Paul Allen’s (1953-2018) spectacular collection has achieved an unprecedented $1.6 billion (£1.34 million) over two sales at Christie’s, becoming the most valuable private collection of all time. The first sale alone of 60 works fetched £1.5 billion (£1.26 billion) – the highest total ever recorded at a single auction. Allen’s estate will donate all proceeds from the landmark sales to philanthropic causes.
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Italian archaeologists have unearthed a trove of 24 remarkably well-preserved ancient bronze statues near a luxurious thermal bath in Tuscany. “It is a discovery that will rewrite history,” marvelled Jacopo Tabolli the lead excavator and professor at the Università di Stranieri di Siena.
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In 1921, Dutch art historian and Rembrandt expert Abraham Bredius purchased an oil sketch of The Raising of the Cross, which he believed to be by Dutch Golden Age artist Rembrandt. The sketch entered the collection of the Bredius Museum in The Hague, but art experts have never taken the attribution to Rembrandt seriously, considering the work to be a mere copy, or a “crude imitation”, of a painting by the Dutch master.
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Pressure is mounting on the British Museum to return the celebrated Parthenon marbles to Greece as a convincing life-size replica made by a robot goes on display in London. Over the years, the British and Greek governments have hotly disputed the ownership of the marbles, which were removed by the British from Athens between 1801 and 1805.
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A curator working on the exhibition Mondrian. Evolution, which opened at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Germany, has discovered that one of the highlights of the exhibition has been hanging upside down for 75 years. In fact, it seems that it has been displayed this way since leaving the artist’s studio and has never been seen the correct way round by the public.
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For more than a decade, ‘The Great British Bake Off’ has delighted the nation with endearing contestants, show-stopping confections, and a fair share of soggy bottoms. But the secret ingredient to the show’s tremendous success is Tom Hovey’s delectable illustrations introducing every single bake.
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The upcoming sale of a painting by Titian and his workshop has been described as a “once in a generation opportunity” for potential buyers. Scheduled to come under the hammer at Sotheby’s in December, Venus and Adonis is part of the poesie series of paintings by the artist which all depict mythological scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and other classical works.
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The exceptional collection of late Microsoft founder Paul Allen (1953-2018) is on display in London ahead of what’s expected to be the largest ever auction in history at Christie’s, New York. Valued in excess of $1 billion (£900 million), the collection includes more than 150 masterpieces spanning 500 years.
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Two climate activists from the group ‘Just Stop Oil’ have been arrested after throwing what appeared to be cans of soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers last Friday at the National Gallery, before gluing themselves to the wall. The activists are part of the ‘Just Stop Oil’ climate change group who have targeted numerous museums recently with similar acts, including the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Manchester City Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts. This is not the first time this year the group have targeted the National Gallery: in July two campaigners superglued their hands to the frame of John Constable’s The Hay Wain.
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Damien Hirst is setting fire to almost £10 million worth of his own artwork after selling non-fungible token (NFT) versions of the pieces. The notorious artist revealed that the process of burning his physical art “feels good, better than I expected.”
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