Oliver August in Baghdad reports that a painting claimed to be Picasso, titled The Naked Woman, was seized by Iraqi security forces who said it went missing from the Kuwait National Museum after the Gulf War; the art market value was claimed to be about $10 million (around £6.2 million).
Benjamin Duer reported that Iraqi special forces recovered a stolen Picasso, titled The Naked Woman, during a raid on a suspect's house in southern Iraq near Hillah. The painting, linked to looted Kuwaiti art from the 1990 invasion, was valued at $450,000 by the seller but some experts estimated it at $10 million.
Brice Marden painting Au Center, valued at three million dollars, was damaged in transit involving Lufthansa Cargo and Art Crating Inc., according to Reuters and the New York Times. Separately, art dealer Paul Rusconi filed a libel and slander suit against actress Claire Forlani over allegations of selling fake works and overpricing, with a Claxton photograph re: Steve McQueen.
Christie’s announced a 118-lot single-owner sale of the Miller-Plummer Collection, assembled over two decades and ranging from early photography to modernist prints. The house described it as a leading private survey of works pivotal to the medium’s development.
Daniel Hope premieres Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s second violin concerto, Fiddler on the Shore, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on August 22, and later co- appears with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the UK premiere at the BBC Proms on September 8.
A 184-year-old violin by Giovanni Francesco Pressenda, owned by Hahn Bin, was left in a New York taxi. The instrument, valued at 430,000 euros, was located by the police and returned to Hahn Bin 15 hours after the taxi ride.
Ilya Kaler will substitute for PMF concertmaster Valentin Zhuk, who could not perform the Khatchatourian Violin Concerto on August 18 due to visa issues. The festival had previously arranged replacements for weeks one through three, and Kaler was contacted after the search for a violinist began.
Anish Kapoor: Memory is a major site-specific sculpture by Anish Kapoor to be shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from October 21, 2009, to March 28, 2010 as part of the Deutsche Bank Series. The work, constructed of Cor-Ten steel and weighing 24 tons, is the 14th artist project commissioned for Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin and marks the Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary program.
MoMA announced two major photography acquisitions: nearly 60 rare nineteenth-century photographs from the Suzanne Winsberg Collection and 39 photographs by Richard Avedon. The Winsberg bequest covers 1847–1893 by artists such as Édouard-Denis Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, Nadar, Charles Nègre, Louis-Rémy Robert, and Benjamin Brecknell Turner, enriching MoMA’s nineteenth-century holdings; the Avedon collection, acquired from The Richard Avedon Foundation, more than doubles MoMA’s Avedon holdings. Welcome displays begin August 7, 2009 in the Edward Steichen Photography Galleries.
The article discusses site-specific artworks by Olafur Eliasson, Franz Ackermann, Mel Bochner, Daniel Buren, Matthew Ritchie, Dave Muller and Lawrence Weiner installed in the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as part of the Dallas Cowboys Art Program, with installations at entrances, staircases, ramps and concession areas.
Sotheby’s posted a sobering first-half result with an 87 percent drop in profits in the second fiscal quarter and trailed Christie’s in total auction sales for the first half of 2009, with Christie’s tally at $1.5 billion versus Sotheby’s around $995 million. The article cites Christie’s Yves Saint Laurent/Pierre Bergé sale in Paris as a major factor, notes sales by region and category, and includes remarks from Sotheby’s CEO William Ruprecht and Christie’s CEO Edward Dolman.
The article reports on Copley Fine Arts Auctions led by Steve O’Brien and Cinnie O’Brien, noting that six Elmer Crowell decoys from the Harry V. Long collection sold for portion of a $4,158,929 two-day auction, with $1.8 million coming from the six Crowell decoys.
The article reports Hahn-bin, a 22-year-old violin virtuoso, forgetting his 18th century Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin valued at £300,000 in a yellow NYC taxi after a Long Island concert with Itzhak Perlman; the violin was recovered after taxi authorities and police tracked the cab driver who dropped Hahn-bin in New Jersey, aided by GPS trackers in cabs.