Monthly archive
18 headlines
Source-linked reporting
artnews.com
The Christie’s sale opened with six works from Valerie Beston’s collection, including Bacon’s Self-Portrait which sold for £5.16 million ($9 million). Other notable results included Velázquez’s Study from Portrait of Pope Innocent X at £5.16 million, Michael Andrews and Frank Auerbach record prices, Lucian Freud portraits, and Warhol works achieving strong bids such as The Last Supper and Dollar Sign paintings.
thetimes.com
The Times reports that an anonymous 16th-century portrait sold in London decades ago has been identified as a lost work by Hans Holbein the Younger, depicting Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger. The work, dating to about 1541, was confirmed by Sir Roy Strong and linked to Holbein’s Portrait of Simon George in Frankfurt. The painting is oil on panel, 32 cm in diameter, and was bought at Christie’s in 1974 by Christopher Gibbs.
dgabc.com.br
The article reports that an Antonio Stradivari violin from 1707, nicknamed Hammer after collector Christian Hammer, was evaluated by Christie’s in New York at between US$1.5 million and US$2.5 million and was set to be a highlight at a May 16 auction. The current record for an instrument sold at auction is US$2.032 million, held by another Stradivarius from 1699.
walesonline.co.uk
Edward Steichen photographed The Pond-Moonlight on Long Island in 1904, which sold for $2,928,000 (£1.67m) to set a world record for the highest-priced photograph at auction, according to Sotheby's. The sale surpassed the previous record of $1,248,000 by Richard Prince and was accompanied by two Georgia O'Keeffe photographs taken by Alfred Stieglitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had put these Gilman Paper Co. collection photographs up for auction.
portfolio.hu
The article reports that violinist Kelemen Barnabás received the use of a Guarneri master violin, previously owned by Kovács Dénes, from the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and the Liszt Academy for five years. The instrument is valued around 6.2 million forints. Previously, Kelemen Barnabás played on an about 1683 Stradivari fiddle, which was used after winning a major competition.
artforum.com
The BBC News report states that the trial of six people charged in connection with the theft of Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream has opened in Oslo. Five of the accused are charged with aggravated robbery, while the sixth is accused of dealing in stolen goods; all six defendants have pleaded innocent. The Scream, along with Madonna, was taken in a daylight raid on Oslo's Munch Museum in August 2004.
playbill.com
The article reports that a 17th-century Nicolo Amati violin, valued at about $340,000, was stolen from 89-year-old Takiko Omura in Japan. The instrument, kept in a locked cabinet, had been used for 50 years, and Omura and her husband purchased it in the United States in 1954.
theguardian.com
The Guardian article discusses Alma Mahler’s beloved Edvard Munch painting Summer Night on the Beach, which was looted during the 1930s and later claimed by the Austrian Gallery. Marina Mahler, granddaughter of Gustav Mahler and Alma, recounts the painting’s history and the ongoing restitution struggle, including opposition from the Austrian restitution committee in 1999 and subsequent advocacy by supporters such as Franz-Stefan Meissel.
forward.com
The Forward reports on heirs of Fritz Grünbaum seeking their ancestor’s Egon Schiele paintings and noting two pieces appear in Ronald Lauder’s circles. It quotes lawyer Ray Dowd and discusses Lauder’s lack of public listing of works, concerns over provenance, and the broader challenges of Holocaust-era art restitution, including Klimt recoveries and official estimates.
artforum.com
The New York Times’s Lawrence van Gelder reports that five Klimt paintings valued at $300 million have been removed from display at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna to be packed for shipment to Maria Altmann, eighty-nine, the California woman who won a six-year legal battle to establish that her family had owned them before fleeing the Nazis. The paintings, considered national treasures, were taken down on the eighty-eighth anniversary of Klimt’s death. In the same report, the French Culture Ministry says an amateur cave explorer discovered 25,000-year-old art, older than the Lascaux paintings.
irishexaminer.com
The landscape with a youth and his tutor on horseback by Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691) was once owned by the Dukes of Leinster and later moved to Carton House, resurfaced in a private American collection in 1927, and was acquired by the National Gallery in London for €1.9 million funded by the Heritage Fund.
nytimes.com
The Dutch government announced it would return more than 200 old-master paintings to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch Jewish dealer who fled Amsterdam in 1940. The works by Jan Steen, Filippo Lippi, Anthony van Dyck, Salomon van Ruysdael, Jan Mostaert and Jan van Goyen have hung in Dutch museums since the 1950s, and the decision was announced as part of a long restitution process led by Marei von Saher.
upi.com
The Dutch government will return over 200 Nazi-looted Old Master paintings to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker, ending an eight-year legal battle. The paintings, including works by Jan Steen, Filippo Lippi, and Anthony van Dyck, have been on display in Dutch museums and government buildings since the 1950s.
aftenposten.no
The article reports that the auction of eight Munch paintings at Sotheby’s in London achieved a price record, with Sommerdag selling for 72.5 million kroner. It notes Fred. Olsen’s mixed emotions and his wife Kristin Olsen’s tearful reaction, as well as speculation about buyers and notable individual purchases such as Selvportrett and Hester.
washingtonpost.com
The article discusses a Swedish team led by Mats Tinnsten exploring a computer model to replicate Stradivari’s violin acoustics, as scientists seek explanations for the Stradivarius sound and how to reproduce it. It mentions notable violins and owners, including instruments named Dolphin and Soil, and past auction results such as Christie's sale of Lady Tennant for $2 million.
cbsnews.com
Austria decided it could not afford to buy back five Gustav Klimt paintings ordered returned to Maria Altmann of Los Angeles after an arbitration court ruling. Culture Minister Elisabeth Gehrer and Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said the state could not find the $300 million needed, and would inform Altmann’s attorneys it had no further interest in purchasing.
thebluerider.blogspot.com
Edward Steichen's photograph The Pond-Moonlight, taken in 1904, sold for $2,928,000 at Sotheby's. The sale also included two Georgia O'Keeffe photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, with prices of $1,472,000 and $1,360,000. The overall sale is estimated to bring in $4 million to $6 million and relates to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Paper Co. collection.
theartnewspaper.com
The Art Newspaper reports that arbitrators ordered Austria to return five Klimt paintings looted by Nazis from Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer to his heirs, led by Maria Altmann. The paintings, valued at $200 million or more, include Adele Bloch-Bauer I, and were removed from display in January 2006 as Austria considers purchase at market value.