News & Market Round-Up of the Week that Was
Art HK could join forces with Art Basel; Obama budget proposal would cut 13.3% from cultural grantmakers and more.
黑料不打烊
Feb 14, 2011
Art Market Round-Up - Sales, lots and art fairs in the spotlight
News - What made headlines this past week
What's expected this week in the art world? Click here to find out
Auctions in the Spotlight
Warhol self-portrait sells for $17.4 million in impressive contemporary art sale
The auction houses's evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary art fetched an impressive 拢61.4 million ($99 million) - the highest London result in the category since June 2008 and well above the 拢51.8 million pre-sale high estimate. More...
Dali painting fetches record $21.5m as Bacon sizzles in London auction
An anonymous bidder paid 拢13.4 million ($21.5m) for the 1929 masterpiece; Bacon work fetches $37 million. More...
Bacon Bounces Back at Sotheby's Sale
Francis Bacon brought in $37 million for a trio of portraits of British artist Lucian Freud. The triptych sold to an unknown bidder for more than double its high estimate. Bacon's strong performance could further fuel confidence in the rebounding global art market. More...
Top lot by Gauguin fails to sell in London following Picasso success
Historic painting by French post-Impressionist was displayed for the first time in 15 years but couldn't find a buyer; On Tuesday, Sotheby鈥檚 fared much better when it came to its parallel sale鈥檚 star lot 鈥� 'La Lecture - which fetched $40.7 million (拢25 million), eclipsing its $32 million high estimate. More...
Sotheby's to hold Chinese art sale in Hong Kong
Sotheby's said Thursday it will hold a Chinese contemporary art sale in Hong Kong, an auction that could rake in almost $13 million as the city continues to draw wealthy Asian collectors. More...
The Art Market: Russians bid big in London
Russian money flowed back into the main impressionist and modern art sales at Sotheby鈥檚 and Christie鈥檚 in London this week. More...
In the spotlight this week: Contemporary London sales
Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury hold major auctions of contemporary art in the UK capital. More...
Features
Mystery Clouds Belgian Collector鈥檚 Sale of Chinese Art
Guy Ullens did not confirm or deny that Sotheby's may sell his entire Chinese collection. He went on to say that the Sotheby鈥檚 sale is unrelated with his involvement in the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. More...
Global art market bounces back from financial crisis
Sales of modern art are returning to levels seen before the global financial crisis, as collectors snap up works that have dropped in price in recent years as an investment or to decorate their homes. More...
Sotheby's accused of cover up over damaged Robert Cecil painting
Sotheby's, the auction house, has been accused of forging a document to cover up the fact that it damaged a painting of the Jacobean spymaster Robert Cecil, a senior aide to both James I and Elizabeth I. More...
German auction house blasted over Jewish-owned art sale
Concordia University and McGill University in Montreal, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem claim an old master work by Flem Alexander Adriaenssen (1587-1661) is in the possession of Lempertz Auction House in Cologne, Germany. More...
Video: France's position in the global art market
Even though the sector as a whole is growing globally, France has fallen behind. Why then is France losing ground? And how do you boost a country's position as a market place? More...
Art Market Forecast: 2011
Are the go-go days of 2007 back? Confidence among buyers and sellers is surging; this is an art market that鈥檚 definitely gotten its swagger back. More...
Art Fairs
New San Francisco Art Fair Tests West Coast Market
The budding West Coast art industry expands with artMRKT San Francisco, a new contemporary and modern art fair running May 19-22 鈥� the fair includes 65 international contemporary and modern galleries. More...
Art show for India's boldest buyers
Promoting new art remains a challenge for many Indian galleries who believe the country's art market is still nascent. Art fairs are playing a vital role in bringing foreign works to India. Now in its third year, the annual Indian Art Summit is the country's biggest such show. More...
Art Hong Kong could join forces with Art Basel
Asian fair organiser says discussions have been going on for some time but 鈥渋t's definitely not a done deal鈥� More...
Fetishes and Superheroes Join Forces at the BRAFA Fair in Brussels
For the past eight years, BRAFA has taken place at a trendy industrial Brussels site called Tour & Taxis. For this edition, the fair loosened its requirements on the antiquity of the objects shown, allowing one piece 50 years or younger in each booth. More...
Sale of the week: India鈥檚 Picasso
The 20/21 International Art Fair specialises in modern and contemporary art from around the world. London鈥檚 King鈥檚 Road Gallery will provide one of the stars of the show with an untitled work by the controversial MF Husain, the 鈥淧icasso of India鈥�, priced at 拢180,000. More...
With works ranging from the historical avant-garde to acclaimed contemporary pieces, it draws hundreds of artists, collectors, critics, curators, museum directors, academics and other members of the art-loving public, some interested in Picasso prints, others crazy about Bill Viola videos.
This week's art fairs include:
ARCO Madrid 2011
The work on view covers the historical avant-gardes, classic contemporary and emerging art. The fair is celebrating thirty years. More...
Art Madrid 2011
In this sixth edition 60 galleries will participate and will showcase works of major contemporary Spanish artists. More...
JustMad2 Contemporary Art Fair (Madrid)
JustMad will showcase dynamic and innovative galleries from around the world. More...
MARKET Art Fair 2011 (Stockholm)
For the sixth year in a row, MARKET will gather the leading Nordic galleries and artists and present a wide selection from the contemporary art world. More...
Supermarket 2011 (Stockholm)
The goal of SUPERMARKET, the international artist-run art fair, is to provide a showcase for artist initiatives from all over the world. More...
Tokyo Frontline 2011
Tokyo Frontline is a new annual international fair for contemporary art based on a new concept. More...
News - Upgrade to Open Links
Obama budget proposal would slash 13.3% from cultural grantmakers while buoying D.C. arts institutions
Obama is calling for 12.6% cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities; Museum and Library Services would take a 14.3% reduction. His budget proposal preserves or increases funding for those that have a physical presence in Washington, D.C. More...
Jasper Johns is first studio artist in 34 years to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Obama joins John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford as the only presidents who have given a medal to a painter or sculptor. More...
Bloomberg to Donate $32 Million to Arts
A year after ending a charitable program that pumped nearly $200 million into hundreds of arts and social-service organizations, the NYC Mayor is opening his multibillion-dollar family foundation to 250 cultural groups over the next two years. More...
Photographer claims Rihanna stole images in video
Pop star Rihanna's lurid and brightly colored music video "S&M" was "directly derived" from pictures taken by prominent U.S. fashion photographer David LaChapelle, he said in a lawsuit made public on Monday. More...
Unions protest against culture cuts
UK Civil servants will stage a "love-in" today in Trafalgar Square as part of a campaign to save cultural assets from the Government's cuts in public spending. The protest will be held under a banner reading: Don't Go Breaking My Art. More...
China artist cancels 'politically sensitive' show
Artist/activist Ai Weiwei cancelled his first solo exhibition in mainland China, due to start in March, after organisers told him the timing was too politically sensitive. The Beijing UCCA gallery did not want to upset authorities by exhibiting such a "sensitive" artist. More...
Art thieves steal prints by S.African William Kentridge
A couple came in to David Krut Projects gallery in Johannesburg, created a diversion and there was a sleight of hand to steal four prints by the foremost contemporary artist in South Africa. More...
Egypt says major pieces looted from famed museum
The treasures stolen from the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests include two statues of King Tut. Curators are still carrying out an inventory to determine the extent of the losses. More...
NYU Prof's Body Rejects Camera That Was Surgically Implanted in His Head
Doctors were forced to remove a titanium post between Wafaa Bilal's skin and his skull used to mount the camera, which he now carries around his neck until the wound heals. Bilal affixed the camera for a yearlong art project called the 3rdi. More...
Museum Directors slam call to sell Pollock鈥檚 Mural from University of Iowa Museum of Art collection
AAMD released a statement of alarm over the proposal to sell the painting to underwrite costs at the university. "Such a sale would violate a fundamental ethical principle of the museum field... that an accessioned work of art may not be treated as a disposable financial asset." More...
Arts Cuts Drive French Museum Directors to Pen a J'Accuse
A thousand curators of French Public Collections signed a scathing report against the France's declining public funding for museums. The report protests the "extreme free-market logic" that gradually transforms museums into small businesses. More...
Disgraced Seattle gallery owner sentenced to prison in art-theft case
Kurt Lidtke was sentenced to four years and ordered to pay $77,000 for conspiring with a professional burglar to steal art from his former clients. Lidtke planned a November 2009 burglary where a statue and 13 paintings were taken. The loss was valued at more than $190,000. More...
Al Pacino to play Henri Matisse in film
"Masterpiece," about the pioneering painter's relationship with his nurse and model Monique Bourgeois, will be directed by Deepa Mehta. No start date has yet been fixed for the project. More...
Visiting art galleries in China will soon be free
By the end of 2011, there will be no charge for Chinese citizens to enter public art galleries at state and provincial levels. By the end of 2012, all public art galleries will be free for citizens, said the Ministries of Culture and Finance. More...
LACMA, Getty to share Robert Mapplethorpe artwork
They jointly acquired 2,000 of the artist's most famous photographs. The Getty also becomes home to the Mapplethorpe archive of unique artworks, negatives, Polaroids and personal/professional correspondence. More...
Banksy-Problem/69DA56B38C75663F">Oscars Grapple With Banksy Problem
There's something unsettling about an Oscar winner trying to accept the award without revealing his identity. If Banksy isn't comfortable showing his face on the Kodak stage, then the Academy isn't comfortable having him on that stage. More...
Compiled by 黑料不打烊.com staff
