Annual archive
60 headlines · 11 months
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theartnewspaper.com
The Art Newspaper reports that the Austrian Parliament decided restitution should be made to Nazi victims and coerced post-1945 borrowers, but an advisory council repeatedly opposed the plan. The piece centers on Bruno Kreisky and Hertha Firnberg regarding a Klimt drawing case from the Albertina Collection, and discusses the broader implications for restitution claims.
theartnewspaper.com
The MoMA has spent over $250,000 in legal fees in its New York lawsuit contesting the attempted subpoena of two Egon Schiele paintings loaned to the museum by the Leopold Foundation in Austria.
observer.com
The Observer reports that S. I. Newhouse Jr. met with Steve Wynn and Larry Gagosian in Las Vegas to discuss the future of key Picasso artworks in Wynn's Mirage Resorts collection, including the 1942 Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar; the meeting occurred as Wynn prepared to resign from Mirage Resorts and amid the potential acquisition by MGM Grand Inc.
latimes.com
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a list of 393 paintings from its European collection whose ownership during the Nazi era requires further authentication. The list includes works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse and Rembrandt van Rijn. Lawrence Wheeler of the North Carolina Museum of Art described a recent restitution of a 16th-century Madonna and Child attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder to a Viennese family.
latimes.com
Henri Matisse painting La Riviere aux Aloes (Brook With Aloes), dated 1907, owned by Alphonse Kann’s heirs, is being traced as part of Nazi-era looting; the work has been displayed at Houston’s Menil Collection since 1993 and was acquired in 1950 by John and Dominique de Menil. Kann’s heirs, led by Francis Warin, have pursued claims related to Kann’s collection seized in 1940 and have recovered other works including Picasso oils.
nypost.com
Henri Matisse’s 1909 bronze sculpture La Serpentine, based on a photograph, sold at Sotheby’s for a record $14 million. The sale was part of a group of 42 Impressionist and modern works that brought in over $140 million, including Monet’s Le Portail for over $24 million, Picasso’s Compotier et Guitare for nearly $10 million, Monet’s Nympheas for more than $8 million, and Toulouse-Lautrec’s L’Abandon ou les Deux Amis for more than $9 million.
nypost.com
The article discusses Bernard Arnault challenging Sotheby’s and Christie’s dominance in the art auction world, with his Phillips auction house debuting in the major leagues and failing to meet many estimates. Kazimir Malevich’s Abstract, “Suprematist Composition,” was the top lot, selling for $15.5 million on a $15 million guarantee, while most works sold below estimates; Arnault reportedly guaranteed minimum prices to keep works away from the big houses.
observer.com
Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist Composition, painted circa 1919–1920, sold for $17 million at Phillips Auctioneers on May 11, as reported by the Observer. The piece discusses the sale as a notable event in the modern art market and references coverage by The New York Times, as well as commentary on the role of major auction houses.