A local English council has caused a furore once again over plans to promote itself internationally as a cultural heritage destination three years after it controversially sold a 4,500-year-old Egyptian statue. Continue reading
Category: All Articles
Contemporary art ‘treasure hunt’ returns to Folkestone
Following its opening to the public on Saturday (2 September), contemporary art festival Folkestone Triennial is back again in the seaside Kent town.
Now in its fourth year, the Triennial began in 2008 with the assistance of the Creative Foundation charity, the brainchild of Folkestone local Sir Roger De Haan.
The 2017 Triennial is entitled ‘Double Edge’. Continue reading
Queen Victoria’s coronet saved for the nation
An Irish-American financier worth £450 million has rescued Queen Victoria’s coronet for the nation. In August 2016, we reported that the sapphire and diamond tiara was at risk of being lost to the UK forever after it was sold by a London dealer to an overseas buyer. Continue reading
Fake Pollocks sold by mad collector circulating the art market
A forgery scandal on the scale of the Old Master fakes and Knoedler Gallery debacles has broken in the United States. Up to as many as 700 fake Jackson Pollock paintings may be circulating the art market according to a report by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR).
The Foundation has identified four fake Pollocks since 2013. Continue reading
Property developers cash in on street art’s edgy appeal
Once the preserve of rebellious youth, graffiti has now been elevated to an art form and UK property developers are capitalising on its widespread appeal. Continue reading
Constable ‘copy’ is actually a £2 million original
A landscape painting, which previously sold for £35,000 has been authenticated as an original from the brush of English Romantic painter John Constable and valued at around £2 million.
Gloucestershire businessman, Henry Reid, purchased the rendition of Willy Lott’s Cottage on the River Stour from art dealer and BBC Fake or Fortune? presenter Philip Mould in 2000. At the time, Mould was just beginning his career as a dealer. Continue reading
Artist ‘disgusted’ by appearance of her watercolour in ‘Broadchurch’ episode
An artist whose painting was featured in an episode of ‘Broadchurch’ is demanding £10,000 in compensation from the show’s producers.
Angela Hewitt from the Isle of Wight feels her “work has been abused” by Kudos, the makers of the ITV crime drama. Kudos did not seek Hewitt’s permission to feature her £125 watercolour of a cockerel as part of the set in a scene from the third series. The artwork appears onscreen for five seconds hanging on the wall in the home of rape suspect, Ed Burnett, played by Sir Lenny Henry. Although Burnett was eventually found not guilty, Hewitt believes the appearance of her work could damage her reputation as it has become “associated with a show about rape”. Continue reading
Stolen painting decorated couple’s bedroom for decades
A stolen painting by Willem de Kooning made headlines on 11 August when it re-emerged after 30 years. Now it has been revealed that ‘Woman-Ochre’ was hanging in the bedroom of a couple’s home in New Mexico since it was burgled from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson in 1985. Continue reading
Artist sorry after sculpture mistaken for floating corpse
An artist who crafted a sculpture mistaken as a dead body floating in a Suffolk creek has apologised to the “poor person” who called the police to report it.
On Wednesday (9 August) fire services, coastguard and the police were telephoned by a member of the public who alerted them to the motionless figure of a man lying in Butley Creek near Orford. What could have been a grisly find was in fact a bronze sculpture created by artist Laurence Edwards called ‘A Thousand Tides’, which has been in the creek for over a year. Continue reading
Museum world mourns death of former V&A director
Tributes to the former director of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, Martin Roth, have poured in following the news of his passing on Sunday (6 August 2017). Roth died in Berlin aged 62 following a period of illness.
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