Thursday, November 12, 2015

Folk Art Fall 2015



Crayon and Pencil on Paper
23" X 30"
c. 1990
Simon Tookoome
Judith and Patric Blackburn Collection


Crayon and Pencil on Paper
18 1/2" X 22 1/2"
Sammy Landers
Arlansas




"Truck To Hell"
Painted Wood and Plastic Sculpture
8 1/2" X 12 3/4"
Ronald Cooper







Tin Mask
Ht. 15 1/2"
Jerry Coker



 "Catchin Mudbugs"
Oil on Panel
Ht. 23 3/4" W. 29 1/4"
Scooter Orsburn
Arkansas




"Santa Claus"
Paint on Wood
27.5" X 9.5"
Howard Finster
Number 5,258 May 5, 1996





"Old Glory
Tar and Paint on Wood Panel
21" X 20 1/2"
Ken Gentle (Blacktop)
Alabama







"Usury Beast"
Painting on Cabinet Door
28" X 19"
Jim Gary Phillips
 


Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Photos from Around The World Fall 2015


Camel Races - Oman




Frost on a Romanian Village



Beginning of a Bad Day



Papua New Guinea Warriora



Heavy Metal Musician - Changes in the Arab World


Namibian Desert by Moonlight with the Milky Way Galaxy

 

October 2015 - Newsletter of the Committee for Cultural Policy

This month's newsletter brings you an eye-opening report debunking the ivory/terrorism financing myth, articles on the first-ever prosecution of cultural destruction as a war crime at the ICC, an amazingly rich tomb and underwater discoveries in Greece, seizures in France of a Picasso and in the US of cuneiform tablets, museum exhibitions and a highly successful teaching tool using art objects, a major statement by the AAMD on safe harbor for antiquities, an extended summary of the Conflict Antiquities event at the Metropolitan Museum, and for a little relief from the seriousness of it all, pigs rooting out archaeological evidence and a transformation of Lenin into Darth Vader!
Lest you forget – the end of year window for making a tax-deductible donation to the Committee for Cultural Policy will soon close. Please make a generous contribution and continue to make our educational work possible in the coming year!
Please send your check to the Committee for Cultural Policy, Box 4881, Santa Fe, NM 87502 or contact us at info@committeeforculturalpolicy.org to find out more!


For this issue go to:

http://committeeforculturalpolicy.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/r/501FD9F8A5A959C32540EF23F30FEDED/5CA334835B619E6C62AF25ACF5E3F0AC


AAMD Issues Safe Haven Protocols for Art from Countries in Crisis

 The Truth About Ivory and Terrorism

 Metropolitan Museum Event: Conflict Antiquities, Panel 1

 Metropolitan Museum Event: Conflict Antiquities, Panel 2

 First Ever Prosecution of Cultural Destruction as a War Crime

 ISIL Blows up Prisoners and Palmyra Columns

 Exceptionally Rich Mycenaean Tomb Discovered at Pylos

 22 Shipwrecks Found in Greek Waters

 After Years of Delay, Pompeii Rushes to Spend Millions of Euros

 Botín Speaks Out Against Seizure of Picasso

 Customs Detains Ancient Tablets for Hobby Lobby

 The Huge History Lesson & Teaching History with 100 Objects

 Pigs Root Out Ancient Hunter-Gatherers

Darth Vader Supersedes Lenin in Ukraine



Contact the Committee for Cultural Policy

The Committee for Cultural Policy

Box 4881 Santa Fe, NM 87502

917.546.6724 | info@committeeforculturalpolicy.org

Committee for Cultural Policy is a U.S. non-profit educational organization.

Museums Fall 2015


1. LONDON (AFP).- Spanish painter Francisco de Goya's stark portrayals of Spanish aristocrats, intellectuals and fellow artists in a major new exhibition at the National Gallery in London aims to show him as "the best ever portrait artist". The exhibition, which opens on Wednesday, brings together from around the world around 70 portraits by the celebrated artist who lived between 1746 and 1828.The works make up almost half of the 150 Goya portraits that still survive today, and account for a third of his total known output. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/81996/More-than-60-of-Goya-s-most-outstanding-portraits-on-view-at-the-National-Gallery--London#.VhbUK_lVikp


2. BASEL A riot of color roars in Miami to usher in Art Basel season as the exhibition Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann opens October 10 at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, the Smithsonian affiliate in Miami (on view through January 3). This exhibition is the first-ever to showcase a vital aspect of the mid-century Modern Master's art, his large-scale public mural
projects. More Information:http://www.broadwayworld.com/miami/article/A-Riot-of-Color-Roars-to-Usher-in-Art-Basel-Season-20151003


3. LOS ANGELES, CA.- The first major exhibition in the United States and the first comprehensive English-language catalogue on celebrated Japanese photographer Ishiuchi Miyako (born Fujikura Yōko in 1947) showcases the artist’s prolific, groundbreaking career and offer new scholarship on her
personal background, her process, and her place in the history of Japanese photography.More Information:http://artdaily.com/news/81977/First-major-exhibition-in-the-United-States-of-the-work-of-Ishiuchi-Miyako-opens-at-the-Getty#.VhbU2flViko


4. MANCHESTER, NH.- Susan Strickler, who has guided the Currier Museum as director and CEO since 1996, has announced her retirement as of June 2016. Upon her retirement, Strickler’s tenure as Director will be the longest in the Currier’s 86-year history. Her visionary guidance converted the
once-small museum to one of regional and national renown.More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/81982/Susan-Strickler--Currier-Museum-of-Art-director-and-CEO-since-1996--to-retire-in-June-2016#.VhbdS_lViko


5. BOLOGNA.- The Museo Civico Archeologico is hosting Egypt. Millennia of Splendour. Beneath the two towers, the splendour of a civilisation that lasted thousands of years and has always
fascinated the entire world, has sprung back to life: the Egypt of the pyramids, pharaohs and multiform gods, but also that of sensational discoveries, captivating archaeology, passionate collecting and rigorous scholarship. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82265/-Egypt--Millennia-of-Splendour--opens-at-the-Museo-Civico-Archeologico-in-Bologna#.ViVhRRCrRPM



6.MEXICO CITY.- A series of temporary exhibits called “One piece, one culture” starts with the exhibition “The Calakmul Mask. Universe in Jade.” During its inauguration, Teresa Franco, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), added that through a single piece highly significant many elements of thought and the worldview of one of the greatest cultures could be explained: the Mayans.More Information:
http://artdaily.com/news/81100/National-Museum-of-Anthropology-in-Mexico-City-exhibits-the-enigmatic-Calakmul-mask#.ViViURCrRPM


7.Thornton Dial, the self-taught Alabama artist whose best-known work — dense, chaotic wall reliefs that exist somewhere between painting and sculpture — recently entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is moving into the Manhattan gallery ecosphere. Mr. Dial, 87, will be
represented by the Marianne Boesky Gallery, whose roster includes artists like Frank Stella, the painter Barnaby Furnas and the director John Waters. More Information: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/boesky-gallery-to-represent-thornton-dial/?_r=0


8. CLEVELAND, OH.- The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Cleveland Museum of Art announced today that the Ministry has authorized the transfer to Cleveland of a significant stone fragment in the National Museum that is now believed to be part of the early Khmer sculpture of Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan in the Cleveland
collection. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82557/Government-of-Cambodia-to-transfer-significant-stone-fragment-to-Cleveland-Museum-of-Art#.VjfLUq6rRSw

Tribal Art Around The World Fall 2015


1.VANCOUVER.- On the heels of a successful public presentation of the conceptual design for a new museum building by Herzog & de Meuron, the Vancouver Art Gallery announced the donation of a comprehensive collection of First Nations artworks from the late San Francisco collector George Gund III, dramatically transforming the significance of the Gallery’s current collection of Northwest Coast art. This collection of thirty-seven exceptional objects includes some twenty historical works by Haida, Heiltsuk, Inuit, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nuxalk and Tlingit artists, dating as early as 700AD. It also includes important contemporary works such as poles by Ken Mowatt, Norman Tait, drawings by Bill Reid and, most remarkably, thirteen carved works by Robert Davidson. The addition of Davidson’s works to the objects already in the Gallery’s collection gives the Vancouver Art Gallery the most significant collection of Davidson’s work in a museum. An exhibition featuring the entire bequest is now on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery until January 31, 2016. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82175/Vancouver-Art-Gallery-acquires-major-art-of-the-Northwest-Coast-from-U-S--art-collector-George-Gund-III#.ViVrhhCrSb8


2. LOS ANGELES The skillful technique seen in textiles here is a testament to the spirit of the Pueblo and Navajo people, particularly those whose artistry dates to the turmoil between 1860 and
1880, when change rained down on native lands in the form of railroads, American military and settlers from Eastern states. More Information: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-fowler-museum-textiles-20151011-story.html


3. OTTAWA.- 335 remarkable examples of Native Canadian and American sculpture, prints, drawings, decorative objects, and textiles, spanning two thousand years of indigenous artistic
expressions across the continent, comprise Walker’s November 18 auction in Ottawa, Canada.Selections range from ancient Bering Strait ivory figures and objects, to historic Alaskan trade ivories, to Northwest Coast works by 19th- and 20th- century masters. They also include superb classic and modern examples from the great artistic flowering of 20th- century Canadian Inuit art, as well as Inuit works from Greenland. Forty percent of the objects on offer are from the noted Albrecht Collection in Scottsdale. Many of these works were included in the Heard Museum’s 2006 touring exhibition “Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection.” More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82150/Walker-s-Fine-Art---Auctioneers-announces-Inuit-and-First-Nations-Art-Auction#.VifXsRCrRPM


4. MILAN On October 28, MUDEC, Milan's new ethnographic museum, will launch the exhibition “A Beautiful Confluence: Anni and Josef Albers and the Latin American World," which will reveal a lesser-known facet of the legendary Modernist couple Josef and Anni Albers: their deep interest in
Latin American culture. More Information: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/milan-mudec-anni-and-josef-albers-artifacts-344375


5. NEW YORK The Metropolitan Museum’s new exhibition “Kongo: Power and Majesty,” explores the remarkable culture of the kingdom that Cão encountered as he sailed up the river, which would
soon be obliterated by a boom in demand for slaves and by the attendant tide of European greed. More Information: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/an-unsettling-visit-to-kongo


6.CLEVELAND, OH.- Recent acquisitions by the Cleveland Museum of Art include an Ikenga figure, a prime example of Igbo art from Nigeria; The Temple of Edfu: The Door of the Pylon, a sketch of an Egyptian temple by English watercolorist John Frederick Lewis; and Hans Haacke with Sculpture (2005), an assemblage by Rachel Harrison, an artist who has become one of the best-known sculptors of her generation. In addition, Lois Conner, who has photographed regularly throughout China since 1984, donated Zelan Tang, Yuanming Yuan
(Pavilion for Nurturing Orchids, Garden Of Extended Spring) (2004) in memory of Mark Schwartz, a longtime friend and generous supporter of both the artist and the museum’s photography collection and program, who died in 2014. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82486/Cleveland-Museum-of-Art-announces-recent-acquisitions-#.VjE89K6rSb8


7. GATINEAU.- The Canadian Museum of History and the McCord Museum in Montréal announced that the travelling exhibition Haida: Life. Spirit. Art. is presented in Greece, at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, from October 26, 2015 to April 20, 2016. The exhibition will introduce audiences in Greece to the remarkable sophistication and complexity of the Haida culture of Canada’s
Pacific Northwest Coast. The exhibition features an outstanding collection of historical and contemporary artworks from the Museum of History and the McCord Museum. It also includes contemporary works and images from Haida Gwaii, the island homeland of the Haida people — part of the rich collection of the Haida Gwaii Museum in Skidegate, British Columbia. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82461/Haida--Life--Spirit--Art--flies-to-Greece#.VjE9oq6rSb8


8. NEW YORK A bit of label text in “Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures,” a show of mostly precolonial tribal art at the Metropolitan Museum, electrified me. It concerns the vertical striations on the faces of exquisitely refined terra-cotta portrait heads made by Yoruba artists, between six and nine centuries ago, in what is now Nigeria. The slim grooves “have been assumed to depict cicatrization markings,” the label says. But such face-scarring isn’t a known Yoruba custom.
So the lines may represent “shadows cast by the strings of beads that extend from the base of Yoruba crowns.” If so—as I promptly chose to believe—I was seeing something I had never seen before in sculpture: light and shade merged with the surfaces they fall on. Something common since classical Greek and Roman art—naturalistic portraiture, subtly idealized—took on a majestically strange aspect. More Information: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/31/faces-in-time


9. NEW YORK Museum shows of African tribal art often suffer from double binds of aesthetics and ethnography: objects that stun but bewilder and educational material that informs but devitalizes. Not
“Kongo: Power and Majesty,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibits and texts in this show combine to unfold an enthralling, epic tale, which spans more than four centuries, from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth, in the Central African regions that are now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, and Angola. You will come away with vivid memories of the art—some hundred and fifty wonderful pieces—both for what it is and for what it says. More Information: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/12/power-surge




Repatriation Fall 2015

1. BERLIN African art dots museums across Europe and North America, gracing countries where many Africans would be hard pressed to get a visa. In the Neues museum in Berlin, the bust of Queen Nefertiti is lit and kept at a temperature to mimic conditions in Egypt. Its grace radiantly reflects the meaning of her name: “the beautiful one has come.” For Egypt and Africa, however, the beautiful one left. Nefertiti has been in Germany since 1913, despite the fact Egypt has demanded she be returned home. More Information: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/21/african-art-needs-to-come-home-and-this-is-why


2. NEW YORK A painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (1559), is at the center of a dispute between Austria and Poland after claims arose that the artwork might be Nazi loot. More Information: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nazi-loot-claim-bruegel-painting-346763


3.POLAND A marble bust of the goddess Diana has been returned to Poland. The 18th-century
sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon, which was part of the collection of King Stansilaw August, was taken fr om the Royal Lazienki Palace by the Nazis in 1940. It was listed on Interpol’s database of stolen works of art. More Information: http://theartnewspaper.com/news/news/160835/


4. LUANDA.- Fundação Sindika Dokolo has acquired two ancestral female Pwo masks and a rare statue representative of the male figure of the Chokwe people from private European collections .The classical works, which have been identified as looted from Angola during the civil war, will be repatriated to the Dundo Museum in Angola, their original home and where they were last exhibited. More Information:http://artdaily.com/news/82640
/Looted-Chokwe-masks-and-a-rare-statue-to-be-returned-to-Dundo-Museum-in-Angola#.Vjpcea6rRSw


In The News Fall 2015

1. NEW YORK It’s not every day that an American artist receives an email alerting them that someone halfway around the world has just won an award for unauthorized and blatant reproductions of their own work. But that’s what happened recently to Mike Womack, who “out of the blue” received some intel via email regarding one Jeongwoo Hahn, a South Korean sculptor who scored $6,500 via Insa Art Space, a non-profit institution launched in 2000 in Seoul, and the opportunity to stage a solo exhibition at the venue. One small problem: Hahn’s creations were almost note-for-note fascimiles of work that Womack had debuted, in 2013, at ZieherSmith Gallery in New York (now Zieher Smith & Horton).More Information: http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2015/10/15/south-korean-copyist-wins-award-for-borrowed-ideas/?utm_source=BLOUIN+ARTINFO+Newsletters&utm_campaign=9e20b86bd5-Daily+Digest+October+16%2C2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_df23dbd3c6-9e20b86bd5-83005727


2. ROME (AFP).- Italy said Saturday that UNESCO has approved its suggestion to have the United Nation's famous Blue Helmets protect heritage sites around the world from attacks by Islamist
militants. "UNESCO has said yes to the Cultural Blue Helmets," Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said in a statement, adding that 53 countries voted in favour after the destruction of sites including Palmyra in Syria by the Islamic State group. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82247/United-Nations--Blue-Helmets-to-protect-world-s-heritage-from-Islamic-State--Italy#.ViVsfRCrRPM


3. HAVANA After ten months behind bars, artist Danilo "El Sexto" Maldonado has been freed from Cuban prison, reports the Associated Press.The artist was imprisoned in December, allegedly in retaliation for a politically-charged artwork involving two painted pigs. The piece mocked Cuba's president, Raul, and his predecessor and older brother, Fidel; according to Amnesty International, Cuban authorities stopped the artist on his way to Havana's Central Park to release the painted pigs.More Information: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/danilo-el-sexto-maldonado-released-by-cuba-343958


4. LONDON UK's Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, has placed a temporary export ban on a Rembrandt
portrait worth £35 million ($54 million).The ban was announced in a news release published on the Government's website gov.uk, with an uncharacteristically alarming opening sentence that read: “One of Rembrandt's greatest late portraits is at risk of being exported from the UK unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of £35 million." More Information: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/uk-export-ban-54-million-rembrandt-342098


5.LA ROCHELLE The port town of La Rochelle, France has paid tribute to two cartoonists who were killed in the attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January. Gargoyles in the likeness of cartoonists Jean Cabut and Georges Wolinski were unveiled on the town's 12th century Tour de la Lanterne after the historic tower underwent restoration, Le Figaro reported. More Information: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/charlie-hebdo-cartoonists-gargoyles-340417


6.CHARTRES (AFP).- An unholy row has broken out over the restoration of France's medieval landmark, Chartres Cathedral.State-funded work to return the interior of the towering 13th-century cathedral to its original creamy white hues has sparked a howl of protest from as far away as the US.Even the discovery of original decor has failed to placate shocked architecture lovers across the
Atlantic who have slammed the makeover as "irresponsible". More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82291/France-s--irresponsible--makeover-of-medieval-landmark-Chartres-Cathedral-shocks-#.VifuihCrRPM


7. TECPATÁN (AFP).- A 16th century church submerged in a southern Mexico dam project 49 years ago has reappeared following a severe drought, drawing visitors by boat to gaze at the spectacular
ruins. The Apostle Santiago church, built by Dominican friars, vanished under water in 1966 when the hydroelectric dam was built in the Grijalva river. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82384/16th-century-church-emerges-from-water-in-Mexico-following-a-severe-drought#.Vi5vY66rS1s


8. JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israel on Thursday accused the UN's cultural body of fanning tensions in the region by approving a resolution that criticised the Jewish state for "aggressions" against Muslims seeking access to a Jerusalem holy site. The foreign ministry said in a statement that the UNESCO resolution "aims to transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious confrontation" in an abuse of the UN agency's mandate. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82371/Israel-accuses-UNESCO-of--fueling-flames--with-holy-site-resolution#.Vi5w3K6rS1s


9. BOLANZO A team of hardworking Italian cleaners thought they were tidying up after a particularly wild opening party on Friday night at Museion, Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolanzo, Italy. The 300 empty champagne bottles, confetti, and cigarette butts, however, were actually part of an installation by Milanese artists Goldschmied & Chiari. More Information:https://news.artnet.com/art-world/janitor-throws-out-art-installation-347937


10.BERLIN (AFP).- Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said Monday his plan to create a Lego artwork can go ahead as donations of the toy poured in from fans after the Danish company refused his bulk order on political grounds. The maker of the children's toy sparked a social media uproar when Ai said it had refused to supply him directly as it "cannot approve the use of Legos for political works". Ai is China's most prominent contemporary artist. He helped design the Bird's Nest stadium for the Beijing
Olympics and his work has been exhibited worldwide, but he has also run afoul of Communist authorities. More Information:http://artdaily.com/news/82462/Chinese-dissident-artist-Ai-Weiwei-can-play-with-Lego-again-as-fans-answer-call-for-bricks#.VjE-La6rSb8


11.BERLIN (AFP).- With only two months to go before the copyright of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" expires, debate is raging over whether the anti-Semitic manifesto should again be published in Germany, where all reprints have been halted since the defeat of the Nazis.
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82507/Print-and-be-damned--Germany-agonises-over--Mein-Kampf-#.VjfNg66rRSw


12. BROOKLYN ‘…BUT WE CAN’T PAY YOU’: PERFORMANCE ART AND MONEY’S KNOTTY RELATIONSHIP
A year ago, in a former bank in Brooklyn, RoseLee Goldberg hosted a postmodern fundraiser featuring a “special food performance” by artist Jennifer Rubell. The event was to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Performa biennial, founded in 2004 by Goldberg, a scholar of performance art, to raise awareness of the art form. Meanwhile, across the East River from Performa’s feast, Sean Kelly Gallery was presenting the most recent exhibition of the world’s best-known performance artist, Marina Abramović. For the show, the artist had visitors don blindfolds and noise-canceling headphones and then wander for as long as they wished through a vast, empty exhibition space. More Information: http://www.artnews.com/2015/10/29/but-we-cant-pay-you-performance-art-and-moneys-knotty-relationship/



American Indian Art Magazine Closings Fall 2015

 American Indian Art Magazine has been an extremely important part of  this interested in ethnographic art worldwide. The magazine provided valuable scholarly information solicited from the many experts that followed the arts of indigenous U.S. ethnic groups. The editor Mary Hamilton and her magazine will be missed. 
 

1. SCOTTSDALE After forty years of publishing, the August/Autumn 2015 issue, will be the final issue of American Indian Art Magazine.
We would like to express our gratitude to all of our readers, authors and advertisers for their support over the last forty years. In the magazine's inaugural issue, back in 1975, its purpose was said to be rooted in "an earnest desire to portray the art forms of the American Indian in a manner and
format that will do justice to the art and its creators." For forty years and 160 issues, the magazine strived to do exactly that-which is something we can be proud of.
Over the next few months, subscribers will receive refunds for any unfulfilled portions of their subscriptions. Back issues will be available on this site for the near future. The cumulative index of volumes 1 through 40 is available to view and/or download.


The Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Salvator Mundi Fall 2015



1. DALLAS - The Dallas Morning News - Michael Granberry Published: 18 December 2012
Visitors to the Dallas Museum of Art won’t be seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi after all. Its owners have rejected the museum’s bid to buy the painting after weeks of negotiations, officials revealed Tuesday. The painting had been at the DMA during the talks. The DMA’s final offer was not disclosed, though the cost of the artwork had previously been reported as $200 million.
The rejection follows a recent flurry of upbeat news — free admission and free memberships in 2013, and $2.3 million in new grants and gifts. The DMA announced that it was trying to acquire the Da Vinci during the summer and had launched a fundraising campaign toward the purchase.
“While the museum’s leadership was hopeful that the painting would be acquired for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, they are incredibly inspired by and grateful for the outpouring of community support for the campaign to acquire this work,” according to a statement from the museum. The DMA said it had raised “tens of millions of dollars” in pledges toward the purchase.
Director Maxwell Anderson said in the statement that it “was a privilege to be responsible for the safekeeping of this masterwork as we assembled commitments towards its purchase. The fortunate few who saw it in person will not soon forget its beauty, power and majesty.”
The painting depicts Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a globe. The magazine ARTnews reports that “it is painted in oil on a wood panel and measures 26 by 18.5 inches.” ARTnews reported in 2011 that the painting is owned by a consortium of dealers, including Robert Simon, a specialist in old masters in New York, and that it was bought at a U.S. auction in 2005. The DMA’s role is yet another chapter in a long and unusual history. The painting was lost and rediscovered, then restored and shown in an exhibition in 2011. Da Vinci is believed to have painted it between 1506 and 1513. http://artsblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/dallas-museum-of-art-loses-out-on-chance-to-acquire-rare-painting-by-leonardo-da-vinci.html/

2. DALLAS Posted in Visual Arts. D Magazine    Dec 18, 2012 at 1:38 pm The owners of  a painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has been at the Dallas Museum of Art for much of this year as the museum tried to raise funds to acquire the work have rejected the offer presented by the museum.
In a release, a museum spokesperson says the painting, Salvator Mundi, has been returned to the owners after weeks of negotiation between the undisclosed owners and the museum failed to produce an agreeable price. From the spokesperson: While the Museum’s leadership was hopeful that the
painting would be acquired for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, they are incredibly inspired by and grateful for the outpouring of community support for the campaign to acquire this work. Through the tremendous generosity and vision of its many patrons, the Museum was able to raise tens of millions of dollars for the campaign in just a few short months. The DMA is looking forward to working with its growing constituency on new opportunities in 2013. As we reported last week, part of the new DMA director Maxwell Anderson’s stated intention of bringing the Leonardo  painting to the museum was to “raise the bar” on what kinds of artwork the museum could consider acquiring.
http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2012/12/da-vinci-owners-reject-dallas-museum-of-arts-bid-for-painting/

3. LONDON Arts Beat New York Times Recently Attributed Leonardo Painting Was Sold Privately for Over $75 Million By Scott Reyburn March 3, 2014 2:20 pm March 3, 2014 2:20 pm
– A Leonardo da Vinci painting discovered by a dealer at an American estate sale was sold last year in a private transaction for more than $75 million.The painting, Leonardo’s oil-on-panel “Salvator Mundi,” showing Christ half-length with a crystal orb in his left hand, had been owned by a consortium that included the New York art traders Alexander Parish and Robert Simon.
The heavily restored painting, dating from about 1500, was bought by an unidentified collector for between $75 million and $80 million in May 2013, in a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s. The details of the purchase have remained locked in confidentiality clauses until they were revealed this
week by trade insiders, such as the London dealer Anthony Crichton-Stuart.
“It’s a trophy painting by a highly important artist,” Mr. Crichton-Stuart said. “You have to balance its compromised condition against the fact that it is by one of the most magical and significant names in the entire canon of Western art, and in that sense, it feels like a fair price.”
The 26-inch-high “Salvator Mundi,” dating from about 1500, had been acquired in the mid-2000s by Mr. Parish for an undisclosed sum at an estate sale. Since 1900, the panel, which had been much over-painted, was cataloged as a copy after Boltraffio, an artist who worked in Leonardo’s studio.
Subsequent cleaning and research by Mr. Simon and others revealed the painting to be an original Leonardo formerly owned by King Charles I of England. Despite the gaps in its provenance, most scholars now accept the work as an autographed oil by the artist.
It was included in the “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” exhibition at London’s National Gallery from November 2011 through February 2012. Later in 2012, the “Salvator Mundi” was displayed on loan at the Dallas Museum of Art, which attempted to buy it.
Mr. Simon said by telephone on Monday that “the picture is no longer available.” Sotheby’s does not comment on its private sales. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/newly-attributed-leonardo-painting-was-sold-privately-for-over-75-million/?_r=0

4.  Salvator Mundi. Leonardo's lost Painting?
The Salvator Mundi (saviour of the World) was commissioned by Louis XII of France in 1506 and Leonardo had finished the work by 1513. The image of Christ giving his blessing to the world was a popular subject in French and Flemish art and the half-length pose is typical of the era.
On the death of his wife the painting was donated, by Louis, to a religious order who had connections with his wife, in Nantes. A century later Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, saw the painting in 1650 (the year after her husband Charles Ist was executed) she asked the artist Wenceslaus Hollar to make an etching of the work to add to her collection. In the 19th century the convent that possessed the painting was dissolved and the Salvator Mundi was sold to Baron de Lareinty of Paris. After subsequent sales the work came into the possession of the present owner the Marquis de Ganay. 
Salvator Mundi. Jan Louis de Ganay collection Paris. (s)
Is this really by Leonardo?
Various tests conducted on the painting have convinced many historians that the painting is authentic. X-rays show that the paint had been applied in thin layers on a wooden base, nut wood was used for this work and also Leonardo's St John of the same period. The swirl of the hair is said to be reminiscent of other da Vinci portraits and historians point to similarities in the shadows of the face and the angle of the light to support the authenticity. The work has been altered since Leonardo's day, the orb originally supported a cross that has since been removed and a thick coat of varnish has been added to the painting.
Personal Opinion:-
It is not in doubt that Leonardo did complete a painting of this title, the documentary evidence is beyond question. It is estimated that seventy-five percent of all Leonardo's works are still lost and this very strong image could well be one of them. However today's art world contains lots of individuals who know far more about the financial implications of any new discovery than they know about the actual paintings themselves. A new painting by an artist as famous as Leonardo da Vinci would  inevitably create a buzz within the art world and it is very likely that values across a range of works would increase as a result.
This painting almost appears too modern for da Vinci. Christ's right hand and sleeve are tightly finished as are the ringlets of the hair, they seem to lack the smokiness of Leonardo's sfumato. The modelling of the face seems quite flat, when I first saw this work, and at first glance, it reminded me of an overworked Modigliani (that is not intended to be a criticism).
I admire this work very much, it just seems so fresh and alive, and would certainly like to own it regardless of who painted it. In conclusion I do hope that this is by da Vinci, who would have been about sixty-one years old at the time it was painted, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.
http://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Salvator-Mundi.html

5. LONDON Telegraph
5:27PM GMT 07 Nov 2011
In its favour...
• ...there are 20 known versions of this composition of the Salvator Mundi, with Christ facing forward with his right hand raised in blessing but this is by far the most accomplished and sophisticated
• The quality of certain details of the painting including the complex design of Christ’s tunic, the bubbles in the crystal orb and the ringlets of his hair attest to the hand of a true master
• Two autographed drawings in the Royal collection and held at Windsor contain similar details
• Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi was documented in a 17th century etching “after Leonardo” by Wenceslaus Hollar, who likely had access to the original in Charles I’s collection. It is strikingly similar in composition
• Studies of the planning beneath the paintwork have revealed that the artist made compositional changes, notably in the positioning of the thumb, which are not reflected in any other copies. This suggests that Christ’s pose was originally composed on this board
• A panel of scholars who have studied the painting first-hand after its first conservation in 2007 have unanimously agreed that the work is an original
• Pigments correspond to those known to have been used by the artist
But...
• ...the painting doesn’t resemble Leonardo’s other portraits. “The hypnotic head and upper torso fill the panel edge to edge like an icon, whereas Leonardo’s figures move, torque, and engage with the atmosphere around them,” writes Richard Dorment.
• It was reportedly bought at an estate sale in the United States about six or seven years ago, and fell into the hands of a consortium of dealers, including Robert Simon. In July Simon declined to comment about the painting, the price, or the location of the auction. "I've been asked not to discuss it," he said.
• No pre restoration colour photographs of the painting have been released, adding to the mystery which surrounds it.    
Leonardo exhibition at The National Gallery, London. 9 November 2011 - 5 February 2012.
There are around twenty versions of Salvator Mundi and this recently restored painting exhibits more of the Leonardo-like qualities that we have come to expect from the master, however no pre-restoration images or method of cleaning have so far been released.
Personal Opinion:-
I find this version of the Salvator Mundi much more convincing, the sfumato effect displays a subtleness that is very Leonardo, also the luminosity on the chest and forehead of Christ is pure da Vinci. The transparent crystal orb in Christ's left hand is a confident statement that is absent from other copies of the subject and the overall depth of the work has a hypnotic quality that draws the viewer deeper into the painting. Of course we don't know the scale of the restoration or how much of the work has been striped back, hopefully the process will be made available to the public in the not too distant future.
 I will be visiting the exhibition at the National Gallery early in 2012 to view the work first hand this will allow me to make comparisons with other Leonardo works on display at the same venue.
Visited Sunday 22 January 2012 (fantastic exhibition) read the review.
This painting is documented in the collection of King Charles I of England in 1649 before it was sold at auction by the Duke of Buckingham's son in 1763. It was purchased in 1900 by Sir Frederick Cook a British art dealer. Where the work had been stored between these dates is unknown however it is clear that several previous poor restoration attempts had made the painting very difficult to authenticate, it was sold at auction in 1958 for £45.    
 In 2005 the work was acquired by a consortium of US art dealers and restored. The   painting has since been studied by several experts on Da Vinci and the renaissance period, the consensus is that this work was painted by Leonardo da Vinci and is the original from which the many copies depend. In a bold move by the National Gallery they will be cataloguing the painting as a newly discovered Leonardo.
Note:- The exhibition ended on February 5 2012. However a worldwide cinema showing is  planned, details available from the National Gallery. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/leonardo-da-vinci/8875031/Did-Leonardo-da-Vinci-paint-the-Salvator-Mundi.html



My Word Fall 2015

After the Antiques Roadshow wrapped up the last show of Season 20 in Charleston, South Carolina, we reflected a bit what this achievement meant to the forty or so appraisers who have been with the show since the beginning in 1996. None of us thought Roadshow would  make it to ten years much less twenty. We have welcomed many newcomers and said goodbye to several who have left the show for various reasons or have passed away. Although the ratings have leveled off since the peak in Season Four , in many ways the show is better. Specifically, Marsha Bemko has instituted a rigorous fact checking protocol and has been ready to clarify issues even after the segments have aired. As appraisers we pay our own way and are not compensated for our time. While participating in a television show is challenging and in many respects fun, clearly the greatest benefit for me is being afforded the opportunity of networking with other experts many of whom have become good friends. Additionally, I cannot say enough about the support and friendship of both the Roadshow staff and crew.

In the past auction houses and dealers were friendly adversaries. I see that changing as the art market becomes more integrated with the Internet. Auction houses provide  the platform for delivering art; however, the art expertise is now primarily in the private sector. This creates an interesting dynamic where auction houses often need consultants to catalog their sales. An argument could be made that the private sector provides important expertise in legal matters, art management, and maybe most importantly art appraisal. Managing client expectations are one of the most difficult challenges for an auction house specialist. You literally are only as good as your last sale. In the tribal art world the auction houses are a bit shaky at the moment David Roche, Sothebys Indian Art specialist has left for the directorship of the Heard Museum. Heinrich Schweitzer, Sothebys African specialist in New York  has joined the private sector. Jim Haas, Bonham's Indian art expert will retire soon. The performance of Heritage and Bonhams has been somewhat mixed. Skinner's Indian expert Doug Deihl has done an excellent job in managing client expectations and has by comparisons a very low ratio of lots that fail to sell. It will be very interesting to watch all this develop over the next twelve months.

Our now former Dallas Museum director, Max Anderson, has left Dallas and the museum world. In this issue I have provided a number of media sources covering Anderson's departure. It is pretty clear that while this director had some friends in Dallas, he certainly made enemies. It is not too difficult as the sources indicate that the departure was abrupt and not very friendly. One wonders what the potential backers that were invited to pay 200 million for the Da Vinci painting thought when later it sold for less than 80. In Toronto, New York, Indianapolis, and now Dallas  there seems to be patrons who have credibility issues with Anderson.  I personally am excited about future leadership that we hope will improve morale and bring a newer more pragmatic vision to the museum.  I am particularly interested to see what impact this departure will have on the Association of Art Museum Directors where Anderson led efforts to restrict the acquisition of objects that did not conform to the UNESCO Treaty Convention of 1970. This is a complicated issue that impacts museums, collectors, dealers, and scholars. Specifically it should be noted that the Pre-Columbian originating countries do not recognize 1970 as a firewall. More to come.


Fakes and Forgeries Fall 2015


1. THE HAGUE (AFP).- Forgotten for two decades, a dusty old canvas hidden in a corner of a small Dutch museum has been revealed as a painting by American artist James Whistler. "Thanks to chemical analysis and an examination of its origins, we have concluded that we have an authentic Whistler," museum curator Jan Rudolph de Lorm told AFP. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82052/Forgotten-Whistler-found-in-Dutch-museum--Chemical-analysis-authenticates-painting#.ViVjaxCrRPM


2.NEW YORK High-profile art forgery cases are on the increase. Cases such as the Knoedler scandal and the Wolfgang Beltracchi scandal have cost collectors and institutions billions of dollars.
According to some estimates, as many as two in five artworks sold on the market today are fakes. More Information: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/dna-verification-art-forgery-339319


3. NEW YORK An untitled and undated artwork described as a “painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat that has been authenticated as original,” is up for sale next month in Nashville, Tenn.—and could bring upwards of $2 million.It is being sold by Aberdeen, Miss.-based Stevens Auction Company, which has been in the business for 31 years.The auctioneer said it can trace the artwork’s ownership back decades.The lawyer representing the Basquiat estate, James Cinque, has stated that “the
committee had never authenticated the work” that is on the block—but, then, many Basquiats at auction have never been authenticated by the estate. The record for a Basquiat at auction is $48.8 millon, set in 2013, so this work is arguably, a bargain. More Information: http://observer.com/2015/10/a-mystery-basquiat-in-nashville/


4. THE HAGUE (AFP).- Two famous paintings thought to be works of mediaeval Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch are likely to have been imitations painted around the same time, Dutch media reported on Saturday. The works "Christ Carrying the Cross" (around 1515-16) and "The Seven Deadly Sins" (around 1500) "were made at the same time, but likely to have been made by imitators," public news broadcaster NOS said. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/82608/Dutch-mediaeval-master-Hieronymus-Bosch-paintings--likely-imitations--say-scientists#.VjfcDa6rTNA

5.  NEW YORK Lawsuits in Knoedler Forgery Case Are Set for Trial
By GRAHAM BOWLEY New York Times OCT. 11, 2015
"Two lawsuits in the Knoedler & Company gallery forgery case, one of the art market’s more stunning scandals, are set to go to trial in January because there is “ample
circumstantial evidence” for a jury to decide whether the gallery’s former president knew that some paintings she was selling were fake, a federal judge said in a ruling on Friday.
The judge issued the 83-page ruling to explain why last month he had denied motions by the gallery and its former president, Ann Freedman, to dismiss the lawsuits filed by buyers of two fake works.
Before it abruptly closed in 2011, Knoedler, then the oldest gallery in New York, had over 15 years, according to the court papers, sold 32 forgeries that it represented as being Modernist masterworks by painters like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. The paintings were created by a single man in Queens and brought to the gallery by Glafira Rosales, a Long Island dealer who pleaded guilty to charges related to the fraud in 2013.
Federal officials have concluded that Ms. Rosales and her boyfriend commissioned the forgeries and used the venerable gallery to create legitimacy for the works.
The gallery and Ms. Freedman have repeatedly said that they, too, were misled by Ms. Rosales and were convinced the art was genuine. But buyers of the fakes have challenged that account in several lawsuits accusing Ms. Freedman of knowingly participating in the fraud.
And now the judge in two of the cases, Paul G. Gardephe of United States District Court in Manhattan, has ruled that the suits should go to trial."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/arts/design/lawsuits-in-knoedler-forgery-case-are-set-for-trial.html?_r=0