ...

Giant Red Ball Rolls Away From Toledo Museum of Art Installation

Mlive / August 24th, 2015

A 15-foot-tall, 250-pound inflated ball, sponsored by the Toledo Museum of Art, broke free of its installation and rolled down a street in Toledo, Ohio, last Wednesday. Several cars were rolled over. Brooklyn artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project has been on view ...

$75 Million Museum of Western and Native American Art Planned for St. Petersburg

Tampa Bay Times / August 23rd, 2015

Art collector Tom James, who is executive chairman of Raymond James Financial, says he is under contract to purchase the first two floors of a building at 100 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg, Florida, to partly house a new museum. About 60 percent of 133,600 square feet ...

Seward House's Iconic Thomas Cole Painting Awaits Decision on Fate

Auburn Pub / August 23rd, 2015

In February 2013, the Seward House Historic Museum in Auburn, New York, removed a Thomas Cole painting on display, citing concerns over the work's value and the museum's ability to safeguard the Hudson River School landscsape. Emerson Foundation said a valuation of Cole's ...

Two Iconic Warhol Paintings Are Missing After Museum Loan

Mirror / August 20th, 2015

The Andy Warhol Museum of the Modern Art in the town of Medzilaborce, Slovakia, is missing two major works by Andy Warhol. A loan was made to an individual who has vanished, along with both the paintings, since March. Slovak police are investigating. One of the missing works is from the ...

Rodin Bust Swiped in Broad Daylight From Danish Museum

DW / August 20th, 2015

A bronze bust by Auguste Rodin was stolen by two men dressed as tourists in daytime hours at a museum in Denmark. Danish newspaper Politike reported this week that the theft occurred July 16 at Copenhagen's Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum. Rodin's "The Man with the Broken Nose," part ...

Banksy Unveils Dismaland in the UK

BBC / August 20th, 2015

Street artist Banksy has conjured up Dismaland in an abandoned waterpark in the U.K. It is decidedly not street art, says the artist. Bansky described the massive pop-up installation both as "escapism from mindless escapism" and a "family theme park unsuitable for ...

ISIS Beheads Antiquities Scholar Who Protected Location of Artifacts

Guardian / August 19th, 2015

Islamic State militants publicly beheaded a leading scholar of antiquities in the Syrian city of Palmyra on Tuesday. Khaled al-Asaad, 82, refused to tell the militants the whereabouts of ancient artifacts moved for safekeeping. After a month-long detainment, he was murdered and his body hung ...

Religious Extremists Damage Art Exhibition in Moscow

Guardian / August 17th, 2015

A Christian group attacked a Moscow art exhibition on Friday toppling and smashing artworks on display.  Dmitry “Enteo” Tsorionov, a self-proclaimed missionary, led the activists into Sculptures We Don’t See at the Manezh, an exhibition space next to Red Square. His group, called ...

Palace of Versailles Moves Forward with Hotel Plans

Independent / August 18th, 2015

Three 17th-century buildings just 100 yards from the main palace of Versailles will be renovated and converted into a luxury hotel. The renovation is expected to cost at least $7 million. Dips in funding for the state-owned Chateau de Versailles has the popular site needing to increase ...

New Director of National Gallery London Steps In While Staff Strikes Continue

Telegraph / August 17th, 2015

Gabriele Finaldi took over the head position at the National Gallery London on Monday. Instead of easing into the museum director position during what should be the lull of August holiday time, Finaldi will find himself at the center of continuing protest and strikes over the privatization of the ...

The Vatican Launches App for Crowdfunding Restorations

The Guardian / August 17th, 2015

Not all are in favor of the Vatican Museums' Patrum, a new app designed as a philanthropic crowdfunding venture to support the treasures in the Vatican. The Guardian's Jonathan Jones, for one, thinks the app could lead to restoration projects that are more harmful than good for art and ...

New Technology Could Bring Leads in Gardner Heist

Boston Globe / August 15th, 2015

New technology is raising hopes for the recovery of the 13 masterpieces stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 25 years ago. Law enforcement officials released a surveillance video last week showing a security guard, allegedly unauthorized, letting an unknown man into the museum ...

Ferrari Tops $67 Million Sale of World's Most Expensive Car Collection

CNBC / August 15th, 2015

An anonymous Florida collector sold twenty-five cars Thursday night through RM Sotheby's in a record-setting auction garnering $67 million, the highest total ever for a single owner sale. The enormous total led the Concours d'Elegance auctions and shows in Pebble Beach, California, which this ...