Category: visual

Canada’s art auction houses had a banner year in 2005, with CAN$46 million in combined profit brought in from sales of Canadian art. “This was almost a 40 per cent jump over last year’s total, and affirmation that the boom in the resale art market that started in the mid-1990s is still going strong, with no ‘market correction’ seeming to loom in the foreseeable future. As usual, it was the painters of wood and water, mountain and sky, horse and sleigh who commanded the highest prices. Yes, more collectors are buying more works by post-Second World War artists — but in most instances the prices paid for a substantial Jack Bush, Michael Snow, Paul-Emile Borduas or Greg Curnoe are less than what these artists may have received when their works were first sold on the primary market.”

Italy is negotiating with American museums over artifacts that may have been stolen. “The strategy is part of a broader offensive to crack down on stolen antiquities. Italy has gained additional clout – at least in terms of public awareness – from the current criminal trial of Marion True, a former curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and of antiquities dealers with ties to top American museums. There has been a real change in the last year or so in how the Italians deal with the antiquities issue. They have become very creative.”

A Picasso and a Chagall have been stolen from a Palm Desert gallery. The Picasso, “Femme Regardant par la Fenetre,” is a 1959 linoleum cut in shades of brown and black of a nude woman reclining and looking out a window, printed by the artist and worth about $53,000. The Chagall, a 1964 lithograph titled “The Tribe of Dan,” is a multicolored religious work in blues, yellows and reds, also printed by the artist. It illustrates one of a series of 12 stained glass windows Chagall made for an Israeli university, and is worth about $35,000.

From the outside, New York’s Berry-Hill Gallery looks prosperous. “But two weeks ago, Berry-Hill filed for bankruptcy in federal court, listing more than 100 creditors, debts ranging as high as $50 million and assets of $50 million to $100 million. And its directors, James and Frederick D. Hill, are at the center of a scandal that has been the focus of whispers in the art world since an ill-fated auction at Christie’s in May.”

The Yakut Gallery – 100-square metres large – is “located in an early 20th-century factory behind the Kursky train station in the centre of Moscow. To reach it, visitors must first pass by scowling Soviet-style guards and then walk down a decrepit path, past dilapidated buildings, to get to the cylindrical red-brick gallery, which was built as a natural-gas cistern 100 years ago. This stands in sharp contrast to most Moscow galleries, which are located in upmarket neighbourhoods. None of this seems to bother art collectors in Moscow. In fact, they seem to positively enjoy the poverty of the area.”

Plans have been announced for a massive new “$550 million Great Egyptian Museum, to be established near the Pyramids near Cairo. It will be among the world’s largest museums, and is by far the biggest to be built from scratch. The venture is expected to attract up to five million visitors a year, slightly more than the British Museum in London, which is the world leader. There will be some 100,000 Egyptian artefacts on show (compared with the British Museum’s 80,000 displayed objects, covering all major cultures).”

The Tate paid a lawyer for return of two stolen Turner paintings two years ago after previously denying it had paid the money. “Now the museum is admitting that it paid a German lawyer who claimed to be in contact with holders of the paintings, but it says the 3.1 million pounds was given in return for ‘information.’ However, it admits the possibility the money was passed on to thieves as ‘an unavoidable and inevitable consequence of recovery operations of this nature’.”

“A painting titled Muenchen, (Munich) bearing the signature of the Nazi dictator and described by the seller as a “rarity”, was put up for auction on Monday at an asking price of €2,100 (roughly $2,900) on eBay.at.”

Boston’s Children’s Museum is about to begin construction of a $45 million expansion. “With the announcement, the Children’s Museum joins an unprecedented cultural building boom in Boston. Other projects include the Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Museum of Science, and a pair of museums slated for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The closest in proximity to the Children’s Museum is the Institute of Contemporary Art, set to open on nearby Fan Pier in September.”

Christie’s maintains its three-dominance as the leading auction house in France. “Christie’s, the biggest art seller, had French sales of 115 million euros ($138 million) in 2005, up 33 percent from 86.4 million euros last year. It is now selling 2.6 times more art in France than Sotheby’s Holdings Inc., the No.2 auction house.”