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25 headlines
Source-linked reporting
press.christies.com
Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild from the Eric Clapton collection is to be offered at Christie’s New York on November 15 as part of the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction, with an estimated value around $20 million. The work was acquired by Eric Clapton at auction in 2001, and Christie’s London will unveil it on view October 1–6, 2016.
csmonitor.com
Vincent van Gogh paintings, Congregation Leaving The Reformed Church of Nuenen and Seascape at Scheveningen, were recovered in Naples 14 years after they were stolen from a Dutch museum. The discovery involved Italian investigators and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, with connections to a Camorra drug trafficking investigation; assets tied to Raffaele Imperiale were seized.
bbc.com
The BBC reports that two Van Gogh paintings stolen from Amsterdam in 2002 were recovered in Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, by Italian police from a Camorra-linked operation. The works, valued at about $100 million (£77 million; €89 million), were seized amid a broader investigation into organised crime and drug trafficking.
reuters.com
Two stolen Vincent Van Gogh paintings worth millions of euros were found in an Italian country house south of Naples, belonging to an alleged mafia drug smuggler. The artworks, a sea scene and a church where the painter's father was minister, were displayed by Italian investigators and are valued at about 50 million euros each.
www-s1.npr.org
The two Van Gogh paintings, a Seascape at Scheveningen (1882) and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884-1885), stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2002, were recovered by Italian anti-mafia police. The Van Gogh Museum confirmed they are the real paintings and noted some damage but they appear to be in relatively good condition.
apnews.com
Vincent van Gogh paintings were recovered in a farmhouse near Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, after vanishing in 2002 from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum. The works include Seascape at Scheveningen (1882) and Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884-85). The paintings were tied to assets seized from suspected Camorra associates, with officials confirming their authenticity.
news.artnet.com
The article discusses an 1886 drawing by Adolf von Menzel, Blick über die Dächer von Schandau (View over the Roofs of Schandau), which will be returned to the heirs of Elisabeth Linda Martens by the city of Cologne. It notes that Martens likely sold the work in 1939 to fund the escape from Germany for herself and her husband, who was Jewish under Nuremberg laws. The sale is acknowledged as being under duress and the proceeds funded their escape.
seattletimes.com
Willem de Kooning’s painting Untitled XXV is going to be sold at Christie’s in New York on November 15, with an estimated price around $40 million. The work, from a prolific mid-1970s period inspired by Louse Point, previously sold in 2006 for $27.1 million, setting a post-war and contemporary art auction record at the time.
nytimes.com
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Nude (1914), is returned to the Hess heirs and then repurchased by the Neue Galerie in New York in a restitution settlement. The painting was seized due to Nazi persecution of the Hess family; the museum had bought it in 1999 and later reacquired it, with no price disclosed for the repurchase.
afr.com
Jackson Pollock painting Blue Poles is now valued at about $350 million, a more than 300-fold increase from the $1.3 million paid in 1973 under the Whitlam government. The article notes the work was insured for $258 million last year and upgraded to $350 million for its overseas move.
ashevillechamber.org
The Asheville Symphony presents a Halloween-themed program, In the Key of E, on October 22 featuring Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, Florent Schmitt La Tragédie de Salomé, and Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello performed by concertmaster Jason Posnock and cellist Alistair MacRae.
news.artnet.com
Robert Kelly presents 15 large-scale paintings at Sophia Contemporary Gallery in Mayfair, London, during Frieze London, with four works from his Nocturne series (1999) shown at Frieze Masters in the Masters section; the gallery also features Constructivist and Suprematist Russian porcelain and sculpture.
news.artnet.com
The Kunstsammlung NRW announced the acquisition of over 200 works from the private Dorothee and Konrad Fischer collection. The works are on view at the K21 Museum in Düsseldorf and span installations, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and designs, with the deal partly a purchase and partly a donation.
diebenkorn.org
Richard Diebenkorn and Edward Hopper are the artists discussed. The works mentioned are Richard Diebenkorn’s 29 sketchbooks and an early Edward Hopper painting acquired by the Cantor Arts Center. The page describes two exhibitions: Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed and Edward Hopper: New York Corner, celebrating these acquisitions at Cantor Arts Center in Stanford, California.
theartnewspaper.com
Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman, Sol LeWitt, Gilbert & George and other artists are represented in a collection acquired by Düsseldorf state museums, assembled by Dorothee and Konrad Fischer. The works will be exhibited in Cloud and Crystal at the K20 museum in Düsseldorf from 24 September to 8 January, with donations and purchases comprising about half each.
abc.net.au
Ben Heller, the previous owner who sold Blue Poles to the Australian Government in 1973, discusses the work by Jackson Pollock and how its sale in 1973 sparked controversy. The painting, for which Heller paid $32,000 in 1957 and later sold to the Whitlam Government for $1.3 million, is now part of an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
rncm.ac.uk
Philip Higham, an RNCM alumnus and cello tutor, has been appointed principal cello of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is one of three new musicians joining SCO for the 2016/17 season, alongside Marcus Barcham Stevens and Felix Tanner.
news.artnet.com
Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-karat gold toilet titled America (2016) is installed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and available for use in a fifth-floor restroom. The artwork, a functional replica of a Kohler toilet, has sparked discussion about wealth, consumer culture, and the readymade, with the museum and artist remaining tight-lipped on price.
press.christies.com
Wassily Kandinsky’s Rigide et courbé (Rigid and Curved) is highlighted as part of Christie’s November 16th Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in New York. The work, once owned by Solomon R. Guggenheim and first acquired from Kandinsky in 1936, is estimated at $18-25 million and will be publicly displayed for the first time in over 50 years.
bachtrack.com
The review discusses Morton Feldman’s final work, Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, performed by the Norwegian ensemble Cikada in Oslo. It highlights the work's meditation on time, its 75-plus-minute duration, the gradual metamorphosis of harmonies, the steady piano procession, and the calm yet uneasy emotional atmosphere.
br-klassik.de
The BR-KLASSIK interview discusses Simone Zopf, a violin maker, and her students from Hallstatt Fachschule für Instrumentenbau who claim to have deciphered an construction principle of Stradivari violins. They highlight the measuring unit 18.66 millimeters and describe how concentric circles from the violin center are used to determine outlines, with measurements taken on five Stradivari in Cremona and Paris, noting the width and length relationships (11x and 19x the unit).
theviolinchannel.com
The Violin Channel reports five winners of Pirastro Perpetual cello string sets: Sigita Ramoniene (Lithuania), Michael Hill (United States), David Eccles (United States), Wiltrud Heveling (Germany), and Cheryl McMaster (Scotland). The article notes that Perpetual cello strings are designed for minimal play-in time with a wide dynamic range.
bpo.org
The article covers Joshua Bell performing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra using the Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius, a violin first crafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari that was owned by Bronislaw Huberman. It notes Huberman's Polish origins, his orchestral work in Palestine, and the violin's thefts and recovery, as well as Bell's reflections and the concert details for September 17.
theviolinchannel.com
Mayu Kishima, from Japan, was awarded 1st prize at the 2016 inaugural Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition in Shanghai, China. Sergei Dogadin received 2nd prize, Sirena Huang 3rd, and 4th to 6th went to Stefan Tarara, Richard Lin, and Ming Liu. Kishima will receive US $100,000.
middle-c.org
The post discusses a concert by Orchestra Wellington conducted by Marc Taddei with Wilma Smith (violin) featuring Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10 (Deryck Cooke version), Berg: Violin Concerto In Memory of an Angel, and Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C, at the Michael Fowler Centre on Saturday 10 September 2016 at 7:30 pm.