As a growing number of masterpieces head to auction in the US, critics question whether deaccessioning is the right approach for museums to take in the wake of the pandemic. So, what is all the fuss about?
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Dispute over Pissarro shared by France and USA returns to court
The owner of a Camille Pissarro painting plundered by the Nazis during the Second World War has reopened a decades-long battle over its ownership.
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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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Long-lost Jacob Lawrence painting discovered by New York museum goer
Assumed missing for 60 years, an important painting by African American artist, Jacob Lawrence, (1917-2000) has been unexpectedly discovered in a private collection in New York. It has now been reunited with the rest of the series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the public can view the panel for the first time since 1960.
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Beastie Boys Mike D to sell mum’s collection at Sotheby’s for $30 million (£23 million)
Beastie Boys rapper Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond is selling his mum’s spectacular collection of Old Masters and contemporary art at Sotheby’s in New York. Entitled ‘Fearless: The Collection of Hester Diamond’, the upcoming sale is expected to fetch as much as $30 million (£23 million).
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Is it or isn’t it a Banksy? Street artist battle over Nottingham’s hula-hooping girl
The sudden appearance of a street artwork in Nottingham has sparked a row over the painting’s attribution.
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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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Archaeologists discover new style of Aboriginal rock art in Australia
Archaeologists have uncovered a previously undescribed style of Aboriginal rock art across an 80-mile stretch of northern Australia’s Arnhem Land. A total of 570 paintings were identified, depicting long-extinct creatures and extraordinary relationships between humans and animals.
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