Journal
Alchemy as Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi sells for an astonishing US$450mIt is official, the young hot shots in Christie’s contemporary art department are marketing geniuses and in the art world is now operating in the post-truth era. Post-truth follows post-idea, a theory popular in liberal circles in the US that big ideas are no longer sought after and have become elusive. Ideas seem smaller, not
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Recent Posts
- Alchemy as Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi sells for an astonishing US$450m
- Tretyakov receives gift of Vladimir Nekrasov’s Korzhevs
- Leonardo’s troubled Salvator Mundi hits the block
- Russian art exports freeze up as Culture Ministry launches criminal probe into International Confederation of Artists Unions.
- Singapore sends Rybolovlev versus Bouvier case back to Switzerland
- Art is the answer but what is the question?
- Russian art history has been hijacked by the West
Journal
It is official, the young hot shots in Christie’s contemporary art department are marketing geniuses and in the art world is now operating in the post-truth era. Post-truth follows post-idea, a theory popular in liberal circles in the US that big ideas are no longer sought after and have become elusive. Ideas seem smaller, not
[continue reading…]
The Tretyakov and Russian Ministry of Culture have announced they have received a precious gift of 32 paintings and two graphic works by Geli Korzhev from the collector and businessman, Vladimir Nekrasov. Geli Mikhailovic Korzhev (July 7th 1925 – August 27th 2012) was one of the most prominent of the Russian post-war artists and a
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Just when you thought this story couldn’t get any stranger ‘Leonardo’s’ Salvator Mundi has been consigned to Christie’s by Dmitri Rybolovlev and his Trusts and hits the block as a ‘special lot’ in a Post – War and Contemporary Art Evening sale in New York on 15th November. Yes, that’s a Contemporary Art Sale. Unless
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Over the last 10 years various people, supposedly having access to the paintings of the former Soviet Artists Union, have approached me. This body was a sort of Trade Union for Soviet Artists (without any rights) to which artists donated artworks. Many of the items were poorly stored, or had been rolled, and appeared to
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Articles
BIDDING WARSotheby’s finds itself locked in a battle with Dan Loeb, one of New York’s most aggressive fund managers. Loeb, 51, who refers to himself as an ‘activist investor’ (the current term for corporate raider), has built up a 9.3 per cent stake in the 269-year-old auctioneer using his Third Point LLC. Sotheby’s first realised
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The City of Detroit is bust. Selling off its exceptional hoard of art treasures could fix it – but not without complicated and legal consequences. Ivan Lindsay, The Good Life/ Art, Spears WMS Magazine, Issue No. 35, December 2013. ON 18 JULY, Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, seeking
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Essays
Munch The Scream lithography (Photo credit: Wikipedia) (This thoughtful article by Martin Sosnoff on the current enormous prices recently seen at the art auctions came out in Forbes). I relish evening contemporary art auctions in the Big Apple. It gives me a feel for the breadth and intensity of bidding on specific pieces of interest.
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Introduction In contemplating an Old Master painting, the frame is generally taken for granted. It is a fait accompli, and most of us may be unaware of how powerfully the frame can influence our perception and enjoyment of the picture within. The marriage of the two may be harmonious or discordant, enhancing or depressing, or
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