AVAILABLE: Louis-Joseph Courtat’s “Le Réveil de Vénus” (The Awakening of Venus)
We recently posted to our available online inventory one of the most important paintings by the 19th century French artist Louis-Joseph Courtat to have ever appeared on the market – Le Réveil de Vénus (The Awakening of Venus) … painted and then … More…
Rybolovlev vs Bouvier … And Now Sotheby’s!
There is a new twist in the case between Rybolovlev and Bouvier. According to Steve Bird’s article in The Telegraph, Lawyers for Sotheby’s are preparing for Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian fertiliser and potash salesman, to use the British courts to … More…
Cracking Down On Stolen Antiquities
The Antiquities Trafficking Unit, recently formed by the New York District Attorney, is moving along at a brisk pace. Earlier this month, the team seized 6 artifacts from Phoenix Ancient Art (valued at $450K) and another 10 objects from collector … More…
Guess They Did Not Like The Numbers!
After Clare McAndrew jumped ship, moving over to Art Basel, TEFAF hired Rachel Pownall to produce their 2016 report on the health of the art market. Pownall’s numbers were very different from McAndrew’s … she actually revised downward the McAndrew’s … More…
What to say when lightning strikes twice…
“I was shocked.” That’s what the foundry owner said when he learned that a 7 ½ foot tall sculpture went missing from his shop. The work, Athena, by German Neo-Expressionist artist Markus Lüpertz, is a brightly painted bronze weighing over … More…
Van Gogh’s Missing Link!
It was just reported that a ‘new’ drawing has been added to the Van Gogh oeuvre. According to an article in The New York Times the drawing, The Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry (which dates from 1886 – the year … More…
Sexual Harassment Allegations Surface Across The Pond
An article in today’s Guardian, by Ben Quinn and Cristina Ruiz, covers the sexual harassment allegations against one of Britain’s most important contemporary art dealers … 78 year old Anthony d’Offay. According to the report, the ‘inappropriate behavior’ began in 1997 and D’Offay … More…
One Out Of Twenty One Ain’t Bad … Right?
Last year it was reported that an exhibition of paintings by Modigliani at Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale included a number of dubious works. Now, the experts have provided proof that all but one of the paintings are forgeries. According to an article … More…
You’ve Got A Leonardo, And You’ve Got A Leonardo, We All Have A Leonardo!
Really? This is a Leonardo? I need to go back for some more art history lessons. I cannot wait to see how many more people claim to have a Leonardo! I am digging through our inventory bins right now!! Source: A … More…
Some People Will Need To Pay Up
After 50 years, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be changing its admission policy. Their current pay what you like policy does not seem to be working out, so now they will charge $25 for visitors who do not live … More…
Gutting A Collection To Pay The Bills
It was just announced that the trustees of La Salle University have decided to sell off 46 works of art from their collection to help fund “teaching and learning initiatives”. As you can guess, this has set off a firestorm … More…
We Are Getting Out Of Control
I really do not know what to say about this. It was recently reported that a teacher in Utah took a set of postcards, featuring works of art, from the school library and passed them around their elementary school classroom. … More…
The Chinese Have a Voracious Appetite … and Not For Food!
It appears that the Chinese are now becoming one of the largest acquirers of art and certain antiques (Chinese antiques that is). There are paying record prices and spending billions upon billions. If they keep up the current pace, 2018 … More…
The Dark Side: Ezra Chowaiki continued…
In Volume 204 of our Comments on the Art Market, we briefly covered the charges brought against art dealer, Ezra Chowaiki. Since then, more information has come to light regarding the now bankrupt art gallery and its crooked dealer. The … More…
A Tangled Web – Rybolovlev, Bouvier & Sotheby’s
Stephanie Baker and Hugo Miller give us more insight into the ongoing legal battle between Rybolovlev & Bouvier. Now, according to Rybolovlev’s lawyers, there was another big player involved — Sotheby’s vice chairman of private sales — Samuel Valette. It … More…
Will They Cash In?
Even though Christie’s claimed that Salvator Mundi was the last da Vinci in private hands, it appears that there are at least two, and maybe three, more: The Madonna of the Yarnwinder, which is on view at the National Galleries of Scotland; The … More…