Monthly archive
37 headlines
Source-linked reporting
npr.org
The NPR article discusses Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, written for Joseph Joachim, which remained unpublished and unperformed for a century before a grandniece connected to Schumann’s circle explored an occult path that brought attention to its recovery. The piece’s history involves Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Christoph Eschenbach of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.
www-s1.npr.org
The NPR article discusses Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D minor, written for Joseph Joachim in 1853, which was long buried and later recovered in a story linked to the beyond; the piece was not performed or published for 100 years and is connected to the Prussian State Library, Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Christoph Eschenbach of the National Symphony Orchestra.
news.artnet.com
Jordan Wolfson created Female Figure (2014), an animatronic sculpture at David Zwirner, and Eli Broad acquired it. The article notes the Broads’ acquisition comes after earlier purchases including Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room and other works by Ragnar Kjartansson and William Kentridge.
nytimes.com
Stephen Heyman reports on a study by Dan Chitwood examining 4,000 historical violins and the influence of Antonio Stradivari on violin design, using data from the Cozio Archive and published in PLOS ONE.
sputnikglobe.com
The Cardsharps by Caravaggio is involved as Sotheby’s is sued in British High Court over claims it sold an original Caravaggio painting as a copy for £42,000; the painting was attributed by Sotheby’s to a 17th century follower rather than the master Caravaggio.
news.artnet.com
The article discusses a lawsuit by a relative of Lancelot Thwaytes against Sotheby’s London over a painting attributed to a follower of Caravaggio, claimed to be the real Caravaggio painting The Cardsharps (c.1595). Denis Mahon had previously asserted it was an original Caravaggio valued around £10 million, and similar work was purchased by the Kimbell Art Museum. Sotheby’s denies the attribution, asserting the painting is not by Caravaggio and is of inferior quality to the Kimbell original.
collectiongruenbaum.com
EgON Schiele Town on the Blue River (1910) is set to be auctioned at Christie’s New York on November 5, 2014, following a restitution settlement with the estate of Fritz Grünbaum. The work is a rare watercolor landscape by Egon Schiele (1890-1918). The case traces back to Grünbaum’s 1938 arrest and death in Dachau, and to prior seizures and claims regarding Nazi-looted art, including MoMA’s Dead City III. The note mentions Ilona Gerstel’s estate and charity beneficiaries, and references public interest in Holocaust-era asset restitution.
telegraph.co.uk
Caravaggio's original Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy has been claimed discovered in a private European collection by Mina Gregori, the world's leading Caravaggio expert. The painting is dated to 1606 and is described as having a reclining Magdalene with hands clenched and tears in her eyes, with clues including a wax Vatican customs stamp and a note on the back mentioning delivery to Cardinale Borghese.
koreajoongangdaily.joins.com
The article reports that the mayor of Salzburg, Wilfried Haslauer, introduced a violin Mozart used as a young boy during a press conference in Seoul. The event was held at the Westin Chosun Hotel and was presented by the Salzburg State Board of Tourism.
fadmagazine.com
The article reports that Parasol unit’s 10th Anniversary sale at Sotheby’s raised £2,092,250 from 31 donated works by artists including Michaël Borremans, Luc Tuymans, Chris Ofili, Antony Gormley and others, with a new record for Borremans and several other records. Michaël Borremans’ The Skirt sold for £926,500, Luc Tuymans’ The Barrel (Triptych) sold for £290,500, Charles Avery and Hans Josephsohn set new records, Paddle8.com handled online bidding raising £126,700, and combined with a private sale of £160,000 the total reached £2.37 million for Parasol unit’s programme.
news.artnet.com
Pierre Soulages is mentioned in the article as part of Sotheby’s contemporary sale in London. The piece discusses overall sale results and several lots, including Lot 29: Pierre Soulages Peinture 125 x 202 cm, 30 October 1958, with a stated estimate of £2,000,000–£3,000,000.
nytimes.com
The NYT article discusses lawsuits by relatives of Ludwig and Margret Kainer challenging UBS and a Norbert Levy foundation over proceeds from restitutions related to degas monet renoir works previously owned by the Kainers, including claims that their inheritance was cheated and that a foundation was used as a sham.
paulfrasercollectibles.com
Peter Doig's The Heart of Old San Juan sold for £4.5m ($7.2m) at Christie's Post War and Contemporary Art auction in London on October 16. The work was created in 1999 in Puerto Rico just before Doig moved from London to the Caribbean.
news.artnet.com
Peter Doig’s The Heart of Old San Juan (1999) sold for £4.6 million, or $7.3 million, including premium, at Christie’s London. Basquiat’s Love Dub for A (1987) sold for £4 million low estimate to achieve £4.3 million ($6.9 million) including premium, and Gerhard Richter’s Haus (1964) sold for £962,500 ($1.5 million) including premium.
nytimes.com
Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills go to auction; the works will be auctioned by Christie’s in New York as part of a single lot in the November sale, with an estimated total of $6 million to $9 million. The collection was assembled by Ydessa Hendeles and later acquired by Mitchell P. Rales and his wife for Glenstone in Potomac, Maryland, including works by Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Hanne Darboven, Katharina Fritsch, Jenny Holzer, Bruce Nauman and Jeff Wall.
setn.com
News page reports that a thief in Taichung stole a French antique violin valued at about 600,000 TWD and sold it for 2,500 TWD to a music shop. The violin owner is Chen Zheng-yen, principal violinist of the Taichung Youth Symphony Orchestra, who expresses distress over the loss and joy at recovery. The incident is described as careless and foolish given the violin’s high value.
durangoherald.com
The article discusses Andres Martinez and his apprentices in Havana, who repair and build violins, violas, cellos, and basses at a state-run workshop as Cuba faces a shortage of musical instruments. Sponsored by Havana’s city historian and Fiddlemakers Without Frontiers, the workshop aims to revive an indigenous Cuban violin industry, training new luthiers and repairing hundreds of instruments.
news.artnet.com
Pablo Picasso portrait d’homme, Dionís Renart (1899) by Pablo Picasso is being offered at Stockholms Auktionsverk after being rediscovered in Sweden. The work, created when Picasso was 18, depicts his friend Dionís Renart i Garcia and is signed with the moniker P. Ruiz P. It carries an estimate of 8–10 million kronor (about $1.1–1.4 million).
press.christies.com
Edouard Manet’s Le Printemps and Fernand Léger’s Les constructeurs avec arbre are highlighted as pivotal works in Christie’s November 5 Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York, with estimates of $25-35 million and $16-22 million respectively.
news.artnet.com
The Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland is reported to accept the collection of about 1,300 works bequeathed by German collector Cornelius Gurlitt. The report cites Sonntagszeitung and notes that an official announcement was expected on November 26, with decisions to be made by the museum’s board. The trove, assembled by Hildebrand Gurlitt, includes works by Matisse, Liebermann, Dix, and Chagall, and earlier estimates valued the collection at over €1 billion before revisions; some pieces are linked to restitution claims.
news.artnet.com
Polke, Indianer mit Adler (Indian with Eagle) (1975) featured in Christie’s Essl Collection sale in London, with an estimate of £1.5–2 million and achieving strong results. The five Polke works sold for a total of £16.3 million, contributing to a sale total of £46.9 million (including premium) against a presale estimate of £39.9–£56.8 million. Gerhard Richter’s Netz (1985) failed to sell, though later private sale reports indicated a premium-inclusive £5.5 million price.
spiegel.de
The article reports that 40 works from Karlheinz Essl’s collection sold in London for more than 66 million euros, with three unsold and one pulled before the sale. Gerhard Richter’s Net z (1985) sold after the auction for about 7 million euros, while Richter’s Wolken (Fenster) (1970) fetched 7.9 million euros, and five Polke paintings brought 20.6 million euros, including Indianer mit Adler (1975) at 6.5 million euros.
zeit.de
The article reports that Karlheinz Essl’s collection's sale at Christie's in London yielded about 60 million euros, with notable results for Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley, and Sigmar Polke. The highest estimate was for Richter’s Netz, which finally sold for 7 million euros, while Polke’s five works brought 20.6 million euros in total.
meinbezirk.at
The Christie’s London auction featured selected works from the Essl collection, with a total of 66 million euros realized. Notable pieces include Gerhard Richter’s Wolken (Fenster) which achieved 7.92 million euros, Maria Lassnig’s Zwei Maler, drei Leinwände at 230,000 euros, and Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s Der siebente Bezirk at 336,000 euros; several works by Martin Kippenhauer, Eduardo Chillida, and Paul McCarthy were not sold.
Christie’s
Christie’s reported £46.9 million for 43 works from the Essl Collection, its highest-value single-owner Post-War and Contemporary art sale in London.
press.christies.com
Artists mentioned include Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Martin Kippenberger, Cindy Sherman, Frank Stella, Louise Bourgeois, Morris Louis, Maria Lassnig, and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The artwork titles mentioned include Aggregate (2004), Der 7. Bezirk / The 7th District (1966), and Zwei Maler, drei Leinwände / Two Painters, Three Canvases (1986). The sale totals reported are £46,861,500 / $75,306,431 / €59,420,382, with individual prices such as £1,258,500 / $2,022,410 / €1,595,778 for Aggregate (2004) and £266,500 / $428,266 for Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s Der 7. Bezirk / The 7th District (1966) and £182,500 / $293,278 / €231,410 for Maria Lassnig’s Zwei Maler, drei Leinwände / Two Painters, Three Canvases (1986).
www-s1.npr.org
The NPR Deceptive Cadence article discusses Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond and the theft of his Lipinski Stradivarius violin, which was valued at between $5 million and $6 million and later recovered.
newscientist.com
The New Scientist article discusses how Stradivarius violin shapes influenced later luthiers. Daniel Chitwood analyzes outlines of 7000 violins to show four main clusters centered on Maggini, Amati, Stainer, and Stradivari, with Stradivari inspiring the most subsequent makers.
news.artnet.com
The article discusses Christopher Wool’s painting Apocalypse Now and its extraordinary price trajectory, including a 26.5 million dollar price at Christie’s in November 2013, as detailed in a Bloomberg Businessweek story by Vernon Silver and James Tarmy.
news.artnet.com
Liu Xiaodong Disobeying the Rules (1996) sold for $8.49 million, a new record for the artist. Zao Wou-Ki Debut d’Octobre (1995) sold for $7.63 million after a bidding war at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
kvraudio.com
The article announces the release of 8Dio's Agitato Grandiose Legato String series for Violin, Viola and Cello ensembles and chamber sections for Native Instruments Kontakt, including a free Try-Pack. It describes 42 legato types, 61 new dynamic bowings, a new legato system with adaptive speed, and notes compatibility with other string libraries.
theviolinchannel.com
The Violin Channel reports that Salah Salahadyn, accused of masterminding the January 27 theft of the 1715 Lipinski Stradivarius from Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Frank Almond, pleaded guilty to robbery in Milwaukee County Court. He had previously indicated he would contest charges and faces more than 15 years when sentenced on November 10. Related case updates mention Universal K. Allah’s prior sentence and Salahadyn’s prior guilty plea in 2000 to attempting to resell a stolen statue.
theglobeandmail.com
The Globe and Mail reports that Salah Salahadyn pleaded guilty to robbery in Milwaukee in connection with the theft of a $5 million Stradivarius violin. Universal K. Allah was sentenced to 3 1/2 years after pleading guilty to being party to felony robbery; concertmaster Frank Almond was attacked with a stun gun during the incident.
en.audiofanzine.com
News about 8DIO introducing Agitato Violas and a bundle including all Agitato instruments. The Agitato Grandiose Violas feature 3651 samples for an 8-player ensemble and 3-player divisi, with pricing of $139 for ensemble+divisi or $89 each when purchased separately. The Grandiose String bundle combines violins, cellos, and violas for $399, totaling a 14 GB collection with 15186 samples and extensive legatos and bowings. All details are available on 8dio.com.
tmz.com
The article reports on violinist Joshua Bell at Union Station in Washington, DC, describing him carrying a $15 million Stradivarius called the Gibson ex Huberman, purchased for about $4 million. It references Bell’s 2007 subway performance and includes context about the instrument’s value and his habit of traveling with it.
heraldscotland.com
The Herald reports that a £17,000 Cain and Mann violin and Charles Bazin bow were stolen from a professional musician's car in Glasgow. The incident occurred in Beaconsfield Road, Kelvinside, and detectives said the instrument is highly specialist with no public image issued.
copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com
Egons Schiele Town on the Blue River (1910) is announced for the November 5, 2014 Impressionist and Modern sale at Christie’s in New York, following a restitution settlement with the estate of Fritz Grünbaum. The work, a rare watercolor landscape, ties to the broader history of Nazi-looted art and restitution efforts surrounding Grünbaum and MoMA's Dead City III.