Art Market Winter 2015

1. NEW YORK.- According to the New York Times, a painting by Paul Gauguin of two Tahitian girls has broken the record for the world's most expensive single work of art, after Qatar bought the canvas from a Swiss collector for almost $300 million dollars. Oil-rich Qatar has acquired many Western works of art in recent years, including modern pieces by Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst.
More Information:

http://artdaily.com/?date=02%2F07%2F2015&bfd=0 Copyright © artdaily.org

 

2. Does the art market need regulation? Denunciations of the art market are a dime a dozen, the bogeymen equally manifold: speculative collectors, corrupt dealers, artists enlisted to mint an alternative currency for global circulation. But when one of the world’s most high-profile economists calls for the art market’s regulation, as Nouriel Roubini did last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, people tend to listen. Speaking at a lunch event hosted by the weekend edition of the Financial Times, Roubini denounced the use of art “for tax avoidance and evasion.” “While art looks as if it is all about beauty, as a business it is full of shady stuff,” Roubini, who is an art collector himself, said.
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1077893/does-the-art-market-need-regulation?utm_source=BLOUIN+ARTINFO+Newsletters&utm_campaign=66e89ebfef-Daily+Digest+2.3.2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_df23dbd3c6-66e89ebfef-83005727

3. LONDON (AFP).- Sotheby's on Friday won its legal battle with a man who claimed the auction house negligently led him to undersell a painting acquired by an expert who later declared it to be a Caravaggio. Lancelot William Thwaytes sold the painting, known as "The Cardsharps", to the partner of renowned collector Denis Mahon at a London auction in 2006 for £42,000 ($63,700, 55,000 euros) after Sotheby's billed it as being the work of a "follower" of the Italian Renaissance master.
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/75791/Sotheby-s-wins-UK-court-battle-over-disputed-Caravaggio-painting--The-Cardsharps-#.VN5nLfnF9CY[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

4. DALLAS, TX.- SMU’s National Center for Arts Research today released its first annual Arts Vibrancy Index. The index ranks more than 900 communities across the country. Vibrancy is

measured as the level of supply, demand and government support for arts and culture on a per capita basis. The report highlights the top 20 large markets and top 20 medium and small markets. NCAR provides rank scores on all measures for every U.S. county on its website.
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/75954/SMU-s-National-Center-for-Arts-Research-creates-index-measuring-arts-vibrancy-of-nation-s-metropolitan-areas#.VN5bafnF9CY[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

5. The magnificent Jane Bown, the Observer's veteran and legendary photographer who recently said: "I spent my whole life worrying about time and light," has died just four months short of her 90th birthday. The Observer editor, John Mulholland, called her "part of the Observer's DNA". More Information: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/21/observer-photographer-jane-bown-dies-age-89

6. KABUL - The play was meant to be an abstract, artistic meditation on violence, performed in the French Cultural Center for an audience of high school students and invited guests. It was called "Heartbeat: The Silence After the Explosion". Partway through the production, ominous music surged and half a dozen actors collapsed slowly on the stage, moaning faintly and calling to each other. Sounds of an explosion and shattering glass tore through the theater, followed by a brief silence. More Information: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bombings-threaten-kabuls-nascent-civic-and-cultural-life/2014/12/22/0aaa8d0a-86f6-11e4-abcf-5a3d7b3b20b8_story.html

7. SAUDI ARABIA.- Art hit the streets of Saudi Arabia as Out-of-Home company Al Arabia launched what is billed as "the biggest art gallery ever seen in the Kingdom" on 22 December. The campaign, whose creative and digital legs were handled by JWT Riyadh, sought to find undiscovered artists in the Kingdom and bring their work to the people, through giant outdoor sites. The outdoor billboards were turned into framed pieces of art. More Information: http://campaignme.com/2014/12/24/16622/art-reaches-people-saudi-arabia-ooh/14.

8. John Singer Sargent's infamous portrait scandalized late-19th Century Paris. But who was the woman in the painting? Jason Farago investigates. More Information: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141222-who-was-the-mysterious-madame-x15.

9.The wife of photographer Jean-Franois Bauret has accused Jeff Koonsof copying one of her husband's works for the sculpture "Naked" (1988). Bauret died in January 2014 and was particularly known for his nudes. More Information: http://news.artnet.com/market/second-plagiarism-claim-against-jeff-koons-in-two-weeks-208930

10. Marina Picasso will privately sell off at least seven of her grandfather's works dating from 1905 to 1965, totaling around $290 million Ñ including $60 million each for "Portrait de femme (Olga)" and "Femme a la Mandoline (Mademoiselle Leonie assie)". She has also put Picasso's Cannes villa "La Californie" on the market. Such divestments can't help but feel connected to her fraught relationship with the artist ("He drove everyone who got near him to despair and engulfed them," reads her 2001 memoir), but so far, no concrete statements have been made to that effect. More Information: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1071207/marina-picassos-290m-sale-ny-museums-study-diversity-and-more?utm_source=BLOUIN+ARTINFO+Newsletters&utm_campaign=1727b9e8b6-Daily+Digest+1.5.2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_df23dbd3c6-1727b9e8b6-83005727

11. LONDON.- Over four million images from endangered archives all over the world are now available online as the Endangered Archives Programme, a pioneering initiative from the British Library supported by the Arcadia Fund, reaches its 10th birthday and publishes a new open access title From Dust to Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/76541/From-dust-to-digital--Millions-of-images-from-the-world-s-endangered-archives-made-available-#.VPo8YlPF9oE[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

12. ROME (AFP).- Cash-strapped authorities in Rome are to auction off four Mussolini-era public buildings to fund the completion of a long-delayed but eagerly-awaited new conference centre by acclaimed architect Massimiliano Fuksas. Three museums and a building currently housing state archives will be advertised shortly with the hope of completing the sell-off by the end of the year, said a spokesman for EUR Spa, the state body which currently owns the buildings in the EUR district of the capital. "We are hoping to raise at least 300 million euros ($330 million)," the spokesman told AFP. The company, which owns most of the major buildings in the district, is owned 90 percent by the ministry of finance, 10 percent by the City of Rome. Some of the funds raised will go to clearing debts and some to completing a groundbreaking glass, steel and teflon construction that has been dubbed "Fuksas's cloud" by the Italian press. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/76564/Italy-sells-off-Mussolini-buildings-to-fund-Fuksas-s-cloud#.VPo8h1PF9oE[/url]

Copyright © artdaily.org