“Sotheby’s says its third quarter losses were less than a year ago because of some high-profile sales. The “hammer price” of goods sold at auction was $194m (£105m) in the summer when sales were brisk. Auction and related revenue surged 48% to $42.9m. For the quarter, it reported a consolidated net loss for continuing operations of $28.3m, compared with a loss of $29.5m a year ago.”
Tag: 11.09.04
Italy Considers Privatizing Archaeological Treasures
A plan proposed by Italian legislators would legalize private ownership of archaeological treasures. Archaeologists are horrified by the idea. “At present, all antiquities found in Italian soil are deemed to be the property of the state and are meant to be handed over to the authorities. But under the proposed legislation, treasure hunters who declare their finds can keep and own them if they pay the state 5% of the object’s estimated value. Supporters have argued that it would bring to light previously hidden treasures.”
Tiny Bubbles (But Will The Art Market Pop?)
Prices for contemporary art have soared in the past year. Collectors are paying huge prices for art that only a few years ago was inexpensive. “Bubble? Did someone say bubble? In talking to over a dozen contemporary art world leaders, I heard wildly differing opinions as to whether one exists. Not everyone sees imminent danger, particularly those sellers currently managing the enviable problems of swelling client waiting lists and packed auction houses. From where I sit, though, a bubble looks real. When will it pop? Who knows?”
Mark Morris, A Life
Choreographer Mark Morris’ career has had a remarkable trajectory. ” I am doing exactly what I want, which I love. It’s way bigger than I thought it would be. I have much more presence and influence than I ever imagined I would. But, don’t worry. I’m not planning on world domination or anything like that. There is too much competition there. There are too many Americans who already have that goal.”
Cycling Beats Tate In UK Lottery Affections
Which of the UK’s National Lottery projects has made the biggest impact on the public? “In a rare examination of public views on how lottery money should be spent, the £43.5m national cycle network – said to have saved 38m car journeys – was picked as the project which had made the biggest overall impact on UK life during the first decade of lottery funding. It beat Tate Modern and the Eden Project, the Cornish greenhouse complex, for its section of the national lottery day’s “helping hand” awards.”
Manchester To Launch Big New Festival
The city of Manchester is launching a new summer festival to rival the Edinburgh Festival. “The new endeavour will take over the city for three weeks of July every other year, starting in 2007. The festival will have a budget of £5m – compared with Edinburgh’s £7.2m – and its artistic director is to be Alex Poots, currently head of contemporary arts at English National Opera.”
Jazz’s Next Big Diva?
Twenty-three-year-old singer Gwyneth Herbet is the hottest young thing in UK jazz. “In only 18 months, Herbert has gone from trying to persuade landlords to turn off the telly and let her sing in their pubs, to rehearsing for the concert she’s giving at the Queen Elizabeth Hall to open the London Jazz Festival on Tuesday. Not long ago she was lucky if she could get someone with influence in the music world merely to agree to listen to her demo tape. Now she can count princes and pop legends among her admirers.”
A Record Auction Of Photographs
An auction of contemporary photography cleared $9.2 million Monday night, including a record $600,000 for a photograph – Barbara Kruger’s “I Shop Therefore I Am.” “This was a historical sale for a market born in the 80’s that came to age in the 90’s.”
The Whitney’s New Expansion Plan
The Whitney Museum has proposed expanding in the past, but the timing (or building design) hasn’t seemed right. “Now the Whitney is trying a gentler approach. A new design by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, approved last week by the museum’s board, is conceived as a stoical nine-story tower that would rise alongside the existing 1966 landmark. The tower’s simple form and silvery copper-and-aluminum-alloy skin would be a dignified counterpoint to Marcel Breuer’s brutal dark granite masterpiece.”
Can Contemporary Chinese Art Avoid Selling Out?
Contemporary Chinese art is hot right now. “For a country that has virtually no contemporary art history, where artists’ training is dominated by an ultra-traditional grounding in Chinese painting techniques, where the first clues as to what was happening in the postmodern western art world trickled through as recently as the late 1980s, the scene has mushroomed and transmuted with staggering velocity, artists running through mini-movements (political pop art, the much discussed trend for body art in the mid-1990s, through to a strong focus today on installation, film and video) with alarming speed.”