Archive for February, 2014

'The team is resting' by Victor Popkov, 1965

Victor Popkov Exhibition opens at the Ca’ Foscari In Venice before heading for London.

Feb 22nd, 2014 | By

  40 works of the Russian artist Viktor Popkov (1932-1974) have gone on display at the University Ca’Foscari in Venice until April 27th, 2014. The new exhibition “Dream and Reality“ examines the most significant works of the famous Russian painter, through themes such as life, fate and death. Viktor Popkov became one the most influential
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Shareholders list their demands to Sotheby's CEO William Ruprecht

Will aggressive activist investors shake up Sotheby’s? Ivan Lindsay investigates for Spears WMS Magazine

Feb 20th, 2014 | By

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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Art Market posts strong growth in 2013

Feb 20th, 2014 | By

  Figures compiled by the countless art information bureaus such as ArtTactic, the Mei Moses Index, Artnet and Artprice show that the art market posted strong results in 2013 across all leading fields.  Artprice has calculated that, excluding fees, public auction global sales in 2013 exceeded US$12 billion.  Whilst still a baby , measured against
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pieter

Should Detroit sell off its art?

Feb 11th, 2014 | By

  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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Yelena Basner

Avant-garde expert Yelena Basner arrested

Feb 6th, 2014 | By

  The leading avant-garde art historian Yelena Basner has been detained in Moscow over a problem with an alleged fake painting ‘At restaurant’ by Boris Grigoriev.  Reputedly this painting was bought by the St Petersburg collector Andrew Vasilyev for US$250,000 on the advice of Basner but turned out to be a fake.  Basner now consults
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Tobias Meyer, formerly of Sotheby's, selling Andy Warhol's 'Liz' for more than US$20m in November 2013.

Sotheby’s pay the price for having investors with short-term horizons

Feb 5th, 2014 | By

Sotheby’s caved in to pressure from short-term investors last week by announcing it would pay shareholders a US$300m dividend in March and that it might sell its New York and London offices.  Sotheby’s intended to use its cash position to grow into a diversified conglomerate holding positions in art and real estate.  The cash allowed
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