Monthly archive
14 headlines
Source-linked reporting
smithsonianmag.com
The page discusses the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist, including Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and Vermeer works, and references the FBI, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and notable figures like Whitey Bulger.
artnews.com
New Art Stirs Up Basel and Spills Over to Fresh Venues reports on Art Basel 36 in Basel, noting an 8 percent visitor increase to 56,000 and the emergence of two new fairs at nearby venues. It mentions sales at the preview including Josef Albers and Barry Flanagan, Gerhard Richter, Louise Bourgeois, Yves Klein, Francis Bacon, Hernan Bas, and Jim Lambie, with prices ranging from roughly $20,000 to over $3 million.
thetimes.com
Dalya Alberge reports that a Canaletto titled The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day sold for a record £11.43 million at Christie’s in London, beating the previous record and attracting private bidders bidding by telephone.
thetimes.com
The article reports that Canaletto fetched a record price of £18.6 million. The artist mentioned is Canaletto.
antiquesandthearts.com
Robert Rauschenberg, “Rebus,” 1955, oil, pencil, paper and fabric on canvas, 8 by 10 feet 10 1/2 inches. Partial and promised gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder and purchase, 2005. The Museum of Modern Art has acquired “Rebus,” 1955, a major early combine painting by Robert Rauschenberg. The work will go on view in MoMA’s fourth floor galleries in mid-July, adding to MoMA’s collection of Rauschenberg works.
thetimes.com
Patricia Ferguson, Scotland’s Culture Minister, said such a rare piece had been secured for the National Galleries of Scotland. Richard Calvocoressi, director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, said the etching, dated 1937, is now part of the national collection and described it as a very rare print and one of Picasso’s most moving images.
nytimes.com
The article reports that a 14th-century Chinese porcelain jar sold for £15.68 million ($27.7 million), setting a world auction record for Asian art. The buyer was represented by Giuseppe Eskenazi, and the price exceeded previous records set by a 14th-century blue and white vessel sold at Doyle's in 2003. The jar is from the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and is part of a very small group of jars, vases, and bowls from that period.
artnews.com
The article reports that Ely Sakhai, owner of Exclusive Art gallery in New York, was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $12.5 million in restitution; his office manager Houshi Sandjaby received three years’ probation. Sakhai pleaded guilty to mail and wire-fraud charges related to an art forgery scheme spanning nearly two decades, involving authentic artworks by Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin and Pierre-Auguste Renoir that were forged and sold to clients in New York, Paris and Japan. The piece describes how forged works were sometimes offered as collateral for Citibank loans, and notes instances where Gauguin pieces attributed to Sakhai were authenticated in one sale and rejected as fakes in another.
artnews.com
The Niarchos collection is being given on long-term loan to Kunsthaus Zürich, with works by Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso among those on loan; the collection is valued at over $250 million overall. Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear is mentioned as potentially fetching about $75 million at auction. The Niarchos collection spans works by artists including Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, El Greco, Paul Gauguin, Francisco Goya, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
artnews.com
Christie’s London sold a rare Yuan dynasty jar for £15.6 million ($26.7 million), setting a record for the most expensive Asian work of art ever at auction. The work, blue-and-white and depicting scenes from contemporary literature, was acquired in China by Capt. Baro van Hemert and later sold to a private buyer via dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi.
artnews.com
Artists mentioned include Giovanni Boldini, Honoré Daumier, Odilon Redon, Jan van de Velde II, Maurice-Quentin de la Tour. The article discusses Old Master paintings and drawings sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London, with totals above £100 million and Part One sales at about £87.8 million, including records for top lots and the impact of European buyers on the market.
antiquesandthearts.com
Christie’s sold an exceptionally rare blue and white Yuan dynasty jar (Fourteenth Century) for $27,679,100, acquired by Eskenazi Ltd for a private buyer. The sale set a world record price for a Chinese work of art and for Christie’s that year.
latimes.com
The Los Angeles Times reports that an heir to the former owner reached a settlement with dealer Stephen Hahn in the case over a Picasso painting believed stolen by the Nazis. The circa 1922 painting, Femme en Blanc (Woman in White), was purchased in 1975 by Marilyn Alsdorf and her late husband, James, and is alleged to have Nazi ties. Thomas Bennigson sued in 2002 for possession. The settlement requires Hahn to pay Bennigson an amount equal to Hahn's profit from the sale if Bennigson recovers the painting by judgment or settlement, or reaches a settlement otherwise. The payment obligation expires if Bennigson does not win possession or settle within five years.
Christie’s
Christie’s announced that the Lee V. Eastman collection would enter its fall modern and contemporary evening sales with an estimate above $30 million. The consignment included 11 works by Willem de Kooning alongside works by Giacometti, Matisse, Picasso, Rothko, Motherwell and Kline.