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Warhol Horde Stolen: $1 million reward for return
The Independent / September 13th, 2009
As multimillion-pound art heists go, it's on a par with the Thomas Crown Affair. There was no shoot-out or dramatic getaway: not so much as a motion sensor was disturbed when thieves entered the Los Angeles mansion of investment banker-turned-art collector Richard Weisman. They stole a series of ...
Missing Masterpieces, "Middle East Millionairess": Mystery benefactor defense used by U.K. dealer
Guardian / September 13th, 2009
For 30 years, Robin Symes and Christo Michailidis were inseparable as the power couple of the global antiquities trade. Yet since the death of Michailidis a decade ago, Symes and the Greek family of his late partner have been embroiled in a rancorous legal battle over ownership of the men's ...
St. John Stars This Fall: Old Master masterpiece a rarity in today's market
Bloomberg / September 10th, 2009
LONDON - The family that controls Glyndebourne opera house is to sell an Old Master painting with an estimate of up to 10 million pounds ($16.5 million). The 9-foot “St. John the Evangelist” by 17th-century Italian artist Domenichino is being offered by the Christie family, no relation to auction ...
Big on Modernism: Pennsylvania museum gets an infusion of 20th century art
Chicago Tribune / September 10th, 2009
ALLENTOWN, Penn. - The Allentown Art Museum has received one of its largest gifts ever -- about 500 works plus the Long Island home and studio and Manhattan apartment of the modernist artist Peter Grippe. The collection of sculptures, drawings, and prints by Grippe, given by his widow, came along ...
Stolen "Himalayas": Brooklyn couple nabbed for trying to sell museum painting
New York Post / September 10th, 2009
NEW YORK - Denis Ryjenko, 35, and his girlfriend, Natella Croussouloudis, 42, were arrested Sept. 3 as they tried to unload a small masterpiece, "Himalayas," by the prolific early 20th-century Russian artist Nicholas Roerich and valued at $125,000. One of them even told the "buyer," an undercover ...
Collecting Fine China: Antiquities market has a new dynamic
Forbes / September 10th, 2009
The market for ancient Chinese works of art--terra-cotta horses, ceramic vessels, bronzes, jades, and Buddha statues that predate the Tang dynasty (a.d. 618 to 907)--is largely undervalued, and there's still a plentiful supply, from rarities with significant provenance to pieces that simply make ...
Dispute over Prized Pissarro: Holocaust survivor can sue Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
AP / September 9th, 2009
LOS ANGELES — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Claude Cassirer's case against the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and the Spanish government can go forward. Cassirer, of San Diego, claimed his grandmother was forced to sell the 1897 ...
Restitution Win: Sweden settles with Jewish heirs over Nazi-looted painting
Bloomberg / September 9th, 2009
Sweden’s Moderna Museet and the heirs of a Jewish businessman forced to flee Germany before World War II settled a seven-year dispute over a Nazi-looted Emil Nolde painting titled "Blumengarten" (Flower Garden) in the museum’s collection. Under the terms agreed between the museum and ...
More than Expensive Eggs: Faberge comes back with jewelry collection online
Reuters / September 9th, 2009
GOODWOOD HOUSE, England - Revived luxury firm Faberge, whose namesake designed jewel-encrusted eggs for Russian Tsars, plans to sell its first collection of jewelry pieces worth up to $7 million each to the ultra rich on the Web.
American Patriot For Sale: Hindman will hammer down Nathan Hale sculpture
Auction Central News / September 9th, 2009
On Sunday, Sept. 13, Chicago-based Leslie Hindman will host a 220-lot auction featuring postwar, Contemporary, American and European art. The top lot is an 1890 Frederick William MacMonnies bronze of American patriot Nathan Hale. Considered the State Hero of Connecticut, and widely acknowledged ...
Life's Work at Stake: Loan deadline is up for Annie Liebovitz
NY Times / September 8th, 2009
NEW YORK - The photographer Annie Leibovitz’s $24 million loan was due Tuesday, but by the end of the work day, it appeared that little had happened between her and her lender. Although Sept. 8 was widely reported as Ms. Leibovitz’s day of reckoning, the day when she might have to file bankruptcy ...
A Classic Luxury: Brando-owned watch at auction
Luxist / September 8th, 2009
NEW YORK - Later this month Antiquorum in New York will auction a gold cased Vacheron Constantin watch that was given to Marlon Brando by Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1954 (estimate $3,000-$8,000). The classic watch bears a style of guilloche engraved dial decoration that you don't often see anymore. It is ...
Polaroid Sell-off: Photographers lament loss of historic instant image trove
/ September 8th, 2009
BOSTON - All of the precious Polaroids, a 16,000-piece collection of one-of-a-kind prints by hundreds of photographers ranging from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol, were supposed to stay together forever. Polaroid’s corporate art collection survived a 2001 bankruptcy intact, to the delight of ...
5-Pound Pearl: Unusual finds, toys, collectibles at Philip Weiss Auctions
WorthPoint / September 8th, 2009
OCEANSIDE, N.Y. – An incredible, five-pound pearl—measuring six inches in diameter and bearing an uncanny resemblance to a human brain—is just one of hundreds of intriguing lots that will cross the block at Philip Weiss Auctions Sept 11-13. The naturally occurring pearl is one of the largest ...
Digitized Culture: High-tech copies preserve original art, architecture
asahi / September 8th, 2009
TOKYO - The protection of cultural properties is going digital, with Buddhist sculptures, old paintings and World Heritage sites like Beijing's Forbidden City being preserved as digital images and in video. The move is a result of not just progress in image processing technology but of awareness ...
Bonds that Bind: Long Beach museum and city could break ties
LA Times Arts / September 5th, 2009
Long Beach, Calif. - The Long Beach Museum of Art's future could be at stake, with a dispute intensifying over whether the 59-year-old museum must pay back $3.06 million the city government grudgingly anted up this week to satisfy bond holders. The museum's discovery that it doesn't have to pay ...
Forgeries or Finds? Art world is fighting over Frida Kahlo
LA Times Arts / September 6th, 2009
The emergence of previously unknown artwork said to be made by the popular Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-54) has led to a very public debate about its authenticity. In Mexico, Kahlo is officially ranked an artist of the national patrimony, a formal endorsement foreign to American culture. ...
Eco-friendly Art: Giant bird sculpture arrives in Hyde Park
London Times / September 7th, 2009
An enormous Ibis is the first new public sculpture in Hyde Park, Central London, for nearly 50 years. The three-metre tall bronze artwork, named Isis after the goddess of nature, was created by Simon Gudgeon. It is spearheading a drive to raise £1.8 million to build an ecofriendly wildlife ...
The Go-to List: NYT's museum and gallery exhibition guide
NY Times / September 7th, 2009
The New York Times' listing of New York gallery and museum exhibitons includes the jewel-toned paintings of Paul Jenkins, on view at D. Wigmore Fine Art, and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi's group show of artwork by friends such as Wayne Thiebaud (shown here) at Julie Saul Gallery. Check out the ...
Pastoral Pre-War Watercolors: Adolf Hitler's artwork auctioned in Nuremberg
NY Daily News / Reuters / September 7th, 2009
Three watercolors supposedly painted by a young Adolf Hitler were auctioned off for a total of $60,000 in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg Saturday. German auctioneer Herbert Weidler said the paintings were sold to three different phone bidders. Although the exact number of Hitler artworks is ...