Category: visual

Russian heirs of the pioneering abstract artist Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) have decided to sell a painting estimated to be worth £13 million at Phillips, the London auction house which has long stood in the shadow of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. – ArtNewsroom.com

All well and good to talk about tracking down provenance of a work of art – of course it’s the right thing to do. But actually doing it and making it stick isn’t always so easy. – Boston Globe

After more than four years without a major show, Damien Hirst – the “original enfant terrible” of the contemporary British art scene, whose shark in formaldehyde stirred up controversy at the Brooklyn Art Museum – is back with a new batch of work, and it’s just as theatrical and button-pushing as ever. “You get people to think one thing, and then you come round from another direction.” – The Guardian

East London’s Hoxton neighborhood is quickly acquiring “status as the new center of the capital’s contemporary art market.” More than 30 new galleries have popped up there in the last few years, including the White Cube2, which opens later this week with its inaugural show, “Out There.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Last chance, says a Boston developer, to do something dramatic with a piece of the city’s waterfront. “One scenario features a dramatic structure resembling the Sydney Opera House, surrounded by green space on 4.6 acres on choice waterfront property. A second would involve a smaller civic building being built near the Federal Court House on a two-thirds acre plot.” – Boston Herald

A Los Angeles artist, stopped from painting a 12-story Statue of Liberty mural on a  building because he didn’t have the required permit, draped a 24-foot black banner with the word “CENSORED” across Liberty’s face. – Los Angeles Daily News

Efforts by the Art Loss Register to repatriate Nazi-confiscated artworks to their rightful owners have been stymied by a little-known German tax code. “We certainly have the impression that there exists a willingness to return property to its legal owners,” says the Register’s director Sara Jackson. “However, it is unclear to us how this willingness corresponds with a German law that went into effect in 1988.” – Haaretz (Israel)

Hirst’s new work “Hymn” is at the center of a new plagiarism controversy. The sculpture – a 20-foot replica of a children’s anatomy kit – was bought for an alleged $1.5 million by gallery owner Charles Saatchi, yet no one has yet to see the work in person. – NPR

By some estimates, there are currently some 20,000 Web sites involved in selling art, and more are on the way. “Marketing experts say these sites will permanently alter the way art is sold and radically expand the market. Whether the sudden flood of art sites is truly the dawn of a new era bringing riches to sellers and creators of art or just a shift down-market disguised as technological progress, only time will tell.” – Washington Post

Five years ago, a derelict power station on the south bank of the Thames fit right into its desolate surroundings. Now, £135 million later, the building has been transformed to house the new Tate Modern, one of the great modern art collections in the world. – The Sunday Telegraph (UK)