On Tuesday, the appeals court in New York upheld a 2018 ruling that returned two Nazi-looted drawings to the heirs of a Holocaust victim. This decision ends a years-long dispute between London art dealer, Richard Nagy, and the descendants of Fritz Grünbaum. Continue reading
Egypt intends to sue Christie’s auction house over last week’s sale of a “stolen” Tutankhamun bust. Despite the country’s protestations, Christie’s London sold the Egyptian artefact for £4.7 million in ‘The Exceptional Sale’ on 4 July. Continue reading
On Monday (8 July), experts at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam began work on “the biggest and most wide-ranging” project to restore a priceless Rembrandt painting. The process will be available to watch in real time via livestream and in person. Continue reading
A group of acclaimed international artists has signed an open letter to the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London protesting its sponsorship by oil giant BP. Continue reading
The descendants of a Nazi soldier are to return a €2 million (£1.8 million) painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Germany announced the result of the secret deal this week, which will see the painting handed back almost 75 years since it was looted. Continue reading
If you ever thought of making a career out of busking on a Brazilian subway carriage, think again. The Rio Court of Justice has banned street artists from performing on the subway on the basis that such performances disrupt commuters’ “tranquillity”.
A controversial painting, supposedly by Caravaggio (1571-1610), has been purchased by a mystery buyer just two days before it was due to be sold at auction. “Judith and Holofernes” was sold for an unknown price, although it was expected to fetch at least US$110 million (£86.5 million). Continue reading
Drone activity over Britain’s most beautiful stately homes, castles, monuments and landscapes has prompted English Heritage to ban the unapproved use of unmanned aerial vehicles over all of its sites. Continue reading
In April 2018, a French museum dedicated to the painter Étienne Terrus (1857-1922) announced that over half of its collection were, in fact, fakes. Exactly how this catastrophic mistake was made remains a mystery over a year since the discovery. Continue reading
This week French-Israeli telecoms billionaire, Patrick Drahi, bought Sotheby’s auction house for a staggering $3.7 billion (£2.9 billion). Drahi’s purchase returns the auction house to private ownership after 30 years of public trading on the stock market. Continue reading
