Art

Adding to a robust trove, High Museum in Atlanta lands a gift of works by self-taught artists

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta today announced a gift of 47 paintings, drawings and sculptures by folk and self-taught Southern artists from a local collecting couple, Harvie and Charles (Chuck) Abney. The donation includes 17 works by the African American artist Nellie Mae Rowe (1900-82), known for vivid colourful drawings brimming with human…

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Picasso portrait of Marie-Thérèse to sell for $55m at Christie’s New York this May

Pablo Picasso’s 1932 Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) (Woman Sitting Near a Window), a portrait of his teenage lover and “golden muse” from a critical point in his career, will be featured in Christie’s newly rebranded 20th Century Art Evening Sale in New York on 11 May, with an estimate of $55m. “1932 was…

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While US museum attendance nosedived in 2020 amid pandemic, disparities in reopenings yielded a few surprises

Amid months-long shutdowns across the country beginning in mid-March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in a 70%-80% drop in attendance for most US institutions, two museums fared relatively better. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, ranked fourth among US museums, attracting 547,500 visitors as a result…

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Solace through conservation: WMF makes strides in restoring war-damaged sites in Yemeni city

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) reports that it has made strides in rehabilitating historic sites in the Yemeni city of Taiz, devastated by a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people across the country in a mammoth humanitarian crisis. In March, local restorers overseen by the organisation completed work on an emergency stabilisation…

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In bidding confusion at Sotheby’s, unseen Van Gogh initially sells for €16.2m but is then resold for €13m at end of auction

An 1887 painting by Vincent van Gogh, which has never before been exhibited, has sold for €11.2m (€13m with fees) at Sotheby’s Paris. Although the work was fresh to auction, this was its second time under the hammer, having been nearly sold less than an hour before. Scène de rue à Montmartre (Impasse des deux…

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Looting, Plundering, and More: Cultural Treasures That Have Faced Claims of Theft

Art theft typically conjures pieces ripped from the walls of world-class museums, and while art heists take place frequently, they are not the only means by which priceless treasures are taken. Throughout history, masterpieces have plundered, looted, and stolen, and taken far away from the original locales. For the former owners of such stolen works,…

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In a First, Damien Hirst to Accept Cryptocurrency as Payment for New Prints

Damien Hirst has made a foray into the fast-rising crypto art market. The British artist is selling a series of eight prints called “The Virtues,” which depict cherry blossoms in bloom, and for those interested in buying them, he is willing to accept cryptocurrency—an unusual gesture for a blue-chip artist. “It’s hard for any of…

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The ‘quintessential’ Art Deco smoking (or vaping) room—yours for £2m

It could be straight from an episode of Poirot. This smoking room, Les Palmiers (1930-36), designed by Jean Dunand for the Parisian apartment of Mademoiselle Collette Aboucaya on rue de Monceau, is the height of Art Deco decadence. And, though we are now in the age of vaping not smoking, it is now coming up for sale at…

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‘They’re kind of impolite’: the artist Carol Bove ruminates on her steel and aluminium sculptures for the Met’s façade

When Carol Bove was first asked by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create sculptures for the niches along its Fifth Avenue façade, she faced a bit of a conundrum: she felt she had to consider “every inch” of the architecture, even as she realised that she would have to challenge its Beaux-Arts forms. “In…

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Entrepreneurs Bet Big on Immersive Art Despite Covid-19

Even as the pandemic takes its toll on tourism, immersive museums and experiential art centers are expanding to new cities and wooing investors willing to gamble on the future of the emerging industry. Fotografiska wanted to introduce New Yorkers to a different type of museum when it opened in December 2019 in Manhattan, welcoming visitors…

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