Beeple Hits The Jackpot!
On March 11, Christie’s sale of Beeple’s (Mike Winkelmann) Everydays: The First 5,000 Days (2021) NFT ended at a record-shattering and mind-boggling price of $69,346,250! According to the ARTnews article, Christie’s reported that among the bidders, 55 percent were based in the U.S., … More…
Winston Churchill Made All The Difference
On the evening of March 1, Christie’s presented a small sale of Modern British art which included works by Lavery, Moore, Hepworth, and Sir Winston Churchill. Taking the top spot was Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque that … More…
Man Ray, Christie’s, And Due Diligence
This week, Christie’s (Paris) offered an extensive collection of works (188 lots) by Man Ray that were in the possession of Lucien Treillard – an assistant of Man Ray. Before the sale started, the Man Ray Trust released a statement … More…
The Serial Swindler
The Inigo Philbrick art scandal (here are a couple of our earlier posts on the matter: Inigo Philbrick – More Art World Greed, Kenny Schachter Duped by Inigo Philbrick) is getting more complex. It now seems that Peter Klimt, a … More…
Christie’s White Glove Works On Paper Sale In New York
The month’s first sale took place on the 1st, and I was a little surprised by the number of lots offered – just eight. Guess that is what you might call a curated sale; actually, the works all come from … More…
Bowmore Islay and Aston Martin – A Winning Combo
The small Scottish Isle of Islay (pronounced eye-la), often referred to as the Queen of the Hebrides, is the Inner Hebrides’ southernmost island. With a friendly population of just over 3,000 people, stunning scenery, mild weather, and most notably the … More…
Freeman’s Master Paintings – One Painting Makes All The Difference!
While February has been a rather quiet one in the art market, there was a sale that took place at one of the peripheral salerooms that caught our eye. Included in the sale was an impressive painting by Carl Moll … More…
Austrian Priest With Alleged Sticky Fingers
Last May, during a routine inventory check, the custodian of a collection belonging to a Benedictine abbey in Kremsmünster, Austria, discovered that fifty objects, with a total value of approximately €300,000 ($360,780), were missing. The abbey, which dates back to … More…
Sculptor Charged With Fraud Years After Public Ridicule
Charges of fraud have been brought against Ioan Bolborea, a 65-year-old sculptor from Romania nearly ten years after his work was unveiled; and this is not the first time the work has made the news. Bolborea was commissioned to complete … More…
A Crazy Art World Conspiracy Theory
Jay Rappoport is not happy with his family’s actions and has brought a lawsuit against more than 20 individuals. In 2015, a member of the Rappoport family put an Old Master painting up at Nye & Co (a small auction … More…
Schiele Restitution
Recently, there was some good news for the heirs of Heinrich Rieger (a Jewish Viennese dentist who was killed at the Theresienstadt concentration camp located in the Czech Republic). According to an article in The Art Newspaper, [t]he German government’s … More…
A Big Payday For A Little Work
A small oil painting that had been in a collection for years, most likely from the early 1950s, possibly even longer, just had a big payday for the owners. The painting, just 12 ¼ x 9 ½ inches, was cataloged … More…
Art Expert, The Key Witness
Italian art dealer, Gabriele Seno, is appealing a suspended sentence of one year and eight months plus $4,800 in fines after being found guilty of attempting to peddle a forged work by Josef Albers for $387,000. The painting, Study for … More…
The Booming Card Market
I was hoping to find something different to write about, but I could not resist covering the two Michael Jordan 1986 Fleer Rookie Cards that just sold; both had a PSA grading of Mint Gem 10. Jordan’s 1986 Fleer Rookie … More…
Sotheby’s Master Paintings & Sculpture Just Misses
On January 28, Sotheby’s offered a small selection of paintings in their Mater Paintings & Sculpture sale. I always wonder why they have a sale of Old Master works and then throw in a few 19th-century paintings. My personal feeling … More…
Angela Is Now Awaiting Trial
Back in 2017, Angela Gulbenkian’s criminal activities in the art world surfaced … basically selling works (a Warhol and Kusama) that she did not have the authority to sell. In June of 2019, a UK court issued a warrant for … More…
Art Dealer Pardoned
We all heard that during his final days in office, Trump handed out a large number of pardons. Among the ‘lucky’ people, New York art dealer Hillel “Helly” Nahmad. You might remember that in 2013, Mr. Nahmad pled guilty to … More…
Tintin And The Auction Adventure
Georges Remi (known by the pen name Hergé) (1907-1983) was a Belgian cartoonist best known for creating the Adventures of Tintin, a comic series about a young Belgian reporter whose adventures took him all around the world. The series, which … More…
The 14th Artwork From Notorious Nazi Collection Returned
While the provenance of a vast majority of works from the Hildebrand Gurlitt collection remains unknown, the German Lost Art Foundation determined that at least 14 works had definite ties to the Nazis. The book is still open on the … More…
300 Year Old Vase = Big Payday
I have written about the surprising auction results of Chinese art objects many times, but I am still amazed at how auctioneers consistently seem to have a hard time with their valuations. A recent sale in Ireland, once again, demonstrates … More…
Wildenstein Saga Continues
In 2016, members of the Wildenstein family were accused of tax fraud – Guy Wildenstein faces charges that he hid his fortune in offshore tax havens and a demand for £475m in back taxes By early 2017, Guy Wildenstein and … More…
They Want Their Art Back!
Back in 2016, Gallery Shchukin filed a lawsuit against the Russian financier Rustaam Iseev, for the return of five paintings said to be worth $60 million. In order to avoid arrest, Iseev informed the court where the works were being … More…
The Purloined Amati
Mr. Rowland Weinstein (a California dealer) recently learned a valuable lesson … after exiting your automobile, it is always wise to lock it. It is even more advisable when you have an object worth close to $1 million in it. … More…
Update: Dark Side’s Top 3 Of 2020 – 2. Another Art Theft? This Time A Van Gogh
Original Post Another Art Theft? This Time A Van Gogh News just broke that early Monday morning, thieves smashed the front door of the Singer Laren Museum, Laren, The Netherlands, and stole Vincent van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen … More…