The Seattle Times reports that the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has received gifts totaling more than $1 billion in art, donated by numerous collectors including Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen who gave Bartolom Esteban Murillo's Saint Augustine in Ecstasy. The gifts encompass works by Brancusi, Georgia O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Morris Graves and others, with about 200 pieces going on display in SAM's new downtown expansion. The Wright collection of postwar and contemporary art from Virginia and Bagley Wright is highlighted as a major longtime promised gift to SAM.
Carol Kino reports on restitution of looted antiquities and Nazi-era art, highlighting lawyers Lawrence M. Kaye and Howard N. Spiegler of Herrick, Feinstein who helped recovered works for heirs, including Klimt paintings, the Goudstikker case, the Lydian Hoard, and the Schultz prosecution; the article discusses the growing role of cultural property law.
The Stradivarius violin at the National Art Museum will undergo expert examination by a commission appointed by the Minister of Culture, Adrian Iorgulescu. The commission will determine whether the violin handed over by the Voicu family is the same instrument purchased in 1956 by the Romanian state and lent to maestro Ion Voicu. Results are expected by April 10, and foreign experts will later estimate the instrument’s value, which is valued at over 1.5 million euros. The ministry notes the violin will be insured by the Romanian state, and there will be a competition to loan the instrument to a young Romanian violinist for five to seven years.
The Bonn concert highlighted a violin once owned by Beethoven, part of a string quartet set gifted by Prince Lichnowsky. The instrument resurfaced in America after a long odyssey and was showcased with Daniel Sepec and Andreas Staier performing Mozart and Beethoven works.
Raymond D. Nasher, a real-estate developer and banker, and his wife Patsy built a major collection of Modern and contemporary sculpture and established a public museum in Dallas, dying at age 85 in Dallas. The article notes his early life, education at Duke, and key acquisitions by the Nasher collection, including works by Matisse and others.
Jacob Lawrence’s portfolio The Legend of John Brown, 1977 sold for 156,000 and Elizabeth Catlett’s Nude Torso, 1976 sold for 120,000; Kara Walker’s Kneeling Silhouette, 1995 sold for 43,200; Hale Aspacio Woodruff’s Totem, circa 1950-54 sold for 96,000; Norman Lewis’s Street Music, 1950 sold for 67,200; Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (Portrait of a Young Black Woman), circa 1950 sold for 28,800.
Herzog Waterscape stars at Skinner sale; Herman Herzog’s Florida waterway painting Near the Outlet of Wassalassa River sold for 127,000 and Abram Arkhipov’s Girl from Ryazon 116,000, Lionel Walden’s Breaking Waves 73,438, and Rodolfo Morales untitled painting 52,875. Andy Warhol Queen Elizabeth II lithograph sold for 41,125; Jane Peterson Harbor View and Zinnias and Lilies sold for 25,850 and 27,025, and Xavier Bueno works 32,900 and 37,600. Other notable results include Gustave Baumann woodcut Cotton Wood Tussels at 16,450 and George Loring Brown View of the Italian Coast at 14,000; some pieces fell under estimates (Emile Albert Gruppe, Alfred Thompson Bricher, Laura Coombs Hills), while Florida and Hawaiian subjects were highlighted as hot by Robin Starr.
The article reports that French police returned two rare violins to a Los Angeles Philharmonic musician. The instruments, valued together at $250,000, were stolen in December from violinist Mark Kashper’s home in West Hollywood. One violin was made in the 18th century by Carlo Tononi, and the other in the 19th century by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. A shop owner alerted police when an American man tried to sell the violins for $65,000; the man, unnamed, denies the theft and claims he bought the violins.
The article reports that two violins, an 18th-century Carlo Tononi and a 19th-century Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, stolen from Los Angeles Philharmonic associate principal violinist Mark Kashper, were recovered in France. A Paris dealer informed police that an American man attempted to sell them for $65,000; the thief, living in Amsterdam, could face extradition. The Tononi is on loan to Kashper from the Philharmonic and is notable for its maker, Carlo Annibale Tononi.
The article discusses the Eakins affair and deaccessioning, examining the controversy surrounding selling art from institutions such as Thomas Jefferson University, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Fisk University to raise funds; it mentions The Gross Clinic, The Cello Player, and paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe and Marsden Hartley.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra plans to sell its collection of Golden Age string instruments, including violins, violas, and cellos by Italian makers such as Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, purchased for $17 million four years earlier. The sale aims to relieve debt from the 2003 purchase and provide financial security, as officials note demand for such instruments remains high.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Newark, New Jersey is selling its collection of prized “Golden Age” string instruments, including violins, violas, and cellos by Italian makers such as Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. The collection was acquired for $17 million from a benefactor who later went to prison, and valuation has been contested, with the orchestra reporting a purchase price for tax purposes after considering an $49 million initial valuation.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is selling 30 string instruments, including violins, violas and cellos by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. The collection was bought four years ago for $17 million US, and the benefactor Herbert Axelrod had valued them at $49 million US, a valuation later questioned by experts.
Italy’s master violin makers in Cremona worry that Chinese production and cost efficiency threaten the prestige market for high-end violins, bows, and cases. The article notes Cremona prices can reach up to $27,000 for a violin and that Chinese workshops are expanding, posing competition to European lutherie.
The Tate gallery in London raised £4.95 million ($9.7 million) to keep J.M.W. Turner’s The Blue Rigi, 1841, in the UK after it was sold to an anonymous foreign bidder for £5.8 million ($11.4 million). The sale was temporarily suspended by the British government to allow the fund-raising effort, which raised about 70 percent of the total in five weeks, according to David Barrie of the Art Fund.
Vivien Schweitzer reports that a circa 1727 Stradivarius violin stolen from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is set to return to the stage with Gary Levinson performing Glazunov's Violin Concerto under Andrew Grams at Meyerson Symphony Hall. The instrument was recovered after a tip in 2005 and had previously been purchased by the DSO in 1978 for Eliot Chapo; it was stolen from Emanuel Borok in 1985 and later recovered with insurance payout.