German scholar Christof Metzger, curator of German art at Vienna's Albertina Museum, argues in a new Taschen catalogue raisonne that The Painter's Father, a portrait of Albrecht Durer's father held by London's National Gallery, is an authentic 1497 Durer rather than a later copy. The National Gallery, which bought the picture for 10,000 pounds in 1904, maintains it is a copy made in the second half of the 16th century.
At Sotheby's Origins II sale in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, held on 31 January 2026, a 1968 painting by Saudi artist Safeya Binzagr titled Coffee Shop in Madina Road sold for 2.1 million dollars with fees, outperforming a 1963 Pablo Picasso landscape Paysage that made 1.6 million dollars. Other results included Samia Halaby's Copper at 315,000 dollars, a James Turrell light sculpture at 630,000 dollars, and an MF Husain work at 310,000 dollars. The 67-lot fine-art sale reached a hammer total of 15.4 million dollars, or 19.5 million dollars with fees.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington has acquired Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, painted around 1625 by Baroque master Artemisia Gentileschi, from a private collection for an undisclosed sum; the work had sold at auction in 2014 for 865,500 euros. The article also references her father Orazio Gentileschi, the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the painter Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun in discussing the gallery's holdings of women and Baroque artists.
Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (ca. 1625) by Artemisia Gentileschi was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It sold for $1.1 million at Sotheby’s in 2014 and was previously thought lost until resurfacing in 2011.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, sold at Christie’s New York for $5.69 million. The painting is one of five self-portraits by Gentileschi, and likely the earliest. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., announced the acquisition of Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (circa 1625) from the same news cycle.
The article reports that Artemisia Gentileschi's artwork set a new auction record in New York. It mentions the artist Artemisia Gentileschi and the context of the auction, but does not specify the artwork's name or the sale amount. No other artists, makers, houses, or amounts are provided.
Rare Michelangelo study for the Sistine Chapel sold for $27.2 million at Christie’s in New York, setting an artist record at auction. The drawing is a study for the foot of the Libyan Sibyl on the Sistine Ceiling and was discovered by Christie's specialists. The sale price surpassed its low estimate and highlighted extensive bidding.
Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, sold for $5.69 million at Christie’s New York, a new auction record for the artist. The buyer was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The work’s pre-sale estimate was $2.5 million to $3.5 million and is one of only five known self-portraits by Gentileschi.
Artemisia Gentileschi sets record at a New York auction. The article discusses the artist Artemisia Gentileschi and the auction event in New York, reporting a record sale price.
Christie's Old Masters sale in New York totaled $54,130,050, the highest for a sale in New York in more than a decade. Notable results included Canaletto's Venice view, The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day, which realized $30,535,000 and Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, which realized $5,687,000.
Leon Black and Ronald Lauder are described as purchasing art together in Epstein investigation files. The article, by Katya Kazakina, discusses their status as prominent New York collectors and trustees, and notes that Epstein’s files reveal several joint acquisitions and the extent of Black’s art holdings, including works by Raphael, Leonardo, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo. The piece references charitable gifts to major museums and the involvement of Christie's listings.
Conservators at Rotterdam's Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum found that Vincent van Gogh's landscape Poplars near Nuenen was painted over an entirely different composition, a July 1884 moonlit view of the Protestant old church tower and graveyard in Nuenen, revealed through X-ray imaging. Conservator Erika Smeenk-Metz and collections director Sandra Kisters led the study, which also notes that Van Gogh's friend Anton van Rappard had praised the earlier church scene.
New York's Old Masters auctions produced several records. An early self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi sold for a record 5.7 million dollars, a miniature drawing of a foot attributed to Michelangelo made a record 27.2 million dollars, and a chalk drawing by Rembrandt titled Young Lion Resting sold at Sotheby's for 17.8 million dollars with fees, the highest price for a Rembrandt drawing at auction. Canaletto's Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day sold for 30.5 million dollars, and Christie's Old Masters evening auction totalled 54.3 million dollars with fees.
Artemisia Gentileschi Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria sold at Christie’s in New York for $5.69 million, breaking the artist’s auction record. The painting was previously on loan to Oslo’s Nasjonalmuseet and is tied to a related exhibition in 2028 at the Nivaagaard Collection. The National Gallery of Art acquired Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy on the same day, expanding holdings of Italian Baroque paintings.
MoMAA analyzes the African continental and African American/diaspora art markets entering 2026, citing stability in 2024 amid a broader market contraction and detailing auction performance, market confidence indicators, price segments, regional dynamics, and forward projections based on data from Art Basel/UBS, ArtTactic, auction house results, and specialist analysis. Key findings include the 2024 global market contraction to $57.5 billion, strong sell-through rates for African art, over $100 million in cumulative dedicated sales since 2017, record prices such as Julie Mehretu at $10.7 million, and expansion of dedicated African departments at major houses like Sotheby’s in 2025.
The Observer reports a strong Old Master sales week in New York led by Michelangelo with a $27.2 million drawing at Christie’s during Classics Week, plus a Rembrandt Lion drawing that brought in $18 million for wild cat conservation. Artemisia Gentileschi also set a record at $5.7 million, and there was notable activity around a rare double-sided panel by Antonello da Messina that was withdrawn before sale; Christie’s overall Classics Week totaled $110,004,491 with strong momentum for Old Masters.
Yves Klein’s painting California (IKB 71) sold at Christie’s Paris for €18.4 million ($21.4 million), setting a new auction record for the artist in France. The work is the largest format Klein created in his International Klein Blue and was the cover lot of the Avant-garde(s) including Thinking Italian sale.
Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait sold at Christie’s for about $5.69 million, surpassing the previous auction high of $5.25 million. The sale notes the work depicts Gentileschi dressed as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and was painted in Florence circa 1613–1620. On the same day, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. announced its acquisition of Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (circa 1625).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, View of the Sea from Haute-Cagnes, 1910, oil on canvas, located at Osthaus Museum Hagen, Wiederverkauf; The German city of Hagen restituted the painting to the heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt and later bought it back with support from cultural funds.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles has acquired Kara Walker's bronze sculpture Unmanned Drone (2023), made by dissecting and reassembling a decommissioned 1921 Confederate monument of General Stonewall Jackson. The museum said it also recently acquired works by Olafur Eliasson, Henry Taylor, Julie Mehretu, Nairy Baghramian, Meriem Bennani, Suzanne Jackson, Mike Kelley, Paul Pfeiffer, Cynthia Daignault, Shizu Saldamando and Takako Yamaguchi. No monetary values were disclosed.
The Art Newspaper reports that Los Angeles is on the cusp of a museum building boom, led by LACMA's 835 million dollar David Geffen Galleries by Peter Zumthor and the roughly 1 billion dollar Lucas Museum of Narrative Art by Ma Yansong, both due in 2026, plus Refik Anadol's Dataland AI museum, a 100 million dollar Broad extension, a 126.6 million dollar Huntington expansion and a 240 million dollar La Brea Tar Pits renovation. Artists named in connection with the institutions include Alexander Calder, Auguste Rodin, Jeff Koons, Chris Burden, Michael Heizer, Tony Smith, Diana Thater, Shio Kusaka, Mariana Castillo Deball and Refik Anadol.
Christie’s reported totals for its New York contemporary sales reached $40,650,872, with Post-War to Present totaling $32,023,889, Contemporary Edition $2,201,926, First Open $4,544,060, and Outsider Art $1,880,997. The top lot in Post-War to Present was Jeff Koons' Winter Bears, which sold for $7,639,000, and other notable results included Cy Twombly’s Roman Notes ($1,104,900), Helen Frankenthaler’s Strike ($1,492,250), and Roy Lichtenstein’s Portrait ($1,130,300).
Christie’s Post-War to Present totals $32,023,889 in New York, with Jeff Koons’s Winter Bears leading at $7,639,000; other top lots include Josef Albers’s Homage to the Square: Insight, Robert Morris’s untitled work, Cy Twombly’s Roman Notes, Helen Frankenthaler’s Strike, and Roy Lichtenstein’s Portrait.
Dealers reported swift sales at Frieze Los Angeles 2026 at Santa Monica Airport. Reported prices included Njideka Akunyili Crosby at 2.8 million dollars, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at 1.5 million dollars, Howardena Pindell at 875,000 dollars, Keith Haring sculpture at 700,000 dollars, Alex Katz at 700,000 dollars, Jonas Wood at 600,000 dollars, Jean Dubuffet at 475,000 dollars, Lisa Yuskavage totalling 460,000 dollars, Emily Kam Kngwarray at 450,000 dollars, Mary Weatherford at 300,000 dollars, David Salle at 280,000 dollars, Ugo Rondinone at 260,000 dollars, Liza Lou at 225,000 dollars, and Antony Gormley sculptures totalling over 1.5 million pounds. Works by Ed Ruscha, Louis Fratino, Robert Longo, Barbara Kruger, Emmi Whitehorse, Conny Maier, Yvonne Wells, Erica Mahinay and Zenobia Lee were also reported sold.
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York, setting a record for the most expensive modern artwork at auction. The work, painted between 1914 and 1916, was auctioned on November 18, 2025, after a competitive bidding process, with a pre-sale estimate around $150 million; the hammer price was $205 million, totaling $236.4 million with fees. It surpassed Salvator Mundi and other modern-art records, with six bidders participating.
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