Andrea Mantegna’s Descente dans les Limbes (c. 1470-1475), tempera and gold on canvas, 38.8 × 42.3 cm, is described as the key lot in Sotheby’s New York sale on January 23, with an estimated price between 20 and 30 million dollars. The article mentions other Renaissance figures referenced in the work, including a Botticelli profile head and a fragment of Pontormo’s Madonna del Libro, along with Rubens in a related comparison; the provenance note references the Gonzaga patrons and a builder named Rossino.
The article discusses federal prosecutors considering extradition of Jose Maria Clemente from Spain to Miami in connection with a drug and money-laundering scheme involving two Francisco de Goya paintings and a Tsuguharu Foujita work used as payment for cocaine. Clemente was arrested in Barcelona and is being held in Madrid; the U S Justice Department's Office of International Affairs is reviewing the case.
The story discusses a custody dispute over the Picasso painting Femme en Blanc, now in a private collection in Chicago, which originally belonged to a Jewish couple in Berlin and was seized by the Nazis; the last living descendant of the original owners has sued to recover the artwork. NPR's Jason DeRose reports.
The article reports that Arthouse Films, a division of Palm Pictures, will release Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3 this spring and that Palm acquired the North American and U.K. rights to the Cremaster Cycle (parts 1, 2, 4, and 5).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir watercolour Nana, Pauline and the others, found in the safe of London diamond brokers I Hennig & Co; the work is a collaboration with Emile Zola and includes an inscription at the bottom.
Hugh Eakin reports on Friedrich Christian Flick's art collection loan to Berlin, noting the collection's controversial origin tied to Nazi-era wealth and the Flick family's inheritance from Friedrich Flick, a German industrialist who employed slave labor during World War II.
Dalya Alberge discusses Britain's struggle to prevent the exodus of its art treasures as the Tate and the National Gallery seek to stop works by Reynolds and Raphael from leaving the country; the piece notes the high sums involved and the lobbying for tax relief on gifts of art to public institutions.