A thirteen-year-old has made nearly $7 million by selling NFTs of her illustrations of women which are designed to incorporate the designer’s trademark long necks. Hayes’ drawings include a number of famous women, both historical and living, such as Michelle Obama, Virginia Woolf, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Greta Thunberg and Frida Kahlo. Hayes has said that the trademark long neck was inspired by her love as a child of brontosaurus dinosaurs.
Continue readingNFT artist FEWOCiOUS sells $19 million (£14.5 million) of digital art in 24 hours
Over the course of a mere 24 hours, NFT (non-fungible token) artist FEWOCiOUS has sold a staggering $19 million (£14.5 million) of his digital artwork. The limited public sale is the third-highest grossing in the history of the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.
Continue readingOn the Origin of Stealing: Charles Darwin notebooks returned after 2 decades
Two leather-bound notebooks written by the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) have mysteriously reappeared at the University of Cambridge, twenty-two years after they went missing. The notebooks are now worth many millions of pounds.
Continue readingUK and France both bar exports of works they deem ‘National Treasures’
Both the Louvre and the UK government have blocked the sale and export of two paintings which they deem to be ‘national treasures’. By doing so, the Louvre and a UK museum will be given the opportunity to raise the necessary funds to purchase the respective paintings.
Continue readingThe “ancestor of the NFT”: one of Yves Klein’s empty zones comes up for sale
During the final three years of his life, French conceptual artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) created nine “empty zones” (invisible and intangible areas of empty space existing only in conceptual terms) which could only be purchased with pure gold. The buyer was then presented with a receipt, which could either be set on fire in a ritual between artist and owner, or preserve it, meaning that the immaterial purchase would be transferrable. One of these receipts is now coming up for sale at Sotheby’s, and its similarities to the modern-day NFT are so notable that Sotheby’s are going so far as to accept not pure gold, but cryptocurrency for it.
Continue readingSweet success for Chardin’s record-breaking strawberry painting, selling at €24 million (£20 million)
Jean-Siméon Chardin’s (1699-1779) painting of a delectable stack of strawberries fetched €24 million (£20 million) with fees at Artcurial in Paris last week, smashing the French artist’s auction record.
Continue readingContemporary artists create exclusive NFT art for new platform
In the last year alone, the explosive success of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) has left many in the contemporary artworld baffled to say the least. But is crypto-art really ushering a new age of creativity or does it simply lack substance?
Continue readingThe Thief Collector: new documentary explores the 1985 theft of De Kooning painting
A documentary was premiered last week at the South by Southwest film festival exploring the puzzling theft of Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre (1955) painting from the University of Arizona, Tuscon. The film, which is directed by Allison Otto, proposes that the couple may have stolen the work not for money, but simply because they loved the painting.
Continue readingLost Canova masterpiece found in English garden valued at £5-8 million
A long-lost masterpiece by Antonio Canova (1757-1822), found in 2002 when it was sold at a garden centre auction for £5,200, is now worth between a staggering £5 million and £8million. 200 years a after its completion, the sculpture will be put up for auction again this summer at Christie’s.
Continue reading$30 million estimate for Met’s deaccessioned Picasso sculpture
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has announced that they will be deaccessioning a bronze sculpture in their collection, which will be sold at Christie’s this May. Whilst the estimate of the work is only available upon request, it is anticipated that it could fetch around $30 million, which would make it by far the highest valued object the museum has ever sold.
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