The article reports that a Malevich painting, a Black square on a white background, was donated by a businessman who paid $1 million and has been placed in the Hermitage after being withdrawn from an auction by Russia’s Ministry of Culture; Vladimir Potanin is named as the buyer who handed the work to the national museum fund for exhibition at the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
No traces of recession felt at Art Basel 2002 thanks to Documenta; the Art Basel '02 fair report discusses strong sales and high attendance, noting the proximity to Documenta in Kassel and the overall positive mood among galleries and collectors.
The Moscow police seized a group including a militiaman attempting to sell an Amati violin, dated around 1712, for $200,000. The instrument was reportedly provided by the state to Russian musician Igor Nadin, whose violin had been stolen in April 2002; the price in Western markets could reach several million dollars.
Picasso portrait Nu au Collier (Nude with Necklace) sold at Christie’s for nearly £16m, making it the most expensive painting sold in London that year. The painting, completed in 1932 during Picasso’s relationship with Marie-Therese Walter, was bought by an unnamed collector at the Impressionist and Modern Art sale. The work’s record price for Picasso remains £38.4m for Femme aux Bras Croises set in New York in 2000.
The report states that ten of the seventeen valuable paintings stolen from Esther Koplowitz were recovered in Madrid, with two people detained in connection with the case. The recovered works include El Columpio and Niña con sombrero by Goya, Paisage a Eragny by Camile Pissarro, Las tentaciones de San Antonio by Brueghel, Escenas de Carnaval by Gutiérrez Solana, Al baño Valencia by Joaquín Sorolla, Amarilis by Anglada Camarasa, Las Fábricas by Maximilien Luce, Vistas de los Picos de Europa by Carlos Haes, and an anonymous Mujer con pajarito.
Janet Holmes a Court’s collection is being refined as Sotheby’s prepares an indigenous art sale featuring 18 works from her Holmes a Court collection, including Rover Thomas pieces estimated up to 350,000 each. The sale aims to reduce the collection to a more critically and investment-valued group, with projections that values could rise due to provenance and collector interest.
Min-Ji Kim, a 22-year-old cellist from Seoul, won first prize at the 17th Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She performed Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony conducted by Alasdair Neale in Herbst Theatre. The Maurice Kursh Memorial Award, worth more than $10,000, includes future engagements, and Kim also won the $200 Allen R. Weiss Memorial Prize for the commissioned work by Ronald Caltabiano. Second prize went to Teng Li, a Chinese violist, with Walton's Viola Concerto; Caroline Campbell won third prize with Sibelius Violin Concerto; fourth and fifth prizes went to Kathryn Eberle and Adam Barnett-Hart. The competition began with rounds at SFSU’s McKenna Theater.
Tiffany Goldfish Vase Swims to $532,000 at Sotheby’s reports a new world auction record for a Tiffany glass vessel, a rare aquamarine Favrile goldfish vase sold for $532,000 at Sotheby’s in New York. The sale was part of a Twentieth Century Decorative Works of Art auction that totaled $6,714,710; the vase was purchased by an American private collector.
Dennis Kozlowski, former Tyco International chairman, spent over $13 million on artworks to impress peers, paying inflated prices such as $800,000 for a Munnings snowscape and $3.95 million for Renoir’s Fleurs et fruits, moves that contributed to his tax-cheating scandal.
Nokuthula Ngwenyama, an up-and-coming viola soloist, is described as about to receive her master’s in theological studies and is exploring the relationship between music and spirituality. The article profile appears in the Harvard Gazette and is dated June 6, 2002.
L. Dennis Kozlowski, former Tyco International Ltd. chief executive, was charged with avoiding more than $1 million in sales taxes on valuable art including Renoir and Monet; he surrendered and pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy, tampering with physical evidence, falsifying business records and sales tax violations. The indictment follows turmoil at Tyco and a decline in its stock.”,
Two aristocrats seek to recover stolen Old Masters by enlisting a reformed criminal and placing an advertisement in Exchange & Mart. The article discusses Titian's Rest on the Flight to Egypt (valued at least £10m) and Jean-Baptiste Oudry's The White Duck (valued £5m-£10m) stolen from Longleat and Houghton Hall, respectively.
The article reports that philanthropist Dr. Herbert Axelrod gave the first violin section of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra 15 Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu violins, with each instrument valued at about $2 million for the violins and $0.25–1 million for the second violin section tools; total gift valued around $50 million. Axelrod also donated Stradivari cellos and additional instruments to the Smithsonian and the National Museum of American History, including Stradivari violins previously donated in 1997 and Amati violins in 2000.
Alan Riding reports that Stephane Breitwieser stole hundreds of artworks, which police say were kept at his mother Mireille Breitwieser's home in Mulhouse; after his arrest, Mireille Breitwieser was accused of destroying paintings and other art objects to remove incriminating evidence.
The article discusses the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, founded by Fred Meijer, featuring more than 100 sculptures including a 24-foot-high bronze horse by Nina Akamu based on Leonardo da Vinci, with the park expanding the outdoor collection since its opening in 1995.
The article notes Landau Fine Art in Montreal and its acquisition of Fernand Léger Le plongeurs en rouge et bleu, estimated to sell for over $1.1 million. It also highlights Picasso’s Les dormeurs to be unveiled at Art Chicago 2002 and discusses Otto Naumann Ltd.’s public pricing explanation for a Frans Hals restoration, referenced by The Art Newspaper.