A recent investigation has found that more than 1,000 objects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York could have ties to alleged antique traffickers and looters. Many of the artefacts were acquired in the 1960s when museum staff often overlooked evidence of smuggling in an effort to source more major acquisitions than London and Paris.
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A New York court has dismissed a case over an artist’s right to “the world’s first NFT” (non-fungible token), which sold for $1.5 million (£1.2 million) at Sotheby’s in 2021. It represents the first legal case in the US to examine how blockchain technology affects the ownership of digital art.
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The government is in the process of making important changes to the 1996 Treasure Act which will means museums will have first refusal on a greater number of significant items found in the UK.
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Scholars have reunited the portrait of a 17th-century family by the Antwerp-based portrait painter Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651). Almost 200 years ago, the painting was torn apart leaving the father and son as a standalone painting in Denmark, whilst the side depicting the mother ended up in London.
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The National Portrait Gallery is fighting to keep a powerful masterpiece by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) in this country. In March 2022, the government placed a temporary export bar to stop the privately-owned painting from moving abroad, but it is due to be lifted.
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On 28 February, the Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale offered Fidenza #724, a digital pigment print on paper which was sold accompanied by a NFT by the artist and software engineer Tyler Hobbs. Christie’s described the work as “channelling inspiration from art history and nature into innovative computer code.” The work exceeded its pre-sale estimate of £200,000-300,000, selling for £365,000. This sale is the latest in what seems to be a resurgence in the NFT and digital art market.
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According to Bloomberg, Bonhams itself could be offered for sale for $1 billion (£823 million) by its owners, the private equity group Epiris, who are reportedly seeking advice from JP Morgan Chase & Co.. The 230-year-old auction house is one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques.
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Last week, the much anticipated Rijksmuseum exhibition, Vermeer, opened to the public and is already receiving outstanding reviews. The popularity of the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was confirmed when over 200,000 advance tickets for the exhibition were sold.
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The luxury goods conglomerate LVMH has given a Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) painting to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris worth a whopping €43 million (£38.3 million). According to experts, it was one of the last Impressionist masterpieces still in private hands before the donation.
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Global superstar Madonna is best known for being the “Queen of Pop”, but recently she’s been making headlines as the owner of a possible long-lost masterpiece. Experts believe the early 19th-century artwork that now hangs in Madonna’s home was once displayed in the Amiens museum in France, before it mysteriously disappeared during the first world war.
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