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Co-Defendant in Theft of NC Wyeth Paintings Sentenced
Bangor Daily News / July 14th, 2015
A New England man who admitted transporting stolen N.C. Wyeth oil paintings to California, where four of them were sold to a high-end pawn shop for $100,000, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine. Lawrence Estrella, 65, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to ...
$1 Million Reward Offered for Return of Ruby Slippers Stolen From Museum
TwinCities / July 12th, 2015
Dorothy's ruby slippers went missing from a Minnesota museum ten years ago. A "Wizard of Oz" film buff is now offering a $1 million reward for credible information leading to the return of the iconic shoes to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, the hometown of the actress. The anonymous ...
Questions Raised Over Bill Cosby Art Collection on Exhibit at Smithsonian
SJ Mercury News / July 12th, 2015
Accusations of sexual assault lodged at comedian Bill Cosby have not derailed an exhibition of artworks from his collection on view in DC. The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art's 50th anniversary exhibition shows works from Bill and Camille Cosby's African-American art collection ...
Park Avenue Armory Receives $65 Million Gift to Create Endowment
NYT / July 12th, 2015
A gift of $65 million is set to create an endowment for arts programming and educactional initiatives at the Parl Avenue Armory, the Gothic Revival-style, hangar-size space on New York's Upper East Side that hosts art, music, performance and other activities. The Thompson Family Foundation, ...
Cranach's Renaissance Adultery Test Spurs Artist Record $14.3 Million
Bloomberg / July 9th, 2015
A Northern Renaissance masterpiece by Lucas Cranach the Elder brought an artist auction record of 9.3 million pounds ($14.3 million) at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday. A private American collector prevailed over several competitors worldwide for the Cranach. Painted circa 1525-1528, the ...
Rare Rodin Recovered 25 Years After Theft
Independent / July 9th, 2015
A rare sculpture by Auguste Rodin was found a quarter-century after it was stolen in a $1-million heist from a Beverly Hills home. A disgruntled housekeeper of an art collector had bragged about the home's contents at a local bar, eventually resulting in house keys being copied for a pair of ...
$300 Million Gauguin Painting Goes on View at Madrid's Reina Sofia Before Heading to DC
MSN / July 9th, 2015
A record-setting Paul Gauguin painting sold by a Swiss family foundation to a group of state museums in Qatar was unveiled at Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia last week. The 1892 double portrait, “Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?),” depicting two Tahitian girls, fetched nearly $300 ...
Unesco Remembers The Alamo Among New World Heritage Sites
Business Insider / July 7th, 2015
Unesco has designated 27 more places to its list of world heritage sites. Properties from Texas to Turkey will now join over 1,000 cultural, historical, and natural sites around the globe that form the United Nations organization's list. The Alamo, one of five frontier missions ...
Documents Show Monet's Neighbors Tried to Block His Lily Pond
Daily Mail / July 6th, 2015
Some of the most iconic works of French Impressionism might not have been painted if Claude Monet's neighbors in Giverny had their way. Plans for the lily pond raised objections from suspicious farmers who feared the artist's exotic plants would poison the water supply and kill their cattle. ...
Artist Sean Scully Installs Permanent Display in Barcelona Monastery
Santa Cecilia / July 6th, 2015
In the tradition of Mark Rothko in Houston and Henri Matisse in Venice, artist Sean Scully has adorned a chapel with his art. Scully's original plan to donate 200 of his artworks to Barcelona in a dedicated museum fell through after negotiations with city officials stalled. Instead, the ...
Clients Sue London Art Dealer Over Missing Millions
Daily Mail / July 5th, 2015
One of Mayfair’s most high-profile art dealers is at the center of a number of multi-million-pound international claims after wealthy clients who used him as an agent to sell masterpieces by artists such as Van Gogh, Canaletto, Picasso, Chagall, Modigliani and Magritte were not paid, reports the ...
Sotheby's Sells Warhol $1 Dollar Bill for $32.8 Million
ArtfixDaily / July 1st, 2015
Andy Warhol once said, “I like money on the wall." The Pop artist would likely be pleased that his six-foot wide dollar bill canvas, One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate), from 1962, found a buyer to pay $32.8 million at Sotheby's London on Wednesday. The work was Warhol's first and only ...
'Artists Unframed' Gives Intimate Snapshots of 20th-Century Artists' Lives
Hyperallergic / July 1st, 2015
Artists Unframed: Snapshots from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art by independent curator and arts writer Merry Forest reveals the private lives of some of the 20th-century's greatest artists in 100 captivating photographs. Away from their studios and gallery settings, poised with ...
Islamic State Sells Looted Antiquities Online
ArtfixDaily / July 1st, 2015
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is selling looted antiquities through eBay, Whatsapp, and Facebook in a fundraising effort. After U.S.-led airstrikes depleted Islamic State's $1 million daily oil revenue by nearly two-thirds, militants turned to the $3 billion global antiquities market for ...
Delaware Art Museum Sells Works by Homer, Wyeth
Delaware Art Museum / June 30th, 2015
The Board of Trustees of the Delaware Art Museum announced Monday the private sales of Arthur Cleveland by Andrew Wyeth and Milking Time (1875) by Winslow Homer. The sales are said to be the last of the museum's deaccessions to satisfy a $19.8 million bond debt and replenish its ...
Felony Arrest Warrant Issued for Artist Shepard Fairey in Detroit
Hyperallergic / June 25th, 2015
Last week a felony arrest warrant for street artist Shepard Fairey was filed in Detroit, accusing him of $9,000 in property damage and two counts of malicious destruction of property related to unsanctioned works he created when he visited the city in May, reports Hyperallergic. Fairey was ...
Rare Klimt Portrait Brings $39 Million to Lead Sales Series
NYT / June 24th, 2015
A work by Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich fetched $33 million and a pale, full-length portrait by Gustav Klimt brought $39 million at a strong Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art sale in London. The sale total was $282 million, well beyond Christie's total, boosted by nine elots ...
Sotheby's Credit Line Doubles to $1 Billion
Bloomberg / June 24th, 2015
Under pressure from activist investors to increase revenue, Sotheby's has doubled its credit line to back art loans in an effort to secure top consignments and business from the world's wealthiest collectors. Sotheby’s secured a credit line of more than $1 billion to make such loans from a ...
The Broad Acquires 50+ Artworks Ahead of Sept. Opening
The Broad / June 18th, 2015
A powerful charcoal drawing by artist Robert Longo depicting a police line facing protestors in last year’s racially charged riots in Ferguson, Mo. is one of more than 50 new artworks added to the Broad collection in anticipation of the September 20 opening of Los Angeles’s new contemporary art ...
Sales Sizzle at Opening of Art Basel
Bloomberg / June 17th, 2015
About $3.4 bllion worth of art is offered by 284 exhibitors at Art Basel this year, according to insurer Axa Art. The ultra-rich descended on the Swiss town of Basel Tuesday night, snapping up works priced in the six-and-seven-figures by Robert Rauschenberg, Takashi Murakami, Alexander Calder, ...