Category: visual

“They tend to start by collecting art of their own nations, whether Middle Eastern, Russian or Chinese. But – perhaps as their own businesses become global businesses – their predilections shift towards contemporary art.”

Two designs won an international competition to create new water fountains for London’s eight royal parks: “Trumpet, a slender bronze by Ben Addy intended to be cast in one piece at a traditional bell foundry, and Watering Holes, a pierced Cornish granite standing stone created by Rome-born Robin Monotti and Mark Titman.”

“Of the approximately 750 oil portraits that grace the libraries, dining commons, and undergraduate residences of the nation’s oldest university, roughly 690 were of white men, as of a 2002 inventory by the curator of the university’s portrait collection.”

“Artwork deemed ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis and believed to have been destroyed has been unearthed during construction near Berlin’s city hall and is going on display.”

“UK national museums, including the British Museum and the National Gallery, have found it difficult to access over £50m donated by philanthropists, because of Treasury regulations. These are funds from donations and bequests which went into museums’ financial reserves and later fell under government control.”

“The numbers can leave no one in doubt about the buyers’ readiness to part with cash. Between them, Sotheby’s and Christie’s sold close to half a billion dollars worth of paintings, drawings and sculptures.”

“Dating from around 1871-1873, the work” – Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents (“Laundry Women with Toothache”) – “was stored in 1960 at the Havre Museum in Normandy, from where it was stolen in 1973.”

David Franklin “comes from a place where museums are funded almost entirely by the federal government. In the same way that tax dollars foot the bill for national health care in Canada, they also pay for museums. In Cleveland, and all over the United States, the arts are funded almost exclusively by private money.”

“It is worth considering how the Italian state orchestrated a major campaign to obtain works that are now in less committed and less organised environments than before. Considering the universality of these items [belonging to humanity], wouldn’t it have been better to leave them in the museums where they were?”

“The superdealer Larry Gagosian won the sculpture for $48.8 million, a record for the artist and well above its $35 million high estimate.”