Category: visual

“Saatchi has clearly spent a small fortune – one which he refuses to put a figure on publicly – and has been involved in all aspects of the building and the art in it. He was there yesterday despite the presence of so many of the types he normally tries to avoid: journalists. But exactly where, was another question.”

“The tower, at the centre of the Nakheel port and harbour complex, is to be “over one kilometre” high and have more than 200 floors, beating its nearest rival, the existing Burj Dubai tower, still under construction and due to rise to a mere 818 metres.”

“Sotheby’s shares dropped $2.38, or 14 percent, to $14.64 as of 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. While the shares recovered at the end of the day with the rest of the market, they remain at their lowest since July 2005.”

“A net balance of 34 percent more auctioneers and valuers reported prices falling for items estimated at 1,000 pounds and below in the quarterly survey completed last month. By contrast, a balance of 39 percent reported that prices rose for more expensive works of 50,000 pounds and higher as wealthy people snapped up trophy art. Contemporary art registered the strongest growth, with 41 percent more surveyors reporting increased prices.”

Three years ago John and Marcia Friede had promised to give San Francisco’s deYoung Museum “their entire 4,000-piece collection of tribal art from New Guinea, generally regarded as the best of its kind in private hands. The museum built an 8,000-square-foot wing to display the Friede collection and helped publish a lavish two-volume catalog of the works. Today the gift is in doubt, and many wonder whether the collection will remain intact.”

Discovery of a “collection of rock art recording life in the area for the past 15,000 years, up until 50 years ago” contradicts “the widely held assumption that the continent was isolated and largely unvisited until the First Fleet arrived in 1788. The paintings suggest that, on the contrary, the people of northern Australia have been interacting with seafaring visitors from Asia and Europe for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years.”

Buyers shunned the priciest lots and chose cheaper paintings and sculptures at Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction, Asia’s biggest art sale since the credit crisis grew last month.

An art collector is suing Sotheby’s claiming that “the world’s largest publicly traded auction house of ‘a custom of deception’ by concealing its financial interest in property it sells.”

“Artists Christo and Jeanne- Claude conceived the idea of suspending huge swathes of fabric over a river back in 1992. They scouted dozens of Western locations before settling on a mountainous stretch of the Arkansas River, a southern Colorado playground for whitewater rafters in view of old U.S. 50. The couple, both 73, are still waiting for a Bureau of Land Management permit to install their ‘Over the River’ project.”

“Nuit Blanche is a free city-wide exploration of living art that takes place from dusk Saturday night to dawn Sunday morning. The 2007 version drew more than 750,000 people, congesting Toronto streets and leading to long lines for some events.”