The painting Santa Rufina, attributed to Velázquez, was acquired by the Fundación Focus-Abengoa for 12.4 million euros in a Sotheby’s auction in London. The agreement also includes establishing a Velázquez house in Seville, with the city potentially taking ownership of the painting in the future, and the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla to supply another Velázquez work, Imposición de la casulla de San Ildefonso.
Sevilla pagará 12,47 millones de euros (7,5 millones de libras esterlinas más gastos) por el cuadro Santa Rufina de Velázquez en subasta en Sotheby’s, la cifra más alta alcanzada para una obra del pintor en subasta. La Fundación Focus-Abengoa se adjudicó la obra y ésta pasará a formar parte de la Casa de Velázquez, con un acuerdo con el Ayuntamiento de Sevilla para su disfrute público durante 75 años.
Diego de Velázquez's painting Santa Rufina was sold at Sotheby's in London for 12,47 million euros to the Fundación Focus Abengoa, a private Sevillian foundation. The sale set a new record for a Velázquez painting and for a Spanish Old Master painting at auction.
La noticia trata sobre la venta de Santa Rufina, una pintura de Velázquez, en Sotheby’s Londres por 12,47 millones de euros, y su futura exhibición en la Casa Velázquez en Sevilla; la operación es financiada por la Fundación Focus Abengoa y contempla un posible préstamo al Ayuntamiento de Sevilla.
The article discusses Sotheby's Woollahra preparing a 286-lot Aboriginal art auction in Melbourne on July 24, led by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's Warlugulong (1977) with an estimated A$1.8–2.5 million. Other notable works include Rover Thomas's Wurlangawarrin - Salt Pan (1986) estimated A$380,000–450,000, Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri's Two men Dreaming at Kuluntjarranya, and Gordon Bennett's Possession Island, as well as works by Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Sunfly Tjampitjin, and Rover Thomas. The piece notes Emily Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation (A$1.07 million record) and frames Warlugulong as potentially breaking that record.
Damien Hirst’s Lullaby Spring, a pill cabinet from 2002, sold for £9.6 million ($19.2 million), setting a living-artist auction record. The sale at Sotheby’s London brought £72.4 million ($144 million) with 66 lots sold from 72 offered; Francis Bacon’s Self Portrait (1978) fetched £21.6 million ($43 million), the artist’s second-highest price. Other notable results included Tracey Emin and Keith Tyson works among NSPCC donations and a winning £1.1 million for Hirst’s Beautiful Explosion of Vanity Painting.
Damien Hirst’s shark sculpture The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, housed in a glass tank of formaldehyde, is set for display in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from the end of August. The 22-ton sculpture, almost four metres long, is on a three-year loan from owner Steven Cohen, who bought it in 2004 for about $8 million.
Damien Hirst's Lullaby Spring sold for $19.1 million at Sotheby's, setting a record for a work by a living artist. The sale surpassed Jasper Johns' Figure 4, which fetched about $17 million. The article notes Hirst's prominence among the Young British Artists and references previous controversial works, including a shark in formaldehyde and a diamond-studded skull.
The article discusses the Bruce Museum exhibition Fakes and Forgeries: The Art of Deception, focusing on a reliquary that fooled experts with provenance including Count Renesse-Breidbach and J.P. Morgan. It notes technical investigation in 1980 confirming rock crystal authenticity but identifying nineteenth-century craftsmanship elsewhere, and mentions Nancy Hall-Duncan as Bruce Museum senior curator and the FBI Art Crime Team as lenders to the show, which ran through September 9.
Hugh Grant is selling his Warhol painting titled “Liz (Colored Liz)” from the 1963 Liz series. The painting, measuring 40 inches square, previously sold in 2001 for $3.5 million via Sotheby’s, and a 2005 sale of another Liz piece fetched $12.6 million. Christie's in New York is handling the planned sale with estimates of $25 million to $35 million.
The article reports Sotheby’s Old Master sale in London realized £45.2 million ($91.3 million) from 14 J. M. W. Turner watercolors from the Ullens collection, with purchases by new buyers and several high-profile lots including Lungernsee and Venice with a Storm Approaching; the total sale added £25.5 million ($51.5 million) later in the evening.