Monthly archive
23 headlines
Source-linked reporting
sothebys.com
The article discusses Sotheby’s Masters Week results highlighting a Fisch Davidson Collection sale totaling $49.6 million, led by Salome Presented with the Head of Saint John the Baptist by Sir Peter Paul Rubens which sold for $26.9 million, and a Bronzino portrait that sold for $10.7 million, setting a world record for the artist.
theviolinchannel.com
The Elevar Foundation’s Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition (EOIVC) announced the winners of the 2023 competition held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. The First Prize went to Hina Khuong-Huu, Second Prize to Gabrielle Després, Third Prize to Laurel Gagnon, with Zachary Brandon receiving Honorable Mention; all four finalists receive a PRESTO Impulse bow from SHAR Music.
theartnewspaper.com
Gustave Caillebotte, Partie de bateau (Boating Party), around 1877-78, was acquired by the Musée d’Orsay for €43m ($46.7m) with funds provided by LVMH. The painting will tour France to mark an Impressionism milestone; a major Caillebotte exhibition is planned for autumn 2024 at the Musée d’Orsay.
timesofisrael.com
The Times of Israel reports that Jewish descendants of Karl Adler, owner of Pablo Picasso’s 1904 painting Woman Ironing, sue the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for $200 million. The suit, filed in New York County Supreme Court, alleges the sale under Nazi pressure and flight taxes, and seeks the painting's return.
tribtoday.com
Gustave Caillebotte's A Boating Party, an Impressionist painting, was acquired for France's national collection with a donation from LVMH, at a price of 43 million euros (about $47 million). The work is displayed at the Orsay Museum in Paris.
press.christies.com
René Magritte’s Le retour (circa 1950) is identified as a leading highlight for Christie’s The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale in London on 28 February 2023. The work is described as a lyrical gouache featuring the oiseau de ciel motif, and related works Le retour (1940) and Le baiser (1951) are referenced as pendant pieces; the painting had not been publicly seen since 2004 and will be shown in New York, Hong Kong, and London prior to the sale.
artnews.com
Bronzino, Portrait of A Man, Facing Left, With A Quill and a Sheet of Paper, ca. 1527, sold for $10.7 million, setting a new record for Bronzino. Anthony Van Dyck painting found in a farm shed contributed to the sale, which totaled $74.5 million (or $89.5 million with fees) for Sotheby’s Old Masters sales. The event also featured works by female Old Masters and Rubens’ Head of Saint John the Baptist Presented to Salome selling for $26.9 million.
usaartnews.com
A Christie’s Old Masters sale in New York kicked off with 76 works from the Jacqui Eli Safra collection totaling $14.7m, followed by a various-owners session that grossed $36.4m. Notable top sellers included Aert de Gelder’s Esther at her Toilet, Joos van Cleve’s Portrait of a Gentleman holding gloves, Artemisia Gentileschi’s studio piece The Magdalene Renouncing Worldly Vanities, and Hendrick Ter Bruggen’s Unequal Lovers, achieving prices ranging from $150,000 to $750,000, with fees bringing higher totals.
theartnewspaper.com
The article reports Christie’s Old Masters sales in New York, led by record-breaking Goya portraits from the Jacqui Eli Safra collection; the overall totals were $14.7m for the Safra collection and $36.4m for the various owners session, with both sessions below pre-sale expectations.
connoisseurmagazine.co.uk
The article discusses Sotheby’s Masters Week sales in New York, led by ten Baroque works from the Fisch Davidson Collection and a Dutch 17th‑century group from the Theiline Scheumann Collection, plus newly rediscovered Bronzino and a newly attributed Titian work. It mentions a rare early Van Dyck sketch found in a farm shed and other notable rediscoveries and private collections.
theartnewspaper.com
The heirs of Karl and Rosi Adler claim Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period work Woman Ironing (La repasseuse) (1904) was sold under duress and seek its return or up to $200 million in compensation; the painting is currently in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s collection, via a 1938 sale and subsequent transfers.
dennikn.sk
Slovak violinist Dalibor Karvay, principal concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony, was assigned a Stradivarius violin from 1694 by the Austrian National Bank. The bank owns about 45 similarly valuable string instruments and the collection includes nine Stradivari violins, two Guarneri del Gesù violins, and a Jacob Stainer violin, with provenance research emphasized.
usaartnews.com
The heirs of Karl and Rosi Adler seek the return or compensation for Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period painting Woman Ironing (La repasseuse) (1904), currently in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, claiming it is in wrongful possession. They value the work at between $100 million and $200 million and allege it changed hands under duress after Nazi persecution.
caproasia.com
The Caproasia page reports that heirs are suing Sompo for $1.44 billion over the alleged wrongful ownership of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting, which was bought at a 1987 Christie’s auction in London. The heirs claim the painting was forcibly taken from Jewish owner Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Germany in 1934.
news.artnet.com
Peter Doig won a $2.5 million sanctions ruling in federal court against the Chicago gallery Bartlow Gallery Ltd. and its lawyer, William Zieske, and gallery owner Robert Fletcher, related to a dispute over a painting Doig disavowed. The article notes the original 2016 trial and identifies the actual artist behind the work as an inmate at Thunder Bay Correctional Center, with the painting later linked to Doig. The court reduced and allocated fees and expenses, and Doig stated he would donate any proceeds to a nonprofit supporting incarcerated artists.
algemeiner.com
Edvard Munch’s painting Dance on the Beach, featuring Tulla Larsen and Millie Thaulow, was hidden from the Nazis in a barn in a Norwegian forest and will be auctioned by Sotheby’s London as part of a restitution settlement with the previous owner’s Jewish family, who were forced to sell the work in Berlin in 1934.
jta.org
The heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy sue Sompo Holdings for the return of Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers or at least $750 million in punitive damages. The filing alleges the 1934 sale was forced by Nazi-era laws and coercion of Jews from the German economy and society; the painting was purchased at a 1987 Christie’s auction for $39.9 million and has since been displayed in Sompo’s Tokyo museum.
sothebys.com
Edvard Munch’s Dance on the Beach from the Reinhardt Frieze is discussed in a Sotheby’s press release. The painting, just over four metres wide, was created for Max Reinhardt’s Berlin theatre and is the only Reinhardt frieze work in private hands. It will be offered at Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale in London on 1 March with an estimate of $15-25 million; previews run in London, Hong Kong, and New York.
heraldscotland.com
The Herald article discusses a violin crafted by Edinburgh maker Matthew Hardie in the early 1800s, touted as the 'Scottish Stradivari'. The eBay listing shows a buy it now price of $995,000 AUD, about £566,000, with the instrument dated circa 1800 and certified by Andreas Woywod. Hardie violins are rare, with a historical record of high prices for his instruments.
news.artnet.com
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) from the collection of the Sompo Museum of Art, Tokyo, is disputed in a lawsuit filed by the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy against Yasuda/Sompo. The painting, once sold in 1934 under Nazi pressure, was purchased at Christie’s London in 1987 for £25 million and later became part of Sompo Holdings, which currently owns it.
m-festival.biz
The Nippon Music Foundation began loaning Spanish violinist María Dueñas a 1710 Stradivarius Camposelice. The Foundation had previously loaned a 1736 Guarneri del Gesu Munz since July 2019. Camposelice was purchased by the Foundation in 2004 and is named after the duke who bought it in 1884. Isabella Stewart Gardner owned it from 1894 to 1925, later passing to Váša Příhoda and others. Dueñas, aged 20, is from Granada, Spain, and has won several major violin competitions, including the 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition, the 2021 Victor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, and the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in succession; she studies with Boris Kuschnir.
letterv.blog
The Richmond Symphony’s concertmaster Daisuke Yamamoto will play a classic Italian violin, a 1705 Rogeri, on permanent loan from an unnamed investor to support Music Director Valentina Peleggi’s vision for the ensemble’s sound. The Rogeri instrument was chosen by Yamamoto, Peleggi, and Ellen Cockerham Riccio from a dealer-selected group brought to Richmond for tryouts, and is described as having playability, depth, and resonance.
cbs12.com
The article reports that Giovani Radu, 22, was arrested by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on Organized Fraud for allegedly playing the violin to collect donations for a sick child, but authorities say he had tens of thousands of dollars in the bank. The incident occurred December 23, 2022, in Royal Palm Beach, and Radu allegedly collected about $80,000 in the last year using a fake nonprofit, with signs of structuring to evade reporting requirements.