The article reports that an appeals court in Norway convicted three men and acquitted three others in the 2004 theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Madonna. The paintings were recovered in August of the previous year after being stolen from Oslo’s Munch Museum, damaged and undergoing repair. The Oslo district court previously convicted three men of helping the robbers, while three others were acquitted; the appeals court upheld some convictions and acquittals, reversing others.
The Detroit Institute of Arts will not have to return the Van Gogh painting Les Becheurs in a case brought by relatives of the original owner, with the court ruling the statute of limitations has expired. The painting, acquired in 1969, was bequeathed to the DIA by Robert Tannahill; the dispute also involved a Gauguin painting case in Ohio.
The page discusses Christie’s New York Important Old Master Paintings sale in April 2007, including works by Bernardo Bellotto, Canaletto, El Greco, Cima da Conegliano, and J. M. W. Turner, with estimates and highlights from the auction catalog and restitution context tied to Jacques Goudstikker.
Steve Wynn dismissed his lawsuit against Lloyd’s of London over damage to Picasso’s Le Rêve, 1932. The case concerned Wynn’s claim for diminution in value after a tear and restoration, with an initial valuation of $139 million and a claimed post-restoration value of $85 million; reports suggested settlement may have been around $40 million, though the filing does not specify terms.
Ivan Aivazovsky had three paintings that together brought $3.7 million at Galerie Koller’s spring auctions in Zurich. The sale’s total turnover was $28.6 million, led by Aivazovsky’s Naples with a Poet Between Fishermen (1845) sold for $2.48 million to an anonymous Russian collector, followed by Pieter Brueghel II’s The Bird Trap at $1.3 million; a drawing titled Man’s Profile, attributed to the Circle of Andrea del Sarto, sold for $594,000 (estimate $2,500/3,300).
J. M. W. Turner, “Glaucus and Scylla,” was restituted to the heirs of John and Anna Jaffé by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, after Christie’s reported a bid by Richard Feigen of $6.42 million to reacquire it for the Kimbell. The post references a prior note about the Kimbell’s restitution and notes the painting’s sales history during a Christie’s session.
Three men were sentenced in Oslo for the 2004 theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream and Madonna. Bjoern Hoen received a nine-year sentence, Petter Tharaldson nine years and six months, and Stian Skjold five years and six months, with damages of 1.57 million Norwegian crowns to Oslo. The Scream and Madonna canvases were stolen in August 2004 and recovered in August 2006.
Banksy’s Space Girl and Bird, a spray paint work on steel, sold for 288,000 pounds at Bonhams in London, setting a new record and exceeding the previous record of 102,000 pounds. The sale also included Self Portrait at 198,000 pounds and Think Tank at 75,000 pounds; all figures include buyer’s premium.
Ogling art at the spring auction previews discusses upcoming New York spring auctions by Sotheby’s and Christie’s and the public preview exhibitions. It mentions Warhol’s Green Car Crash, Rothko, Rauschenberg, and Pollock as examples of museum-quality works in previews for Post-War and Contemporary Art, Impressionist and Modern Art, and Prints.
Warhol Athletes series, ten portraits commissioned by Richard Weisman in the late 1970s and offered by Martin Summers Fine Art for $28m; the works cost $800,000 originally and include works by Andy Warhol with subjects such as Muhammad Ali, Dorothy Hamill, Pelé, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Chris Evert, Jack Nicklaus, Willie Shoemaker, and O.J. Simpson. The article notes extras and subsequent sales of individual pieces.
The article describes the Seattle Art Museum receiving more than 1,000 works from 53 donors, including prominent local collectors such as Virginia and Bagley Wright, Jon and Mary Shirley, Barney A. Ebsworth, and Susan and Jeffrey Brotman. Highlights include works by Brancusi, Edward Hopper, Marsden Hartley, and pieces by major Abstract Expressionists, as well as international contemporary artists and photographers.