Finding a long lost treasure is headline material. Should the trove be a multi-million dollar painting by a master, it generates additional press coverage and ratings. A version of Judith Beheading Holofernes discovered in a Toulouse attic is being attributed to Caravaggio. il mistero del Caravaggio ritrovato in soffitta (La Repubblica) click Caravaggio Masterpice (ArtInfo) click “Lost Caravaggio Causes […]
A Nazi-looted Modigliani was seized from the Geneva Freeport in the collection of Edmond Safra’s cousin David Nahmad. That heaven of anonymity was also the site of the “Bouvier affair,” an art world scandal involving an art handler turned dealer, a Russian oligarch, secret bank accounts, and even a Leonardo. Yves Bouvier, “the king of the freeports,” […]
The Imperial Downfall of the Bass Museum A Simulacrum of Feudal Order in a City of Delusion The alleged princess and philanthropist Dolores Ziff Hollywood made it to SoBe. A polychromatic elephant parade moved down Collins Avenue, the production of a princess, the Bass Museum and the City of Miami Beach. There were “Gifts of […]
A World of ‘Phantasma’ Justo J. Sánchez / New York Two-Sided Icon with the Virgin Pafsolype and Feast Scenes and the Crucifixion and Prophets. Byzantine (Constantinople?), second half of the 14th century. Collection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Istanbul. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art has achieved the inconceivable: it has made […]
Latin American Art sales in New York have taken a new turn. The usual fare is predictable: Boteros, Lams, Zunigas, some Tamayos. Collectors are traditionally nationalistic in their purchasesSome exciting pieces have come to market. Diego Rivera is the “flavor of the month.” Rousseau arrives in Mexico with the lush 1931 Rivera, La Ofrenda, at […]
Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Saint Augustine in Ecstasy This spring New York Old Masters’ sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s complement each other in historical periods and artists’ nationalities. After brokering the sale of Duccio’s Stroganoff Madonna now at the Metropolitan Museum Christies has put together an illustrious group of paintings for its May 26 sale. Murillo’s […]
< Exciting in its detectivesque scholarship, From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master rediscovers a long neglected artist. Mentioned by Vasari, Giovanni di Bartolomeo Corradini was born in Urbino where he would later return. Moving to Florence in his twenties, Corradini joined the workshop of Filippo […]
Note: No representation of accuracy is made of the price, sales, and gallery information. Over 30,000 visitors attended the third installment of Art Basel-Miami Beach. The art business is symptomatic of a specific stage in the business cycle. The volume of sales indicates the extent to which art is an investment strategy, a store of value, […]
