The article discusses Jeremy Constant, concertmaster at Marin Symphony and assistant concertmaster at San Francisco Symphony, and his 1850 J. B. Vuillaume del Gesu violin (numbered 1801) which has historical connections to David McCallum (the actor from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Sir Neville Marriner, and Beatles sessions including A Day in the Life, Yesterday, and Eleanor Rigby. It recounts attempts to contact David McCallum junior and the eventual correspondence with McCallum senior via his son, including a visit to discuss the violin’s history.
The Titanic Museum Attractions in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri will exhibit Wallace Hartley’s violin, which sold for over $1.7 million in 2013. The violin is associated with the RMS Titanic and Hartley’s band reportedly played Nearer, My God, To Thee during the sinking.
The Stavanger Symfoniorkester is accepting applications for a Viola Tutti position with applications due by September 1, 2015. For more details, a link to additional information is provided.
Danielle Steel’s Stinson Collection, featuring paintings, sculptures and multimedia works by artists including John Beech, Kati Casida, Peter Forakis, Tom McKinley, Doug Owen and Julie Speidel, is heading to auction at Clars Auction Gallery on July 25–26. The collection is valued at over $100,000 according to Clars, and the sale also includes antique dolls from Lee and Richard Trotter, jewelry, watches, decorative arts, furnishings and several works of Asian art.
DanH Vo’s Fiat Veritas is at the heart of a legal battle with Bert Kreuk. The article discusses how collectors may be required to buy two artworks to obtain one and how this practice affects access to coveted artists such as Mark Bradford, Danh Vo, and Amalia Ulman.
The National Bank of Hungary purchased a Titian painting for 4.5 billion forints (EUR 14.5m) through its art acquisition programme. The work, titled Mary with Child and St. Paul, was previously in a private home in Pecs and later lent to the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts.
Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter are cited in The Independent as protesting plans by Germany to designate national treasures and restrict sales abroad. Richter is quoted saying he would flog off his pictures, as the proposal would affect paintings over 50 years old worth over €150,000 and require regional approval to be sold abroad.
Maria Altmann’s story involves stolen art and Nazi-era expropriation. Gustav Klimt’s portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer were central to the tale, which was later dramatized in the film Woman in Gold and connected to legal restitution leading to the paintings being returned to Altmann’s estate. The Klimt portrait of Maria’s aunt remains on display at the Neue Galerie in New York.
The Bachtrack review covers a performance at Kirche, Lockenhaus, on 9 July 2015 featuring Cristina Barbuti (piano), Alexander Lonquich (piano), Vilde Frang (violin), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Latica Honda-Rosenberg (violin), Christoph Koncz (violin), Eszter Osztrosits (violin), Pablo Hernán Benedí (violin), James Boyd (viola), Lily Francis (viola), Sebastian Klinger (cello). The programme included Killmayer Paradise for two pianos, Dvořák Piano Trio no. 3 in F minor, Op. 65, and Enescu String Octet in C major, Op. 7.
British forex billionaire Joe Lewis bought Klimt's Portrait of Gertrud Loew-Felsövanyi (1902) for $39 million. The painting was sold at Sotheby’s London in June, and the buyer was confirmed as Joe Lewis by Austrian newspaper Der Standard.
Julian Agnew, a London Old Masters dealer and former owner of Agnew’s gallery, compared the pursuit of Nazi-looted artworks restitution to ambulance chasing in a letter to the Financial Times. The article discusses restitution cases, researchers and lawyers taking a percentage of sale proceeds, and mentions Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on a Beach (1901) as points of context.
Vincent van Gogh, Canaletto, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, Amedeo Modigliani, and René Magritte are named as artists involved in lawsuits against dealer Timothy Sammons. The article notes that the UK High Court froze up to £7 million ($10.7 million) of Sammons’s assets, confiscated his passport, and limited his weekly allowance to £750 ($1,500). It references Sammons’s past role at Sotheby’s Chinese art in New York and his London residence, and compares him to Larry Salander in behavior and legal trouble.
J.M.W. Turner The High Street, Oxford (1810) by J.M.W. Turner was saved for the Ashmolean Museum with public donations totaling £60,000 ($90,000). The painting, on long-term loan since 1997, faced potential private sale to cover the inheritance tax shortfall of £860,000 ($1.3 million) after Heritage Lottery Fund contributed £550,000 ($840,000), Art Fund £220,000 ($330,000), and Friends and Patrons £30,000 ($46,000).
The article discusses Auckland interior designer and art collector Stephanie Overton suing London dealer Timothy Sammons for NZ$16.5 million after allegedly selling her paintings to New York dealers and not forwarding the proceeds. It notes Sammons’ past roles at Sotheby’s and his Mayfair-based fine art business, and mentions a separate High Court case involving the WH Smith family trust seeking £1.6 million related to a Canaletto sale.
The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili sold for 2.9 million pounds ($4.8 million) at Christie's in London, setting a record for the artist. Other MONA works sold included Damien Hirst's Beautiful Mis-shapen Purity Clashing Excitedly Outwards Painting for 542,500 pounds, Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Great Deeds Against the Dead for 422,500 pounds, and Jenny Saville’s Matrix for 782,500 pounds.
Gauguin's Tahitian painting Nafea faa ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) is on display at Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum after being sold earlier this year. The work, painted in 1892, was reportedly bought for around $300 million by a Qatari buyer and is now on loan for an exhibition running until mid-September.
Richard Prince created 20 new artworks for Tony Salamé, founder of Aïshti. The Beirut-based retail magnate is investing in a 40,000 square-foot, David Adjaye-designed contemporary art space in Jal El Dib and Salamé’s collection includes works by Wade Guyton, Danh Vo, Franz West, Carol Bove, Gerhard Richter, and Christopher Wool. The exhibition space and museum plans are connected to the Aïshti Foundation and its inaugural exhibitions.
The Sotheby’s London contemporary sale, estimated at £142–£202 million, concluded at £130.4 million ($204.7 million) with four top lots unsold. Francis Bacon’s Study for a Pope I failed to sell, while two other Bacon pieces from Jacques Casier’s heirs sold within or above estimates. A notable subset of the sale consisted of eight paintings of dollar signs and bills by Warhol, Haring and others, led by Warhol’s One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate) which sold for £20.9 million.
Maegis blog headline field requested; article discusses the Amati King cello from the National Music Museum loaned to The Met in New York for a summer exhibition.
Andy Warhol, Lucien Freud and Gerhard Richter artworks led Sotheby’s to a record contemporary art sale in London, with Warhol’s One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate) selling for £20.9 million and a pair of Francis Bacon self-portraits fetching £30 million combined; the auction total was £130.4 million.
The Nippon Foundation auctioned the Stradivarius violin Lady Blunt, made in 1721, in an effort to raise funds for earthquake and tsunami victims. The instrument is valued at about $10 million and is one of two highly preserved Italian master violins, with the other being the Messiah in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum; the auction was planned for June 20 on Tarisio’s website.
Julian Opie’s Red Socks and Chanel Bag (2015) sold for £93,750 at Sotheby’s London in a fundraising sale for Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, setting a record price for the artist at auction. The sale, part of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day, raised more than £785,000 for Ikon’s 50th anniversary endowment fund. Other top lots included Hurvin Anderson’s Cypress Hill (2015) and Beatriz Milhazes’s O Hippie (2014).
The World Jewish Restitution Organization published a report criticizing U.S. museums for using the legal system to dismiss restitution cases involving Nazi-era looted art. The Toledo Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts issued statements in response. The cases center on artworks including Paul Gauguin’s Street Scene in Tahiti (1891) and Vincent van Gogh’s Les Becheurs (The Diggers). Provenance research conducted over 18 months led by Laurie Stein supported the museums’ view that the owner sold the paintings fairly and did not pursue restitution.
The article covers Christie’s London postwar and contemporary sale where six artists set new records and the sale total reached £95.6 million ($150.1 million). Highlights include Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary setting a new artist record and Francis Bacon’s Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer as the top lot selling for £12.2 million, with notable results for R.H. Quaytman and Malcolm Morley.
Gerhard Richter paintings were among the unsold works at Christie’s London contemporary sale, part of a £95.6 million (about $150.1 million) total. Francis Bacon and Yves Klein were among the top lot performers, with Klein’s FC27 fire painting selling for £5.9 million; Bacon’s heads diptych sold within estimate for £12.2 million, and his large Two men working in a field sold for £10.7 million. The sale saw six artist records, a high number of lots sold under estimate, and mixed results across artists such as Richter, Polke, and Chapman.