Monthly archive
27 headlines
Source-linked reporting
nbcnews.com
The article discusses chemically treated wood potentially used in Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu violins. Texas A&M’s Joseph Nagyvary and colleagues analyzed instrument wood using magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy to suggest preservation methods may have influenced acoustical properties.
telegraph.co.uk
The article reports on a study by Prof Joseph Nagyvary of Texas A&M University and colleagues Joseph DiVerdi and Noel Owen analyzing violin wood to understand how Stradivari instruments achieved their sound, suggesting chemical processing of maple wood may have preserved and enhanced tone.
nytimes.com
Rockwell painting Breaking Home Ties sold at Sotheby’s for $15.4 million, a record for the artist at auction. The painting Hotel Window by Edward Hopper sold for $26.8 million in the same sale, surpassing Hopper’s prior record.
phys.org
Joseph Nagyvary, a professor emeritus of biochemistry at Texas A&M University, and collaborators Joseph DiVerdi and Noel Owen published findings in Nature indicating that chemicals used to treat the wood and varnish of Stradivari and Guarneri violins are responsible for their unique sound. The work, which builds on 30 years of research, suggests oxidizing agents in chemical treatments contributed to the instruments' acoustics, rather than the wood alone.
nature.com
The article discusses how antique violins, including a Stradivari, may owe their tone partly to chemical treatments of wood. Nagyvary and team analyzed wood from antique and modern instruments, finding that hemicellulose in Stradivari and Guarneri violins showed degradation likely due to chemical treatments such as salts used to protect wood from pests.
artnews.com
Roy Lichtenstein’s Head-Yellow and Black, 1962, and Brice Marden’s Au Centre, 1969, were among major casualties in Sotheby’s Part One Contemporary sale, which realized $125 million and was 91 percent sold by lot. The sale opened with the Roger and Josette Vanthournout collection, generating eight record prices including works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Anish Kapoor, Piero Manzoni, and Francis Bacon, with Bacon’s Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with a Hypodermic Syringe leading at $15 million.
telegraph.co.uk
Colin Gleadell reports on market news including a 17th-century portrait of a young girl sold at Sotheby's for £388,800, a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Sir Thomas Lawrence sold at Christie’s for £2.1 million, and a portrait of Elizabeth I auctioned for £512,000 to Philip Mould. The piece also mentions Peter Doig market chatter and an exhibition by Helly Nahmad in London, plus Picasso works tied to Delacroix’s Les Femmes d’Alger at Sotheby’s sale and museum funding news.
tarisio.com
The Tourte cello bow known as the Ex-Romberg sold for $196,000 at a Tarisio online auction, setting a world record for a Tourte bow. The anonymous buyer’s identity remains undisclosed. The sale contributed to a total auction gross of over $4,000,000, marking the second highest musical instruments auction on record.
theartwolf.com
Willem de Kooning’s Woman III was sold for $137.5 million. The sale was reported in relation to previous high-profile works by Pollock and Johns, and mentions the seller David Geffen and buyer Steven Cohen.
time.com
Andrew Purvis reports on how Germany and Austria address restitution of Nazi-looted art as record prices for works like Gustav Klimt and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner provoke scrutiny; Christie’s NY total and Klimt’s Golden Adele are cited, with concern over 700 works in German museums whose origins are questioned.
nytimes.com
Willem de Kooning’s Woman III, a 1952-53 oil on canvas, sold for about $137.5 million to Steven A. Cohen; the painting came directly from David Geffen, who has been selling contemporary works. Geffen has also recently sold a de Kooning landscape from 1955, “Police Gazette,” for $63.5 million. The article discusses Cohen’s rapidly growing private collection and Geffen’s recent private art sales, amid speculation about a bid for The Los Angeles Times.
usatoday30.usatoday.com
Andy Warhol's Mao Zedong portrait sold for $17.4 million at Christie’s, a world auction record for the artist. The winning bid came from Joseph Lau, with the Daros Collection selling the work; the piece measures 81 by 61 inches and shows Mao in a dark blue jacket against a light blue background.
nytimes.com
The article reports that Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XXV (1977) sold for $27.1 million at Christie’s, the highest price for a postwar painting at auction, setting a new artist record and contributing to a total sale of $239.7 million for postwar and contemporary art. Christie’s sale occurred after a record for Impressionist and modern art the previous week; Sotheby’s sale on Tuesday brought $125.1 million. Final prices include Christie’s commission; estimates exclude commissions.
upi.com
Edvard Munch woodcut sold for 1.26 million dollars, reportedly a record price for a graphic work. The print is titled To mennesker. De ensomme (Two people. The lonely). Pablo Picasso previously held the record at 1.04 million dollars for a graphic work.
irishexaminer.com
The piece reports that a Francis Bacon painting titled Version No 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe sold for $15,024,000 (€11.7m) at Sotheby’s New York, setting a new auction world record for Bacon. It notes the work’s subject, Moraes, and mentions the seller Roger Vanthournout’s collection and the total auction results of about $125.1m (€97.6m).
artnews.com
The five-painting cycle, including works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, was sold at Sotheby’s in Milan to an anonymous buyer for €5.9 million; the buyer is reported to be Angelo Guido Terruzzi, a Genoese industrialist, and the paintings were moved to the Cavalieri Hilton hotel in Rome for display.
latimes.com
David Geffen, a billionaire involved in music, film, and Broadway, has sold a painting for a record $140 million and two others for a combined $143.5 million in the last two months, while continuing to build his art collection of postwar American art. The article mentions Paul Schimmel’s praise of Geffen’s collection and discusses potential implications for Geffen’s finances and bid to acquire the Los Angeles Times, with Sotheby’s and Christie’s both achieving high sales.
law.com
The article discusses a Picasso painting, Portrait de Angel Fernandez de Soto, linked to Nazi-era title disputes, that Christie's withdrew from sale amid eleventh-hour claims. Julius Schoeps filed a lawsuit in Manhattan claiming Nazi-era coercion related to ownership; a similar federal suit was dismissed by Judge Jed S. Rakoff.
nytimes.com
Edvard Munch painting “Summer Night on the Beach” (also called “Seascape With Moon”) is to be returned to Marina Mahler, granddaughter of Gustav Mahler and Alma Mahler, after a restitution battle in Austria. The work has hung at the Belvedere in Vienna since 1940; the return follows a 2001 law and a recommendation by the Art Restitution Commission. The article mentions Klimt paintings restored to Maria Altmann earlier in 2006.
nytimes.com
The New York Times reports that Christie’s Impressionist and modern art sale reached $491.4 million, setting a new auction record. Klimt and Gauguin paintings led the bidding, including Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I and II, with notable restitution-linked works among the catalog.
spiegel.de
Excerpt from a DER SPIEGEL article about Jewish heirs reclaiming artworks in German museums, including the Kirchner painting returned by Berlin to Alfred Hess's granddaughter; discusses moral versus monetary considerations and the pressure on museum directors amid high-stakes art market activity.
nytimes.com
Anemona Hartocollis reports that Christie’s withdrew Picasso’s Blue Period painting Portrait de Angel Fernandez de Soto, also known as The Absinthe Drinker, from a New York sale after a court ruling; the work is tied to a dispute over rightful ownership involving Julius H. Schoeps and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, with potential values cited up to $60 million.
Christie’s
Christie’s announced four days of Russian Pictures and Works of Art sales in London with a combined estimate around £25 million. The picture offering included Aivazovsky’s View of Constantinople at £1.5–2.5 million alongside works by Grigoriev, Mashkov, Shishkin and Somov.
gettyimages.ca
The image features Giovanni Battista Morassi, described as the master of the violin makers of Cremona. The page discusses Cremona’s tradition of high quality string instruments and mentions famous makers such as Andrea Amati, Nicolo Amati, Andrea Guarneri, and Antonio Stradivari, with notes on auctions and acoustics.
renaissanceresearch.blogspot.com
Renaissance Research reports on postwar art sales, including Klimt works and other modern masters, with details on Christie's auction achieving $491 million and noting Nazi restitution histories related to several Klimt works. The article references the Birchs and Unterach pieces, Kirchner's Berliner Strassenszene, and the involvement of the Neue Galerie in Manhattan.
gettyimages.no
The page describes a 19th century painting of Antonio Stradivari in his workshop, displayed in Cremona's town hall Violins' Room, Italy. It references historic Cremona violin makers including Andrea Amati, Nicolo Amati, Andrea Guarneri, and Antonio Stradivari, and notes auction prices for Stradivarius instruments in 2005 and 2006.
aw2w.blogspot.com
A World to Win: Art market’s winners and losers discusses how investors and the super rich shifting from stocks into art have driven record prices, including the private sale of No.5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock at £73.35m and a Klimt painting previously valued at £70m. It notes the role of restitution in bringing high-value works to market and concerns from museums and galleries about access and looting, with examples like Klimt’s Adele Block-Bauer portrait and Ernst Kirchner works.