Phillips Auction House Had Its Most Successful Year in 2018
2018 wasn’t just a good year for Phillips, it was their best year to date. The auction house announced that it closed the year with $916 million worth of art and collectibles sold, the highest in its 220-year history. According to an official statement, auction sales closed at $794.3 million, a 27 percent rise year […]
David Rockefeller Estate gifts $200 million to New York’s MoMA
New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) made headlines just a few days ago when it announced it would be closing during the summer months to revamp its galleries and rehang its entire collection. The museum, though, hasn’t moved out of the spotlight of this week’s news quite yet. Shortly after the announcement was made […]
Watercolours by Adolf Hitler seized by German police
On January 24th, three paintings purportedly by Adolf Hitler were seized by German police from an auction house sale under the suspicion that the watercolours were forgeries. The works depict picturesque landscapes in traditional Romantic manner of the Alps and the Rhine River. Frankly, the paintings are unremarkable, yet pleasant. Dating back to 1910 and […]
Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun portrait triples the auction record for any female Old Master
Once overlooked, female old masters are now taking center stage with numerous high-profile and record-breaking sales paving the way. The latest of which is a 1788 work by Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun which sold for $7.18 million at Sotheby’s Old Masters sale last week and became the most expensive painting by a pre-modern era female […]
The British Museum says it will never return the Parthenon Marbles and defends their removal as a “creative act”
The director of the British Museum has caused controversy and is facing an international backlash after defending the removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece in the early 1800’s as “a creative act”. In an interview with the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea, Hartwig Fischer ruled out the repatriation of the 2,500 year old sculptures […]
‘Indiana Jones of art’ finds priceless Visigoth artworks in England
Imagine searching over 10 years for stolen artwork – artwork that might turn up, but might also be so well hidden it remains elusive, or has already been destroyed out of fear that it could lead to the thief. This, exactly, is the job of Dutch art detective Arthur Brand and his most recent case. […]
Fine Art Group buys Falcon Fine Art with Warhol, Picasso
The Fine Art Group, a leading independent global advisory firm, has acquired the art-lending division of the specialist financier Falcon Group. No figures have been released for the acquisition. Falcon Fine Art was launched by Kamel Alzarka in 2014, as a division of his Falcon Group, which offers alternative financing options for businesses. The group […]
