In a last minute Christmas gift for UK arts institutions, the Government has announced it will be bolstering the export licensing system to save more national art treasures from leaving the UK.
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Category: Art News
Archaeologists discover ornate ancient food stand in Pompeii
Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000-year-old street stall adorned with painted gastronomical delights in Pompeii. Hidden under solidified volcanic ash since the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the stall provides a glimpse into the daily lives of the ancient Pompeiian people.
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Vatican’s Nativity scene causes controversy with astronaut and Darth Vader doppelganger
‘Twas a few days before Christmas, when all through the Vatican not an artwork was stirring, not even the Pietà. When out in St Peter’s Square there arose such a clatter, as the new Nativity scene attracted unfavourable chatter.
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Record £65 million of art enters public collections
A record-breaking £65 million worth of cultural objects have been bestowed to UK arts institutions under the acceptance in lieu scheme (AIL).
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Flemish old master painting discovered hiding in Brussels City Hall
Experts confirm that a religious painting, hanging for decades at the Saint-Gilles City Hall in Brussels, is in fact an early work by leading Flemish master Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678).
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Rare Georges de La Tour painting breaks auction records in Germany
An extremely rare artwork by French Baroque painter Georges de La Tour (1593–1652) has sold for a whopping €3.6 million (£3.2 million), €4.3 million with fees (£3.9 million) at Lempertz auction house in Cologne. Its sale on 8 December 2020 broke records, becoming the most expensive work ever sold at auction in Germany.
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German artist collective steal Beuys work in reverse-colonialism stunt
It feels a little like a homemade pop music video complete with cheesy dance sequences and slow, dramatic panning of its three young stars posing on a mountain top. In fact, the YouTube video, ‘Bad Beuys Go Africa’ is the political work of German artist collective Frankfurter Hauptschule.
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Sotheby’s ‘Sealed Bid’ sale offers $90 million Giacometti statue
Sotheby’s have secured a monumental sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti for an unconventional “sealed bid” sale. As part of the modern and contemporary art evening sales in New York, the confidential bidding ran from 20-27 October 2020.
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Nazi looted painting repatriated to Jewish family by FBI
Discovered at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, a Nazi looted painting has finally been returned to its rightful heirs after almost 90 years. This recent recovery is part of an international effort involving the FBI to restitute more than 1,000 artworks and artefacts seized in 1933 from the Mosse family, who were prominent Jewish residents of Berlin.
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Historians rule “lost” Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece never existed
After a centuries-old hunt, experts at a roundtable declared that a “lost” Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) masterpiece actually does not exist at all. Art historians Roberta Barsanti, Giancula Belli, Emanuela Ferrretti and Cecilia Frosinini presented the controversial findings at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence on 8 October 2020.
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