Another Divisive Raphael Attribution
It seems like everyone’s claiming they have an original Raphael these days. With the ongoing debates over the De Brécy Tondo coming back into the news recently, another group of researchers claimed that a Mary Magdalene portrait currently in a … More…
Caravaggio: Master Of Darkness
Earlier in the year, I wrote a piece on the British landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and his impact on modern art. Turner was known as a technical innovator, applying watercolor techniques to the medium of oil painting, achieving colors and … More…
Phillips London Evening & Day Editions
Starting on Thursday, September 21st, and continuing into the next day, Phillips London held a two-day modern and contemporary art extravaganza for their Evening and Day Editions. The two-part sale featured two hundred seventy-nine lots by twentieth- and twenty-first-century masters … More…
Arc de Triomphe, Recycled
Around two years ago, the final work by the environmental artist Christo Javacheff was completed in Paris when a team completely wrapped the Arc de Triomphe in blue-silver fabric. The project had been several decades in the making, ever since … More…
Bouquinistes: Guardians Of The Literary Treasures Of Paris
Well, folks, hold onto your berets because there’s a real showdown happening in the City of Light. The bouquinistes of Paris, those green-clad guardians of literary treasures, have found themselves in quite the pickle thanks to the 2024 Olympics. The … More…
Money For Nothing: Artist Ordered To Pay For Stunt
Nearly two years ago, the Danish conceptual artist Jens Haaning made headlines as the Kunsten Museum in Aalborg unveiled his newest works: two blank canvases. It was reported at the time that he originally promised to recreate one of his … More…
Bob Ross’s First On-Air Painting For Sale
As far as great artists go, many throughout the last hundred years have been incredibly creative, technically innovative, and well-respected within the art world. However, most of them are nowhere near close to being household names than painter and art … More…
Nazi-Looted Schiele Works Seized
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has been rather busy as of late. Several weeks ago, they confiscated an ancient Roman sculpture from the Cleveland Museum of Art believed to have been looted from an archaeological site in Turkey. And now, … More…
Lost Old Master Confirmed: Guercino’s Moses
Last November, I wrote with some surprise that a lost Old Master painting may have been found at a Paris auction house. Those suspicions have more or less been confirmed. In November 2022, at the Paris auction house Chayette & … More…
Freddie Mercury Rocked The Auction World
I wanted to briefly update you on the sale that ROCKED the auction world! The six-series auction of Freddie Mercury’s personal items managed to defy all expectations by generating an astonishing £39.9 million ($50.4 million). This astronomical figure vastly surpassed … More…
Stolen Van Gogh Found
Two months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern, one of the most recent major art thefts of note took place. On March 30, 2020, a lone thief broke into the Springer Laren … More…
Art History Myths: Broken Down
Myths, stories, and apocrypha have always surrounded art and artists. Some start with a grain of truth, while others are just made up entirely. Here is just a short collection of some of my favorites… What is The Scream? Edvard … More…
Raphael Attribution Causes AI Battle
Some months ago, I wrote about how a pair of British scientists used a facial recognition AI program to positively attribute a Madonna and Child painting to the Italian Renaissance master Raphael Sanzio. While this gained an incredible amount of … More…
New Dalí Museum
Salvador Dalí already has a museum dedicated to him. The Dalí Theater and Museum is located in the Catalonian town of Figueres, his hometown about 70 miles northeast of Barcelona, close to the border with France. It was originally the … More…
Picassos Or Pikachus: Fakes Seized In Spain
Art forgery is one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in Spain. The Spanish government takes the country’s national heritage and culture very seriously, so reports of police seizing forgeries are far more frequent. This past April, I wrote about … More…
Bonhams London 19th Century
On Wednesday, September 27th, Bonhams’ location on New Bond Street in London hosted one of its 19th Century and British Impressionist sales, featuring one hundred nine lots by artists like Edward Seago, Archibald Thorburn, and Edward Lear, among many others. … More…