Shocking … More Than Half Are No Good!
I am blown away by this one. According to recent reports, more than half of the paintings in the Terrus Museum, a state-owned French museum in Elne, are fake. Now, maybe I could understand if one or two forgeries slipped … More…
The 19th Century Middle East – Hot, Hot Hot!
This week Sotheby’s presented a small selection of 19th century Orientalist works, and the results were impressive. Taking the top spot was Edwin Lord Weeks’s Rabat (The Red Gate) which brought £573K ($799K – est. £200-300K). In second was Paul … More…
Drama At The Upper Levels Of The Art Market
According to a number of recent articles, contemporary art collector Steve Tananbaum has filed suit against Gagosian Gallery and Jeff Koons for failing to deliver 3 of the artist’s sculptures. As of now, Tananbaum has ponied up about $13 million … More…
Christie’s 19th Century – A Slight Improvement
The auction action in New York started this week with the 19th century sale at Christie’s … so let’s jump in. Taking the top two spots were works by William Bouguereau. His Admiration maternelle – le bain carried an $800-$1.2M … More…
More Museum Works Hit The Market
There have been many recent articles about the Berkshire’s and La Salle University’s decision to sell works for the wrong reasons. Well, the Baltimore Museum of Art’s recent press release highlights one of the right reasons … to strengthen a … More…
Judy Tucker – Art Restorer & Angry Racist Old Fart
While this is not really an ‘art related’ story, it is something that still plagues our society … racism … and in this instance, it does have an ‘art’ connection. It appears (I say appears because all I have read … More…
How To Burn Your Money In The Art World
A number of years ago, close friends called and ask if Amy & I could come over and help them hang the “original” painting they just purchased while on their holiday cruise. We hung up the phone and all I … More…
George Lucas, Norman Rockwell & The Berkshire Museum
When it was first announced that the Berkshire Museum’s ‘‘Shuffleton’s Barbershop’’ (by Norman Rockwell) was going to be sold to another museum many people, including myself, figured it might be heading for Crystal Bridges. Well, today we found out that … More…
Sad News
We received a phone call, early this morning, informing us that the victim of the fire at Trump Tower, Todd Brassner, was the brother of Howard Brassner – a friend and fellow art dealer. Our thoughts and prayers go out … More…
It Is Time To Take A Tough Stand
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act, first passed in 1935 and revised in 1990, made misrepresenting retail arts and craft items as Native American, when in fact they were not a federal crime. For a first time violation of the … More…
Nagy Loses In Court
Back in 2015, two Nazi looted drawings by Egon Schiele turned up in London dealer Richard Nagy’s booth at a New York show (estimated value was about $5M). Papers were filed on November 16, 2015 to recover the works. After … More…
It’s Finally Over – Berkshire Museum Can Sell
Justice David Lowy has ruled that the Berkshire Museum can move forward with the planned sale of up to 40 works of art. Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop will be sold to another museum and then the Berkshire can sell additional … More…
Leonardo or Boltraffio? Guess The National Gallery (London) Did Not Care, They Just Wanted It.
Here is a troubling story. According to Martin Bailey’s article in The Art Newspaper: A leading Leonardo da Vinci scholar, Martin Kemp, has stated that London’s National Gallery altered the attribution of a “Leonardo” it was borrowing, in order to … More…
Regardless Of Its Value, It’s A Nice Find!
When I first read this story I thought … WOW, someone hit it big! Then I started to do a little research and discovered that the value might be a little bit over the top. Regardless of what it is … More…
My 2 Cents On Museum Deaccessions
The decisions by the Berkshire Museum and La Salle University to sell off most of their major works of art for financial reasons has caused a real uproar. While I am a firm believer that museums should not sell their … More…
Comments on the Art Market – Volume 208
Our most recent edition has just been released. In this month’s edition we cover A Collector’s Passion For The 19th Century, our upcoming exhibit “Imagine” opens on the 28th, Stocks, The Dark Side of the Art World, Really (interesting stories … More…