Monthly archive
17 headlines
Source-linked reporting
theviolinchannel.com
Victoria Chiang is a viola pedagogue at the Peabody Institute of Music who discusses her career progression from Eastman School of Music teaching assistant to a professional viola performer and educator, and her journey toward becoming a professorship.
Christie’s
After Christie’s May sales of Post-War and Contemporary works from Emily and Jerry Spiegel, the house announced a dedicated October photography auction from their 100-plus-work collection, with published estimates up to $700,000.
news.artnet.com
Dmitry Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier are in a high-profile legal battle over art purchases and Sotheby’s involvement. The appellate ruling requires documents related to US art purchases to be released for use in a Monaco case, with emphasis on the Salvator Mundi sale.
lohud.com
The article discusses a six-string Tucker Barrett Luma electric violin owned by Paul Peabody, featuring autographs from Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Sting, Willem Dafoe, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, and others. The instrument is on display at Beast With a Million Eyes Art Gallery in Nyack, with a silent auction closing September 13, and a certificate of authenticity.
geneseorepublic.com
The headline reports that a Willem de Kooning painting, Woman-Ochre, stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art, was recovered after being found in an antiques store in Silver City, New Mexico. The article mentions David Van Auker, Buck Burns, and Rick Johnson of Manzanita Ridge Furniture & Antiques who purchased the painting at an estate sale and later returned it; the painting was valued at about $100 million. The story notes corrections about the antiques shop owner's name and states the painting was looted in 1985 and recovered recently.
artforum.com
The painting Woman-Ochre by Willem de Kooning, stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art, was returned after nearly 32 years. David Van Auker purchased furnishings from a home where the painting was hidden and notified the museum and the FBI; Meg Hagyard commented on the significance of the recovery.
wfmt.com
HAYDN’s Cello Concerto No. 1, long stored in the Národní Muzeum in Prague, was rediscovered after nearly two centuries and entered the standard cello repertoire.
amnews.com
The article reports a Parksville man who bought a violin in 1910 and believed it might be made by Antonio Stradivarius. It notes the instrument was later examined and associated with Antonius Stradivarius, with discussion of the maker's life and the instrument’s potential value compared to other Stradivarius violins.
abc.net.au
The article reports that a cello, dating to the 18th century and once used at the court of King Louis XVI, is now in Australia, loaned to solo cellist Michael Goldschlager who teaches at WAAPA. It provides history about the instrument, including its maker and royal provenance, and notes Goldschlager’s storytelling about its past and travel arrangements.
azbigmedia.com
Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre, stolen in 1985, has been returned to the University of Arizona Museum of Art by a Good Samaritan from New Mexico. Preliminary authentication confirms the work as de Kooning’s, and museum staff retrieved it from Silver City and brought it to Tucson.
eu.indeonline.com
The stolen de Kooning Woman-Ochre painting, looted 31 years ago from the University of Arizona Museum of Art, has been recovered. Preliminary authentication confirms the artwork as Woman-Ochre by Willem de Kooning, with UA officials saying the FBI is investigating. The painting was found in an antiques shop in Silver City, New Mexico, and was traced after the store owner reported it following an estate-sale inquiry.
standard.co.uk
The London Evening Standard reports that Dawn Henry, 37, attempted to sell a stolen 18th-century violin worth £200,000 at a Cash Converters shop for £50, two days after it was stolen from violinist Krysia Osostowicz. The instrument, made in Venice and valued at £175,000, was stolen from Osostowicz outside Brixton Tube station; the case and bows were valued separately at £600 and £24,500 respectively.
metro.co.uk
Emily Bowen poured 91% sulfuric acid into Molly Young's viola case at Knox Academy in Haddington, Scotland, leaving Young badly injured. Bowen, 18, was jailed after the incident, which occurred during a music lesson in a school orchestra setting; Bowen had bought the acid previously and hid it in her locker.
news.artnet.com
Sotheby’s reported a 2 percent drop in aggregate auction sales for the first six months of 2017, to $2.41 billion, while private sales rose 34 percent to $333.8 million. Consolidated sales total was $2.83 billion, up 4 percent year over year. Sotheby’s noted strong growth in contemporary art, including a 37 percent rise in contemporary sales to $701.4 million and a higher rate of $3 million-plus lots, with Basquiat’s Untitled achieving a notable hammer price in May.
ticinonews.ch
The Italian news story reports that a violin once owned by Benito Mussolini was stolen from an hotel in Riccione, Rimini. The instrument was kept in an antique cabinet in the owner’s office at the Promenade hotel, and valued near 400,000 euros. The owner, Gabriele Fabbri, filed a report with the Carabinieri, who are investigating; the thieves gained entry through a back door after forcing it. A Ming dynasty porcelain head was left behind, which helped raise the owner’s suspicions about the violin’s authenticity.
wilmerhale.com
David W. Bowker is the author of the client alert about the Ninth Circuit applying the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 to revive a Nazi-era art appropriation case in Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 12265 (9th Cir. Cal. July 10, 2017). The article discusses the district court’s dismissal in 2015 and the Ninth Circuit’s decision to revive the case, with implications for Nazi-era art litigation.
Sotheby’s
The Edward F. Albee Foundation prepared more than 100 works from the playwright’s collection for a dedicated Sotheby’s New York auction, spanning Impressionist and avant-garde art, African sculpture, American post-war painting and prints.