During an investigation into an international art trafficking operation, Bulgarian officials say they found a painting by Jackson Pollock that had never been seen before. Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), which was the first to report the find on Tuesday, says the painting could be worth up to €50 million ($54 million). BNR said that the…
The sale of Hokusai’s famous “Great Wave” print for $2.8 million at Christie’s sets a new record. On Tuesday, a woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai sold at Christie’s in New York for $2.8 million. The print, which was only expected to sell for between $500,000 and $700,000, set a new record high price at the…
This year, the art market saw a return to form, with sellers regaining confidence in consigning good works. We survey the top five results in key markets Impressionist & Modern Vincent van Gogh, Laboureur dans un champ (1889), $81.3m (£62.1m), Christie’s New York, 13 November Fernand Léger, Contraste de forms (1913), $70m (£53.5m), Christie’s New…
The Cultural Development Fund of New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs has received its largest-ever allocation of financial resources from the city, amounting in $40.3 million to help support public programming at nearly 950 institutions. The grant money includes funding for the city’s CreateNYC cultural plan, which Mayor Bill de Blasio initiated in 2015…
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Wednesday purchased a Hebrew Bible produced in the Spanish region of Castile in the first half of the 14th century, acquiring the illuminated tome at auction at Sotheby’s along with other objects of Judaica. The work, which is “magnificently illuminated,” according to Sotheby’s, was the most…
The Bass museum in Miami has received a $500,000 donation from Riccardo and Tatyana Silva. In recognition of the gift, the Bass, which reopened this past October following a renovation, has named a gallery on its first floor the Riccardo and Tatyana Silva Gallery. The Silvas have supported the Bass in recent years, with Tatyana…
A 12-panel set of ink-brush paintings by the Chinese traditional master Qi Baishi sold on Sunday, 17 December, at Poly Auction Beijing for a record RMB931.5m ($141m). The sale, to an undisclosed Chinese buyer, is the highest auction price for a Chinese artist. Twelve Landscape Screens, painted in 1925 and measuring 1.8m by 47 cm,…
The heirs of Kurt Grawi, a Jewish investment banker who was forced to flee Berlin under the Nazis, are growing impatient with Düsseldorf over their claim for a 1913 painting of foxes by Franz Marc that hangs in the city’s Museum Kunstpalast. Grawi assembled a small art collection, most of which he was forced to…
A previously unknown Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine by the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi sold at Drouot in Paris on 19 December for an artist record of €2,360,600 (€1.850m at the hammer, against an estimate of €300,000-€400,000). The work, which dates from the same period (1614-16) as another Saint Catherine picture by the artist held…
A New York investor and art collector is ignoring pleas to return a painting looted by the Nazis, according to a lawsuit. Imre Pakh, 67, has dozens of works by renowned Hungarian artist Mihaly Munkacsy, and in 2009 launched a foundation to cement the artist’s legacy. One of the works in his collection is “Dorf…
