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24 headlines
Source-linked reporting
nytimes.com
Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York reported record prices for Fra Bartolommeo, Sandro Botticelli, Pompeo Batoni and Hans Memling, with Botticelli’s Rockefeller Madonna selling for $10.4 million and Batoni’s Susanna and the Elders bringing $11.4 million.
en.vijesti.me
Billionaire Roman Abramovich purchased a collection of Ilya Kabakov works, including about 40 paintings and installations. The asking price ranged from 30 to 60 million dollars, with experts estimating the collection could be around 60 million dollars. The previous owner was John L. Stewart.
bbc.co.uk
The article discusses the release of Ivor Gurney’s Violin Sonata in E-Flat Major, written in 1918, and its world premiere recording and score release. Rupert Marshall-Luck prepared the score and premiere; the work is part of a Gloucestershire Archives collection of 1,347 items.
fadmagazine.com
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is mentioned with Self-Portrait with Fright Wig, screenprint on t-shirt, circa 1986. Christie’s launches Andy Warhol@Christie’s, the first online-only sale, featuring 125 works with estimates from $600 to $70,000.
stgeorgeutah.com
The article profiles Kevin Lee of Leeds, who calls himself a master luthier and builds violins, aiming to rival historic master luthiers. It describes his workshop, the crafts involved, and his philosophy about the life of a master violin maker.
nordonart.wordpress.com
Batoni leads with Lot 73, Pompeo Batoni, Susanna and the Elders, estimated $6-9 million and hammer price $10.1 million. The sale also features a late Goya portrait, gold-ground paintings, a newly discovered Memling, a Caravaggesque still life, and numerous large-scale Italian, German, and French mythological paintings. Sotheby’s January 2013 Old Master paintings sale was notable for results including some strong performances and others that did not meet expectations.
latimes.com
The Los Angeles Times article discusses a Scarampella violin at the center of a legal dispute in Texas involving musician Filip Fenrych of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Tara Moore of Mesquite, Texas over payment for an unauthenticated instrument that bore a Scarampella label. Fenrych initially agreed to $47,000 after Moore offered the violin for $90,000 and later refused to pay an additional $43,000 after claiming authentication documentation was found.
thelocal.se
Henri Matisse’s oil on canvas from 1920, titled Le Jardin, stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm in 1987, has been returned and will be acclimatised for 24 hours; the painting is valued at about $1 million. The artwork was identified by the Art Loss Register after a dealer attempted to sell it in London.
finance.ifeng.com
The painting by Zhang Daqian, Splashed Color Mountain and Water, was auctioned for 250 million yuan, after starting at 50 million and rising to 1.75 billion yuan before being won by an outbid bidder. The sale surpassed the previous record for Chinese painting and calligraphy set in 2010. Other works by Li Guchin and Guan Shanyue also sold for 14 and 14.5 million yuan respectively.
paulfrasercollectibles.com
The Mills Violano Virtuoso, a rare coin-operated music machine from around 1907 combining violin and piano, sold for $48,000 at a Victorian casino antiques auction in Las Vegas on January 19, with an estimated range of $16,000 to $160,000.
vulture.com
The article centers on Larry Gagosian, a leading art dealer, and Alberto Mugrabi as they navigate a 2009 Sotheby’s sale in London involving Warhol works and a strategy to protect the value of their collections; it credits Gagosian with creating the posthumous market for mid- and late-career Warhols and notes the Mugrabis’ extensive holdings.
wealthbriefing.com
Christie’s worldwide art sales rose 10 percent to $6.27 billion in 2012, with Asian clients representing 19 percent of registered bidders. The firm also reported private sales of $1 billion, a 26 percent increase, and participation from bidders in 136 countries. Highlighted sales included Rembrandt’s A Man in a Gorget and Cap at 13.2 million pounds in London, and Chu Teh-Chun’s La forêt blanche II in Hong Kong, which set a world auction record for the artist.
cartwheelart.com
The Panza Collection at MOCA describes acquisitions from Count Giuseppe Panza and details MOCA's 81-piece purchase from the Panza collection, highlighting Panza’s collecting focus and the integration of works into MOCA Grand Avenue in 1984.
eadt.co.uk
Le Jardin by Henri Matisse, valued at £1m, was recovered after being stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm in 1987. Charles Roberts of Charles Fine Art in London facilitated the return with assistance from the Art Loss Register and its executive director Christopher Marinello.
theartwolf.com
Jean-Michel Basquiat Untitled (Pecho/Oreja) is listed with an estimate of £7-9 million. The sale also features Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Self-Portrait estimated at £10-15 million, Gerhard Richter works including Abstraktes Bild (769-1) estimated at £7.5-9.5 million and Wolke (Cloud) estimated at £7-9 million, among others, as Sotheby’s London prepares a contemporary art auction on February 12, 2013.
spokesman.com
The Henri Matisse painting Le Jardin, stolen in 1987 from a Swedish museum, was recovered after a British dealer checked it against the Art Loss Register and found it in possession of a Polish owner; the painting is valued at about $1 million and will be returned to Stockholm’s Moderna Museet.
huffingtonpost.co.uk
The Matisse painting Le Jardin, stolen in 1987 during a raid at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, has been recovered in Essex 25 years later. The recovery was aided by art dealer Charles Roberts and the Art Loss Register, with ARL executive director Christopher Marinello commenting on the case and the broader issue of stolen artworks resurfacing.
observer.com
David Hockney, Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes, 1963, is set to appear at auction for the first time at Christie’s postwar and contemporary sale in London. The work, inspired by Hockney’s first trip to Egypt at age 26, has been in an important British collection for 40 years and is estimated at £2.5 million to £3.5 million (about $4.1 million to $5.7 million).
bbc.co.uk
The painting Le Jardin by Henri Matisse, valued at $1m, was recovered in London after being stolen from the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art in 1987. The recovery involved an art dealer, the Art Loss Register, and ALR director Christopher Marinello, with the work due to be returned to Stockholm.
mg.co.za
Matisse's Le Jardin, valued at about six million crowns ($916,200), was recovered by Christopher Marinello of the Art Loss Register. The painting was stolen in May 1987 from Moderna Museet in Stockholm during a night-time break-in. The artwork’s recovery followed an art dealer in Britain checking with the Art Loss Register before a sale. The Moderna Museet remains missing a Georges Braque painting from a 1993 theft. Reuters reports context on stolen art and the prevalence of recoveries and thefts.
press.christies.com
David Hockney’s Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes (1963) is featured in a Christie’s press release dated 7 January 2013, London, announcing it will be offered for sale with an estimate of £2,500,000-3,500,000. The painting commemorates Hockney’s first trip to Egypt in 1963 and is described as a watershed in his career.
richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk
Tony Graco, 33, of Whitton Dene, Hounslow, was sentenced to six months in prison for stealing a £25,000 violin on a train. The violin owner, Catrin Win Morgan, had boarded the Waterloo to Whitton service with a Stradivarius copy by Frédéric Chaudière, which was recovered after CCTV and forensic analysis led to Graco’s arrest. He pleaded guilty to theft at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court.
benningviolins.com
Aleksandra Maslovaric, a renowned Los Angeles-based violin virtuoso, has acquired a master violin crafted by luthier Eric Benning (Benning Violins, established in 1953). The instrument, made in 2009 based on a Stradivarius model, will be used to record Maslovaric’s next album featuring works by women composers.
hccart.blogspot.com
The page reports record prices for old master paintings at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York, including Batoni’s Susanna and the Elders selling for 11.4 million and Rockefeller Madonna selling for 10.4 million, while noting numerous works by Goya, Bassano, and Guercino unsold; it also mentions Koons’s Tulips and dealer bidding dynamics.