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The Antiquities Trafficking Unit with the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., from left: Apsara Iyer, Vance, Matthew Bogdanos and Mallory ODonoghue, with eight objects seized by the Manhattan district attorneys office as part of its investigations into the looting of artifacts, in New York, Oct. 7, 2021. Investigators have seized so many looted artifacts more than 3,000 that storing and caring for them until they can be returned is now a full-time job. Vincent Tullo/The New York Times.
by Tom Mashberg
NEW YORK, NY.- The evidence lockers at the Manhattan District Attorneys Office often hold an array of items that figured in the crimes it prosecutes. Blunt instruments. Sacks of heroin. Wads of cash. The kinds of things that shouldnt be dropped, but no one would have a heart attack if you did. And then there are the 2,281 fragile, invaluable and often museum-worthy art objects statues, sculptures, relics of ancient civilizations that the office has seized and now must care for. Here, a bronze idol from India priced at $2 million. There, a vase from Italy made 300 years before the birth of Christ. Weve all gotten pretty good at packing, said Matthew Bogdanos, the assistant district attorney who directs the 14-person unit that seized it all. Its one thing to pack a bronze or sandstone statue its another to pack a 2,500-year-old Apulian vase that already has a crack down the side. That is absolutely nerve-wracking, and we look at each ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day The Courtauld Gallery in London opened on Friday 19 November 2021 following the most significant modernisation project in its history, providing a transformed home for one of the UKâs greatest art collections. Visitors to the Gallery in Somerset House, which has been closed since 2018, are able to see masterpieces from The Courtauldâs collection, ranging from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century, completely redisplayed and reinterpreted across elegantly refurbished galleries, revealing the quality and range of the collection like never before.
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| Installation reunites Ãdouard Manet's three Philosopher paintings | | Maurizio Cattelan's first solo exhibition in China presents 29 works from his more than three-decade-long career | | Major exhibition devoted to German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer opens at the National Gallery | 
Ãdouard Manet (French, 1832-1883), The Ragpicker, c. 1865-1870. Oil on canvas, 76-3/4 x 51-1/2 in. (194.9 x 130.8 cm) The Norton Simon Foundation.
PASADENA, CA.- The Norton Simon Museum announces a special installation of Ãdouard Manets three Philosopher paintings: Beggar with Oysters (Philosopher) and Beggar with a Duffle Coat (Philosopher), both dated 1865/67 and on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Ragpicker, from c. 1865-1870, one of the highlights of the Norton Simon collections. Shown together for the first time in fifty-five years, these richly resonant works reveal Manet at his most provocative, harnessing the authority of an established style to convey dignity on a class of people overlooked by French society. In 1865, Ãdouard Manet (18321883) traveled to Spain to see all those beautiful things and seek the counsel of maestro Velázquez, as he wrote to a friend, later declaring the philosophers of Velázquez to be astounding pieces that were alone worth the journey. Indeed, ... More | | 
Installation view. Courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art.
BEIJING.- Maurizio Cattelan: The Last Judgment is the first solo exhibition in China by Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960, Padua, Italy), one of the most popular and controversial figures on the international contemporary art scene. Taking its title from Michelangelos fresco in the Sistine Chapel, this exhibition is a focused overview of the artists more than three decades of often provocative, mocking, and prankish artistic output. Whereas his art has often been presented in a highly specific manner, this exhibition at UCCA takes a more holistic approach, offering the opportunity to pause and reflect on the artists vision and philosophy. Maurizio Cattelan: The Last Judgment is curated by Francesco Bonami, and organized by Liu Kaiyun, Edward Guan, Shi Yao, Anna Yang, and Yvonne Lin. On view within the open space of UCCAs Great Hall are 29 works of installation, sculpture, and performance works from thro ... More | | 
Albrecht Dürer, Burkhard of Speyer. Lent by Her Majesty The Queen, 1506. Oil on panel, 31.7 x 26 cm. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020.
LONDON.- The first significant UK exhibition of the artists works in such a wide range of media for nearly twenty years shows Dürers career as a painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Most of the exhibited works are displayed in the UK for the first time. It is also the first to focus on the artist through his travels bringing the visitor closer to the man himself and the people and places he visited, through over a hundred paintings, drawings, prints and documents loaned from museums and private collections worldwide. 'The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Dürers Journeys Travels of a Renaissance Artist', for the first time, chronicles the Nuremberg-born artists journeys to the Alps and Italy in the mid-1490s; to Venice in 15057; and to the Low Countries in 15201, journeys which brought him into contact with artists and fuelled ... More |
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| Historic development: Afghanistan's disappearing box cameras | | Peter Blum Gallery opens a survey across seven decades of Chris Marker's career | | Storyboards for doomed 'Dune' film up for auction | 
In this photograph taken on October 13, 2021, Afghan photographer Haji Mirzaman shows a processed photograph taken with his homemade wooden box camera, known as a "kamra-e-faoree", at a photography shop in Kabul. WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP.
by Emal Haidary
KABUL.- Haji Mirzaman was just a teenager when he started taking photos using a homemade wooden box camera in his cousin's studio in downtown Kabul. He took black-and-white portraits of people for passports, identity cards and other documents using his "magic box" on a sidewalk, producing prints in a couple of minutes. Now in his 70s, he says the instant camera -- or "kamra-e-faoree" as it is known in Dari -- has survived wars, invasions and a Taliban ban on photography, but is now in danger of disappearing because of digital technology. "These cameras are retired now," he told AFP at his small house in Kabul as he set up the box on its wooden tripod. "I am just keeping this last remaining camera." The box is both camera and darkroom, and to ... More | | 
Chris Marker, PASSENGERS Untitled #128, 2011. Color photograph mounted on white Sintra, 13 1/4 x 16 1/2 inches (33.7 x 41.9 cm) edition of 3.
NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Blum Gallery is presenting Chris Marker: 100, a survey across seven decades of the artists career through almost 250 photographs, film stills, and prints. This is the gallerys fifth exhibition featuring Chris Marker (1921-2012) and coincides with the centenary of his birth. The exhibition runs from November 20, 2021 - January 21, 2022 at 176 Grand Street, New York. Visionary filmmaker, photographer, writer, and multimedia artist, Chris Marker emerged in postwar Paris initially gaining renown for his films that include the seminal work, La Jetée (1962). Subsequently he would create a lasting influence across media and through his writings on the ways in which we consider time, memory, and observation of contemporary life. The centenary of his birth offers an ideal occasion to look back at his legacy through a survey of several disparate bodies of work. Totaling almost 250 selected images, ... More | | 
A page of one of the ten Alejandro Jodorowsky's epic 1970 Dune storyboard copies is displayed to the public three days before an auction at Christie's Paris gallery, on November 19, 2021. Alain JOCARD / AFP.
PARIS.- It has entered film folklore as one of the great missed opportunities: the doomed 1970s adaptation of "Dune" that was supposed to bring together Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger and Pink Floyd. The project famously collapsed after four years of work by cult Franco-Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, but now his storyboards are going up for auction in Paris on Monday. With a new version of "Dune" starring Timothee Chalamet packing cinemas around the world in recent weeks, interest in Jodorowsky's version has been reignited and Christie's is valuing the drawings at 25,000 to 35,000 euros ($28,000 to $40,000). They are collected in one large notebook, and were made by celebrated French graphic novelist Moebius (alias Jean Giraud, who died in 2012) and Swiss illustrator Giger, who went on to design "Alien" in 1979 and died in 2014. The tumultuous project was due to ... More |
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| Artpace San Antonio announces new works by Fall 2021 International Artists-in-Residence | | nft now x Christie's to present 'The Gateway' at Art Basel Miami | | Ethiopia hails return of looted artefacts | 
Shana Hoehn, Installation view of Folding, Floating, Falling, 2021. Photo credit: Beth Devillier. Courtesy of Artpace San Antonio.
SAN ANTONIO, TX.- Artpace announced the Fall 2021 International Artists-in-Residence exhibition opening featuring artists, Dan Herschlein (Brooklyn, NY), Shana Hoehn (Texarkana, TX), and Naufus RamÃrez-Figueroa (Guatamala City, Guatamala). The three artists were chosen by Guest Curator Natalie Bell. Bell is Curator at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, where she recently organized solo exhibitions of Leslie Thornton and Sreshta Rit Premnath (2021). Previously, Bell was Associate Curator at the New Museum, New York. Dan Herschleins exhibition, Plain and Sane, contemplates the tension between light and dark as a means of examining ideologies. Utilizing wood, plaster, and paint, Herschlein has constructed a thin house-like structure with one side cast in darkness and the other covered in light. As you walk through the house, two figures stand inside a pantry, passing sacks to each other. ... More | | 
FriendsWithYou, fRiENDSiES 00001 (1/1), 2021. Cast Bronze, Urethane Finish, 36 3/4 L x 22 3/4 W x 50 H © Friends With You 2021.
MIAMI, FLA.- nft now, the leading web3 digital media platform for NFT coverage, curation and analysis, today announced it is partnering with leading auction house Christies to host an exclusive exhibition of NFT-based art and collectibles at Art Basel Miami. On December 3rd, the registered public will have the opportunity to experience The Gateway a one-of-a-kind sensory experience in downtown Miami featuring music and art in celebration of a new era of NFT innovation. The mission of The Gateway'' is to bring together the worlds of traditional fine art and NFTs to showcase how they can intersect and coexist. For this unique activation, nft now and Christies will transform one of Miamis many financial office buildings into a reimagined 23,000 square-foot gallery where guests can explore a curated collection of pieces from the worlds top NFT creators, as well as physical pieces from some of the lea ... More | | 
Staff look at recovered items to be on display at the National Museum as Ethiopia. Amanuel Sileshi / AFP.
ADDIS ABABA.- Ethiopia on Saturday hailed the return of precious artefacts looted by British soldiers more than 150 years ago, after a long campaign for their restitution. The collection -- recovered from Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands -- includes a ceremonial crown, an imperial shield, a set of silver-embossed horn drinking cups, a handwritten prayer book, crosses and a necklace. Most of the items were plundered by the British army after it defeated Emperor Tewodros II in the Battle of Magdala in 1868 in what was then Abyssinia. The treasures were unwrapped before the media at Ethiopia's national museum on Saturday, more than two months after they were formally handed over at a ceremony in London in September. Ethiopia said it was the largest such repatriation of artefects to the country, with its ambassador to Britain, Teferi Melesse, describing it as of "huge significance". Calls have long been mounting in Africa for Western countries to return their colonial ... More |
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| Bonnie Sherk, landscape artist full of surprises, dies at 76 | | Heather Gaudio Fine Art opens an exhibition of works by Ann Gardner | | New $50 million Shepparton Art Museum opens to the public | 
Landscape artist Bonnie Sherk in a San Francisco highway interchange that she changed into an environmental sculpture. Sherk, an artist and landscape architect, made a career out of unusual art projects that explored humanitys relationship with nature. Bonnie Ora Sherk via The New York Times.
by Neil Genzlinger
NEW YORK, NY.- On a Thursday in June 1970, a police officer in San Francisco was going nuts because motorists entering the busy Central Freeway near Market Street were jamming on their brakes, startled by an unusual sight. On what the day before had been a bare patch of ground, a young woman was sitting on a bale of hay, surrounded by potted palm trees and 4,000 square feet of green turf, patting a Guernsey calf that was tied to a railing. Keep those cars moving! the anonymous officer shouted, according to an account in the Los Angeles Times. We could have ... More | | 
Ann Gardner, Cluster Z, 2021. Blown glass, 71 x 31 x 24 inches.
NEW CANAAN, CONN.- Heather Gaudio Fine Art is presenting Ann Gardner: Expanding the Perception of Light, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. The show opened November 20th and will run through January 8th, 2022. Gardners artistic practice stems from a life-long exploration of light, color, pattern, and volume. Using one of the most ancient man-made materials, glass, her sculptures are presented in a range of formats, shapes, and scales. Gardner hand-cuts colored glass into tiny mosaic pieces and reassembles them onto steel armature structures. These come in a variety of forms, such as curved geometric shapes, tubular ovals, waved panels, star bursts or round compositions created in a series. Their volumes protrude into space and recede into themselves, thereby allowing for additional flickering of light, color, and ... More | | 
Shepparton Art Museum, 2021. Photo © Tim Griffith.
VICTORIA.- Australias newest art museum, Shepparton Art Museum officially opened its doors to the public on Saturday 20 November 2021 with nine free exhibitions, four new artwork commissions and presenting more than 200 artists in a celebration of the areas rich and diverse culture, people and landscape. Designed by acclaimed Australian architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall and spanning five floors, the new $50 million art museum houses over 4,000 artworks, with over 200 artists represented and 160 Indigenous and First Nations artworks on display, including its nationally recognised ceramics collection and the nations most significant collection of South-East Australian Aboriginal art. To mark the unveiling, the opening weekend includes a live streamed and in person exhibition opening of Lin Onus: The Land Within. On Sunday 21 November at 11.00am, a panel ... More |
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Alex Da Corte and As Long as the Sun Lasts | MetSpeaks
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| More News |
 Christie's online auction offers the latest collections of illustrations by Sir Quentin BlakeLONDON.- Christies Classic Week presents Quentin Blake: New Drawings 2021, open for bidding from 30 November to 14 December. The online auction offers the latest collections of illustrations by Sir Quentin Blake, sold to benefit House of Illustration, Greenpeace and Downing College, Cambridge. Estimates range from £200 to £2,500 and a selection of drawings will be on view and open to the public at Christies King Street from 11 to 14 December. Sir Quentin Blake commented: My last auction at Christies was made up of alternative versions of drawings that had been commissioned from me. There are one or two such items in the present collection, but in most respects it could hardly be more different. The great majority of these came into being of their own urgency, although if you are familiar ... More  Untitled Art announces highlights of expanded curatorial programMIAMI, FLA.- Untitled Art shared the curatorial highlights for the 2021 fair in Miami Beach, taking place from November 30 to December 4, 2021 (VIP Preview: November 29). Brought together for their diverse perspectives and regional expertise and in celebration of the fairs 10th edition, the expanded curatorial team consists of Natasha Becker and Miguel A. López, Estrellita Brodsky and José Falconi. Natasha Becker, Curator of African Art at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, showcases Reinvention, a group presentation that profiles eleven galleries dedicated to Black voices. The presentation will feature work from eleven galleries: Albertz Benda, Anna Zorina Gallery, BEERS London, Bode Projects, Davidson Gallery, De Buck Gallery, Galerie Julien Cadet, Gallery1957, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles ... More  Worcester Art Museum held annual meeting and elected two new trustees WORCESTER, MASS.- The Worcester Art Museum elected two new members to its Board of Trustees at its 125th annual Corporators meeting, held virtually on Wednesday, November 10. The newly elected trustees are Jennifer Davis Carey, executive director of the Worcester Education Collaborative and a resident of Worcester, and Lawrence H. Curtis, president and managing partner of WinnDevelopment and resident of Boxford. In addition to the business meeting, guest speaker Worcester City Manager, Edward M. Augustus Jr., gave his insights on Worcesters cultural vibrancy and how the city has remained strong throughout COVID. He also emphasized the importance of arts in our local community. The over 150 attendees who joined the Zoom meeting heard Board President Dorothy Chen-Courtin discuss the challenges and successes ... More  MCA Chicago announces new curatorial leadershipCHICAGO, IL.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago announces the appointment of two new leaders to their curatorial team, René Morales as the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, and Jamillah James as Manilow Senior Curator. Both Morales and James will assume their roles at the MCA in January 2022. We are building a curatorial team for the MCAs next chapter, one that is committed to telling an inclusive art history, engaging with our community, and expanding the breadth and diversity of experience on the team. Both René and Jamillah are passionate about investing in Chicagos community of artists, cultural stakeholders, and audiences, and their collaborative practice and open and authentic approach will be transformative for the MCA, states MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn. Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and raised in Miami, ... More  Caroline Todd, half of a mystery-writing duo, dies at 86NEW YORK, NY.- Many mystery writers publish under a pen name. Caroline Todd may have been the only one to use two at the same time, one masking the other. She was, first of all, half of the duo who wrote under the name Charles Todd. Her son, also named Charles Todd, was the other. But as with any good mystery story, theres a twist: Caroline and Charles Todd are pseudonyms too. Caroline Todd was the pen name of Carolyn Watjen; Charles Todd is actually David Watjen. They wrote two series, both set in various isolated villages around England just after World War I. One centered on Ian Rutledge, a Scotland Yard detective and former British army officer with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the other centered on Bess Crawford, an army nurse turned amateur detective. The books, nearly 40 in all, won the duo awards, critical acclaim ... More  Beatles signed 'Please Please Me' album sold for $31,251 at auctionBOSTON, MASS.- A Beatles signed 'Please Please Me' album sold for $31,251, according to Boston-based RR Auction. Summer 1963 third pressing of the Beatles debut album Please Please Me, signed on the back cover by the Fab Four. The consignor indicates that the signatures were obtained at the Adelphi Cinema in Slough, England, in 1963the Beatles played the Adelphi twice in 1963: on May 18th, four days before the release of Please Please Me, and the first night of the groups breakout tour with Roy Orbison; and on November 5th, a day after their memorable Royal Command Performance at Londons Prince of Wales Theatre in the presence of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Any album signed by all four members is highly desirableroughly 75 signed copies of this title are known to exist, said Bobby Livingston, Executive ... More  Oliver Lee Jackson debuts original body of work in new exhibition at di Rosa Center for Contemporary ArtNAPA, CA.- When asked about viewers of his work, acclaimed American painter, printmaker and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson has responded, Its for anybodys eyes. Any eyes will do. di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art announces a new exhibition guest curated by Diane Roby, Oliver Lee Jackson: Any Eyes, opening Friday, November 19, 2021, and continuing through Sunday, February 20, 2022. This exhibition presents for any eyes a selection of Jacksons works in painting, sculpture, and mixed media. While recent retrospectives at the National Gallery of Art and Saint Louis Art Museum have brought renewed critical attention to Jacksons paintings and works on paper, this exhibition highlights the true breadth of his practice, featuring previously unseen works in materials ranging from burlap, felt and paint to steel, wood and marble. ... More  Medals of Battle of Britain fighter ace squadron leader 'Bolshie' Bartley to be sold at Dix Noonan WebbLONDON.- An important group of seven awarded to Battle of Britain Fighter Ace Squadron Leader A. C. Bolshie Bartley of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve will be sold by Dix Noonan Webb in their auction of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. They are expected to fetch £100,000-140,000. Squadron Leader A. C. Bolshie Bartley was one of the founder members of the famous 92 Squadron, and is credited with at least 12 Victories, 8 damaged, a number of probables and possibles, and countless unclaimed. Mark Quayle, Specialist (Associate Director) Dix Noonan Webb commented: Bartleys was a life of extraordinary adventure, during which he was involved in a number of iconic incidents, all of which are reflected in his Log Books and autobiography - a veritable whos who of stars of the stage, screen and ... More  JD Malat Gallery presents a new body of work by Henrik UldalenLONDON.- JD Malat Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition by Henrik Uldalen, Love in Exile, on view from 18 November 2021 to 8 January 2022. Featuring a new body of work, including striking new portraits, Love in Exile marks Uldalens third solo exhibition at JD Malat Gallery. The show reflects Henriks change and progression as an artist, striving to build on his neoclassical roots. The London-based Norwegian artist is internationally recognised for his thick impasto portraits that illustrate the deeper and darker spectrum of human emotions alongside a thorough investigation of the human body and face. The exhibition features new paintings that address the feelings of loneliness, suffering, fear, and uncertainty. Powerfully conveying a sense of the artists internal world, these works also evoke the question of the meaning of human existence. Through ... More  Tourbillon, Rolex lift Heritage Watches & Fine Timepieces Auction above $3.2 millionDALLAS, TX.- Competitive bidding drove a Cartier, Highly Important Piece Unique "Pendule Quatre Faces", circa 1992 to $212,500 to lead Heritage Auctions Watches & Fine Timepieces Auction to $3,323,023. The event attracted 1,374 global visitors, and produced a sell-through rate of 96.6% by lots sold. We knew going in that the market was exceptionally hot at the moment, but the results in this sale exceeded even our most optimistic hopes, Heritage Auctions Watches & Fine Timepieces Jim Wolf said. Demand for elite Rolexes is surging, and we saw strong performances by modern Tourbillon watches, an indication that collectors are now focusing on some of the newer, highly complicated specialty watches. The top lot sits on an 18k octagonal base in gold ... More  Elijah Burgher's first solo exhibition with P·P·O·W Gallery opens in New YorkNEW YORK, NY.- P·P·O·W is presenting Queen of the Forest, Elijah Burgher's first solo exhibition with the gallery. Using painting and drawing, Burgher works at the crossroads of representation and language, figuration and abstraction, and the real and imagined. Inspired by the literary and visual culture of the early 20th century occult revival and the reconstructed paganism of the 1960s, Burghers Queen of the Forest synthesizes a variety of magical and artistic philosophies regarding language, mythology, and desire to generate his highly personalized mystical iconography. With a series of new, large-scale drawings, Burgher returns to in-depth figuration after five years cultivating a remarkably intimate code of sigils, emblems, and abstraction. Drawing from mythology, ancient history, the occult, and ritual magick, Burgher describes Queen ... More |
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PhotoGalleries 
Ahmed Morsi: Detail From a Mural Checklist 
RIBA 
The Kingâs Animals 
DOMENICO GNOLI
Flashback On a day like today, Belgian painter René Magritte was born November 21, 1898. René François Ghislain Magritte ( 21 November 1898 - 15 August 1967) was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art and conceptual art. In this image: Surrealist portrait of patron Edward James Le Principe du Plaisir (Pleasure Principle). Courtesy Sotheby's.
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