| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Wednesday, June 26, 2019 |
 |
| | Lost '$170 million Caravaggio' snapped up before French auction | |
|
|
A technician works on the hanging of a painting believed by some experts to be Caravaggio's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" for its public presentation at the Marc Labarbe auction house on June 16, 2019 in Toulouse before it goes under the hammer next June 27, five years after it was discovered in the attic of an old house in Toulouse. ERIC CABANIS / AFP.
by Hervé Gavard in Toulouse with Fiachra Gibbons in Paris
TOULOUSE (AFP).- A painting thought to be a "lost masterpiece" by Italian painter Caravaggio has been bought two days before it was due to go under the hammer in France. "Judith and Holofernes", which was found under an old mattress in the attic of a house in the French city of Toulouse, was snapped up by a foreign buyer, the auction house selling it said on Tuesday. Art expert Eric Turquin -- who authenticated the painting -- said it was worth between 100 and 150 million euros (up to $170 million), although several Italian specialists have doubts about the canvas. But Turquin, France's leading authority on Old Masters paintings, had staked his reputation on the work being the fiery artist's lost "Judith and Holofernes". The painting depicting a grisly biblical scene of the beautiful ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (L), honorary chairman of platform Wiser in Money Matters (Wijzer in Geldzaken), attends the opening of the exhibition Crazy about Money (Gek op Geld) at the Tax and Customs Museum (Belasting en Douane Museum) in Rotterdam, on June 25, 2019. patrick van katwijk / ANP / AFP
|
|
|
| 
|
 | | Infamous botched art restoration in Spain gets makeover | | The Art and Antique Dealers League announces exhibitor line-up for October Fine Art & Antiques Show | | Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction Aachieves $57,558,619 | 
The wooden statue of St George charging a horse in the San Miguel church in Estella, a town in Spain's northern Navarra region, had turned a dark brown with age.
MADRID (AFP).- A 16th century sculpture of Saint George in Spain whose amateur restoration left it looking like what many said was a cartoon character has been brought back to its original state, regional authorities said Monday. The botched restoration sparked anger when it came to light last year, drawing comparisons with a similar infamous renovation in 2012 by an elderly parishioner of a fresco of Jesus Christ which resembled a pale-faced ape with cartoon-style eyes. The wooden statue of St George charging a horse in the San Miguel church in Estella, a town in Spain's northern Navarra region, had turned a dark brown with age. But its restoration by a local crafts business left the soldier with a pink face and a surprised look. Some Twitter users likened the restored statue to Tintin or Woody from "Toy Story". Authorities fined the church and the crafts business 6,010 euros ($6,840) each. Now, after three months of work ... More | | 
Theophile Soyer (1853-1940), Joan of Arc After Jean A.D. Ingres. Circa 1880, Wall Plaque. Enamel on Copper; Troubador Style Wood Frame, 22 X 14". Signed. European Decorative Arts.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Art & Antique Dealers League has announced that their third annual Fine Art & Antiques Showwith 24 dealerswill open for a 5-day run starting Thursday October 31st at the St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Wallace Hall, 980 Park Avenue on New Yorks Upper East Side. According to show manager Brad Reh, five galleries have joined the show. They include: Betty Krulik Fine Art, Ltd., from New York (19th and 20th century American art); Philadelphias Dolan/Maxwell Gallery (modern and contemporary art), Denmark-based Greg Pepin Silver (hollowware, silverware, and jewelry); New York-based Rehs Galleries (19th through contemporary paintings); and from Nantucket, Lynda Willauer Antiques (Chinese export porcelain, Majolica, Staffordshire ceramics). Were delighted to welcome these distinguished dealer to our roster, says Reh. Each enhances the wonderful offerings of our existing ... More | | 
Jean Dubuffets Cérémonie (Ceremony) (£8,718,750), Jean-Michel Basquiats Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night) (£8,378,250) and Francis Bacons Man at Washbasin (£5,109,450) achieved top prices in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.
LONDON.- Jean Dubuffets Cérémonie (Ceremony), a visceral portrait of cosmopolitan life from 1961, led the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London, selling for £8,718,750 / $11,107,688 (including buyer's premium). The sale totalled £45,179,450 / $57,558,619 94 per cent sold by lot and 99 per cent by value. For full results, see below. Channelling the currents of Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism and Tachisme, the top-priced work, which stands among the largest paintings in Dubuffet's celebrated Paris Circus series, was made just a few months after the artist's return to Paris after six years in the countryside. Alive with kaleidoscopic texture and colour, it captures the newfound joie de vivre that swept the French capital during the early 1960s. The second and third highest prices on the night came for ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | | Sotheby's to offer most valuable Gainsborough ever to come to auction | | Venus de Milo to get an extra whiff of glamour | | Sotheby's 40th Anniversary Sale of Swiss Art totals CHF 5.1 million, led by masterworks by Hodler and Vallotton | 
Thomas Gainsborough, Going to Market, Early Morning (detail). Estimate: £7 - 9 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
LONDON.- This summer, Sothebys will present a roll-call of the greatest names in Western art history at its flagship Old Masters Evening Sale on 3 July. With an overall estimate of £4665.9m/ $59.5-83.7m, the sale next week is one of the strongest sales ever staged in this category, both in value as well as in the quality of works on offer. From some of the finest works by the three key British landscape painters remaining in private hands, to masterpieces and newly discovered works by Renaissance and Baroque masters, the sale features works by the biggest household names spanning six centuries. Going to Market, Early Morning is unquestionably one of Gainsboroughs finest masterpieces remaining in private hands, and one of the finest eighteenth century British landscapes by any artist ever to likely come to market. Painted in 1773 it is one of an important group of three major landscapes Gainsborough painted at this period that dea ... More | | 
In this file photo taken on June 17, 2009 tourists look at the "Venus de Milo" sculpture as they visit the Louvre museum in Paris. LOIC VENANCE / AFP.
PARIS (AFP).- She was one of the great beauties of antiquity, and soon we are going to find out what the "Venus de Milo" smells like. The Louvre in Paris has asked two of France's top "noses" -- otherwise known as perfume creators -- to come up with fragrances to go with some of its greatest treasures. Ramdane Touhami and Victoire de Taillac roped in some of the biggest stars of the olfactory universe to help them find the right notes to go with statues of the goddess of love as well as the "Winged Victory of Samothrace". The pair, founders of the Officine Universelle Buly perfumerie, were also asked to pair fragrances with Ingres' two most sensual works, the "Grande Odalisque" and "The Valpincon Bather" as well as Gainsborough's "Conversation in a Park". But for now there will be no perfume for "Mona Lisa" -- the museum's most famous work -- who will guard her fragrance, like so much else, secret. Controversially, among ... More | | 
Ferdinand Hodler, Bildnis von Emma Schmidt-Mueller. Sold for CHF 1,340,000 / EUR 1,203,162. Courtesy Sotheby's.
ZURICH.- Celebrating 40 years of Swiss Art sales at Sothebys, this evenings auction, Swiss Art / Swiss Made in Zurich was led by Ferdinand Hodlers masterful and painterly portrait of Emma Schmidt-Müller, which sold on behalf of a Swiss non-profit foundation for CHF 1,340,000 / EUR 1,203,162. Among the other main highlights of the sale was Félix Vallottons ethereal landscape, Bord de Seine à Tournedos, effet gris, which soared above its high estimate to sell for CHF 956,000 / EUR 858,375. Works of 19th-century painting from the Asbjorn Lunde Collection also stood out, led by Alexandre Calames majestic Torrent de montagne par orage, 1850, another work which sold in excess of the pre-sale estimate for CHF 200,000 / EUR 179,576. Participation in the sale hailed from 25 countries, reflecting the increasing international interest for Swiss Art from beyond the countrys borders. The total for the sale was CHF ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | | Perrotin opens Xavier Veilhan's first solo exhibition on Chinese territory | | The Michael Hoppen Gallery presents a selection of new still lifes from Jeff Bark's latest body of work | | Top lots sold online on Bidsquare showcase strong art and modern design | 
Manfredi (detail), 2019. Stainless steel, polyurethane paint, 160 x 142 x 72 cm | 63 x 55 7/8 x 28 3/8 in. Photo: Claire Dorn © Veilhan / ADAGP, Paris 2019. Courtesy Perrotin.
SHANGHAI.- Xavier Veilhans first solo exhibition on Chinese territory presents a series of newly produced works from each of his significant formal research fields: variations on both human and animal statuary, mobile sculptures and Rays installations. It is an introduction to his oeuvre in its present state of development. Like a true landscape of sculptures, with variable perspectives yet on a single horizon, the ensemble steers our gaze in many directions, but anchors on the color orange of Manfredi and Mobile n°5. Choice of color with Xavier Veilhan is often aesthetic but always in regards to the context, either of the piece or of the physical space where it lives. Channel Orange is a title in homage to Frank Ocean. It is the name of his first album and refers to the phenomenon of synesthesia1 and the color he once perceived during ... More | | 
The Conversation Piece © Jeff Bark. Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery.
LONDON.- The Michael Hoppen Gallery is presenting a selection of new still lifes from American photographer Jeff Barks latest body of work Paradise Garage. The exhibition, opening June 26th, will run alongside his solo show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (from 7th June 29th July). Barks small garage in upstate New York, a once plain, blank-walled space, has been transformed into the unlikely setting for enigmatic scenes created through the merging of exquisite details and iconographic references to the art of the past. Bark takes an approach that is both meticulous and cinematic, one that resembles more the creation of a painting than the assembly of inspirations. This new project originated two years ago: a visit to the Italian capital inspired him to recreate his own Grand Tour. His vision brings a sense of poetry and meaning to seemingly insignificant objects; souvenirs found in American flea mar ... More | | 
Ron Arad, (Israeli, b. 1951), Victoria and Albert Chair, 2001 Artist Proof 2/5, from an Edition of 20 and 5 Artist Proofs; Sold for $30,240 on Bidsquare in Hindman's Modern Design auction May 9, 2019.
NEW YORK, NY.- Spring auction season is proving to be strong online, as bidders turn to Bidsquare for art and design finds. Modern design, 20th Century and fine art lead sale results in May and early June on Bidsquare. Highlights include a Lino Tagliapietra wall sculpture; a George Nakashima Pedestal Desk; a Sonia Delaunay on paper and more. A standout piece by glass maestro Lino Tagliapietra was the highlight of Hindman's May Modern Design auction, realizing a final price of $113,400 from a Bidsquare bidder - two times the original estimate. Hudson Berry, Specialist, Modern Design at Hindman, stated: Its no surprise the Lino Tagliapietra surpassed the presale estimate in the way it did. The work truly has a presence both in scale and color. The sculpture also displays some of the finest handwork which varies wildly ... More |
|
|
|
| |
| | | New acquisition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: 1,000 Platitudes by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer | | Jesper Just's Servitudes transforms Kunsthal Charlottenborg's spaces into a performative and immersive installation | | Dallas Museum of Art names Sue Canterbury Pauline Gill Sullivan Curator of American Art | 
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (born in 1967), 1,000 Platitudes, 2003, Chromogenic prints mounted on aluminum, video, artists proof. Duration: 25 min. MMFA, anonymous gift. © Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / SOCAN (2019).
MONTREAL.- The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts invites visitors to discover 1,000 Platitudes (2003), on display in the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion. This recent acquisition is a work by artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, internationally renowned for his interactive technological installations. The result of a major photographic project, the work joins Lozano-Hemmer's installation Last Breath (Ãltimo Suspiro), which the Museum acquired in 2013. Through his digital art, Lozano-Hemmer combines technology with humanist ideas. Since the start of his career, the Mexican-Canadian artist has worked in the tradition of guerrilla art, using public spaces as projection surfaces without obtaining the required approvals. With 1,000 ÂPlatitudes, the artist was interested in the discourse used ... More | | 
Jesper Just, Servitudes, 2015. Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2019. Foto af David Stjernholm.
COPENHAGEN.- This summer, Kunsthal Charlottenborg opens the doors to internationally renowned Danish artist Jesper Just with the one-work exhibition Servitudes. By presenting a spatial installation that disrupts the visitors experience, Just questions ideas of representation and agency that permeate contemporary society. The exhibition is initiated in collaboration with MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology in Lisbon, and curated by Irene Campolmi. Servitudes is a video installation that shows eight synchronised 9-minute films on a loop. It investigates the ambiguity and sensuality of youth, the striving for beauty, and how humankinds agency inverts the conventional understanding of ability and disability. The work traces a journey into opposed yet interdependent ideas of agency and representation that permeate contemporary society, and which are central to Justs practice. Using the ... More | | 
Canterbury assumes this position after serving for nearly eight years as the DMAs Associate Curator of American Art
DALLAS, TX.- Dr. AgustÃn Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), announced today that Sue Canterbury has been named The Pauline Gill Sullivan Curator of American Art. Canterbury assumes this position after serving for nearly eight years as the DMAs Associate Curator of American Art, and will take on official leadership of the department, where she will continue to steward the Museums extensive collection of American art through acquisitions, exhibitions, and scholarship. The DMAs collection of American art includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper spanning three centuries and encompassing the United States and Canada. During her tenure as Associate Curator, Canterbury also oversaw the collections of Spanish Colonial and modern Latin American art, which will now be overseen by the new Jorge Baldor Curator ... More |
|
The Incredible Discovery of a Lost Rosso Drawing
|
|
| |
| | More News |
 Magnum Print Room displays Trent Parke's 'The Camera is God' for the first time in the UKLONDON.- In 2013, Trent Parke set up his camera at a pedestrian crossing at the corner of King Street, Adelaide. As the lights changed and the pedestrians began to move, he took 30 frames in quick succession. He continued this process for nearly a year during evening rush hour, resulting in this series of candid portraits of pedestrians. The Camera is God is on display for the first time in the UK in this exhibition. In these grainy black and white portraits, the facial features of the pedestrians are blurred and reduced to shadowy contrasts. From a distance, the faces in the portraits are sometimes recognisable but on close inspection, evaporate to a ghostly grain. This relates to the conflicting sense of familiarity and anonymity of the street, the common experience of a physical closeness but an emotional distance to passers-by. I wanted to represent ... More Replica clock find sparks hope for Notre-Dame restorationPARIS (AFP).- An accidental discovery of a 19th-century clock in a dusty church storage room in Paris has sparked hopes that it can be used to replace a timepiece destroyed in the fire at Notre-Dame cathedral. The ruined clock in Notre-Dame, which measured two metres (6.5 feet) across, was located beneath the roof and spire of the Gothic monument which crashed down in the blaze that stunned France in April. With original drawings lost and no digital records, photographs of the historic clock were the only clue experts had about how they might rebuild it. Then French clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Viot stumbled across an almost identical version while completing an inventory last month at Saint Trinite church in northern Paris, four kilometres (2.5 miles) away from Notre-Dame. "It's incredible. It's the same," he said. "It's like finding a second copy of ... More Queen Mum's 1947 Daimler DE27 Hooper limousine in need of some tlc for sale with H&H ClassicsLONDON.- The next H&H Classics Auction Online on July 3rd will feature a car owned by Sir Bernard Docker Chairman of Daimler and BSA and used by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The new owner will thus acquire a fascinating classic which is part of Britains automotive and royal history, This fabulous 1947 Daimler DE27 was built by Hoopers in 1947 to an exacting specification which is all detailed and on file. It appears to be complete and carries a flag standard mounting above the windscreen. It was completed for Daimler Group Chairman Sir Bernard Docker and was used by him in France. Returning to the UK, it was handed over to Rossleigh Ltd of Edinburgh who held the Royal Warrant. It was used by the Queen Mother when visiting Edinburgh in 1950 with the then, Princess Elizabeth, latterly Queen Elizabeth 2. It was used on many other ... More Switzerland opens first major purpose-built concert hall in any Alpine ski villageANDERMATT.- Last week, a special inaugural concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor Constantinos Carydis opened the new Andermatt Concert Hall, a world-class centre for music that will establish the Swiss Alpine village of Andermatt as an important cultural destination alongside its celebrated sports facilities. Designed by Studio Seilern Architects led by Christina Seilern and realised by Andermatt Swiss Alps and BESIX (Belgium), the Andermatt Concert Hall is the first major purpose-built concert hall in any Alpine ski village. The intimate 650-seat hall features an exceptionally flexible stage capable of incorporating a 75-piece orchestra. The acoustics and theatre design are respectively by Kahle Acoustics and dUCKS scéno the same teams behind the Philharmonie de Paris. The Andermatt Concert Hall is located in a panoramic ... More Jane Fortune's $4M estate gift to Eskenazi Museum of Art enables research on female artistsBLOOMINGTON, IND.- The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University has announced an estate gift with an estimated value of approximately $4 million from the late Indiana philanthropist Jane Fortune, who was a passionate advocate for women in the arts and founder of the Florence, Italy-based nonprofit Advancing Women Artists. Fortune's gift includes a collection of 61 works of fine art as well as funds to establish the Dr. Jane Fortune Endowment for Women Artists and the Dr. Jane Fortune Fund for Virtual Advancement of Women Artists. The Eskenazi Museum of Art will recognize Fortune's generosity by naming its first-floor gallery of American and European Art from Medieval to 1900 the "Jane Fortune Gallery." Born and raised in Indianapolis, Fortune was an author, art historian, art collector, philanthropist and cultural editor. Her ... More Jürgen Tabor appointed new Curator Generali Foundation CollectionSALZBURG.- The Directorate of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and the Board of the Generali Foundation announced that Jürgen Tabor has been appointed as the new Curator Generali Foundation Collection. He will begin his position at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg on July 1, 2019. Thorsten Sadowsky, Director Museum der Moderne Salzburg, is pleased that with Jürgen Tabor the Generali Foundation Collection has gained a distinguished expert in international and Austrian contemporary art, whose expertise and ability will further strengthen and develop the cooperation with the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Jürgen Tabor studied art history, English and American studies and graduated in 2006 at the University of Innsbruck. From 2006 to 2010 he was Curator, from 2011 until mid-2017 Deputy Director as well as Interim Director beginning ... More 1958 Gibson Flying V Korina played by Dave Davies to grab center stage in Heritage Auctions' saleDALLAS, TX.- An instantly recognizable and historically important guitar owned by Dave Davies of The Kinks is being offered in Heritage Auctions Musical Instruments Auction July 19 in Dallas. Davies purchased The Kinks-Dave Davies 1958 Gibson Flying V Korina Solid Body Electric Guitar, Serial # 8-4643 (estimate: $180,000+) in June 1965 while The Kinks, one of the most influential British bands since the Beatles and one of the groups credited with helping to launch the British Invasion, was on an American tour. He owned the instrument until 1992 provenance that is specified in a letter of authenticity that is signed by Davies and is accompanying the guitar in the auction. Davies played the guitar on the television show Shindig in June 1965 and on recordings beginning with Till The End Of The Day in November 1965. ... More Exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum features works by more than 60 artists BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH.- From June 22 through October 6, 2019, Cranbrook Art Museum presents Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality, a large-scale exhibition, publication, and public engagement series that brings together artworks from five international art scenes that have experienced post-economic, societal collapse: Americas Detroit from the 1967 Rebellion to the present; the cultural climate of the Italian avant-garde during the 1960s1980s, including the arte povera movement; authoritarian-ruled South Korea of the 1970s, including the dansaekhwa movement; embargoed Cuba since the Special Period in the 1990s to the present; and contemporary Greece since the financial crisis of 2009. The project examines how artists innovate within the material culture created in the aftermath of such crises. Ranging from ... More Let's talk: the Kosovo town using language to bridge dividesKAMENICA (AFP).- In eastern Kosovo, a small town is trying to encourage dialogue between its Albanian and Serb communities by starting with the basics: language. This year in Kamenica, a municipality where 10 percent of the population is ethnic Serb, the local government launched free language courses in hopes of breaking down the mistrust that still divides the two groups across much of Kosovo. There is a practical element too. "I am learning Serbian because I live here, work here and have Serb customers who do not speak Albanian," says Suna Zajmi, a 32-year-old Albanian pharmacist who has been taking the classes. Strahinja Vasic, a 25-year-old local Serb civil servant, is learning Albanian because he lives in a "neighbourhood where they are in the majority, with only six Serb families." "And it's also useful for my work," he adds. Albanian and Serbian are ... More MFAH appoints Royal Academy curator Ann Dumas in consulting roleHOUSTON, TX.- Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, today announced the appointment of Ann Dumas as consulting curator of European art at the MFAH. A specialist in 19th- and early 20th-century art, Dumas is currently curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. She will begin her appointment at the MFAH in September 2019, dividing her time and responsibilities between Houston and London, in her dual role as MFAH consulting curator and Royal Academy curator. We are enormously pleased to announce this partnership with longtime colleagues at the Royal Academy, said Tinterow. Anns talent as a curator will no doubt bring projects at the highest level of expertise to both institutions. Tim Marlow, artistic director of the Royal Academy of Arts, added, Ann Dumas is a worldclass curator and the partnership ... More Modernists lead American Art at SwannNEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries continued the spring 2019 season with a sale of American Art on June 13, which boasted three artist records. American Modernists were standouts in the sale with two of the three records: Attilio Salemmes 1945 oil on canvas painting Rivalry, at $21,250, and Nautical Composition with an Anchor, oil on board, by Joseph Lambert Cain, at $11,250. Suzy Frelinghuysens Cubist-inspired oil and collage work, Act Three, 1942 reached $40,000, and Esphyr Slobodkinas Abstract Composition, gouache on board, circa 1940s earned $8,450. Scenes of Americas diverse terrain were well received by collectors. Highlights included a run of vibrant watercolors by Charles Burchfield: Clouds and Trees Under Blue Skies, circa 1920s ($23,750), Summer Landscape (Trees on a Hill), 1917 ($13,750), and Brook, 1916 ($12,350) were ... More |
|
Flashback On a day like today, illustrator and graphic designer Milton Glaser was born June 26, 1929. Milton Glaser (born June 26, 1929) is an American graphic designer. His designs include the I ♥ NY logo, the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, and the Brooklyn Brewery logo. In this image: Milton Glaser, Concrete Poetry, exhibition poster, 1968.
|
| |
|
|
