Sotheby’s has reportedly received a $4.2 million (£3.2m) settlement payment from London-based art dealer, Mark Weiss, against whom Sotheby’s issued Court proceedings in February 2017, after discovering that the Old Master painting it had sold on his behalf was a forgery. Continue reading
Following the alleged discovery of a Nazi treasure train in August, Poland has made headlines once again with claims that a Renaissance masterpiece was looted from Krakow during the 1939 occupation. Continue reading
Ibrahim Mahama, a young Ghanaian artist, is facing a law suit filed by two art dealers, Stefan Simchowitz and Jonathan Ellis King, who allege that by declaring hundreds of signed works inauthentic, Mahama breached a contract with them and potentially devalued works valued at $4.45 million. Continue reading
The artist Georg Baselitz has added fuel to the controversy surrounding the German government’s proposal to revise the nation’s cultural protection legislation.
Baselitz, who is one of Germany’s best known contemporary artists, has said that he will withdraw all works on permanent or long-term loan to German museums. Continue reading
A US District Court in Los Angeles has dismissed claims that a painting by French Impressionist Camille Pissarro should be restituted to the heirs of a Jewish woman who was forced to sell the work under the Nazi regime. The decision is part of one of the longest running art restitution cases in the USA. Continue reading
After a century of dispute, the National Gallery in London has indicated that 39 paintings in the collection might morally, although not legally, belong to Ireland after all. Continue reading
The performance artist Marina Abramović has expressed her fury at the hip-hop mogul Jay-Z at not honouring an agreement following their 2013 collaboration ‘Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film’, an adaption of the artist’s 2010 work ‘The Artist is Present’. Continue reading
A long dispute over a stolen 13th century oil panel believed to be by the early-Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna has finally been resolved in courts in New York. Continue reading
At the end of last month the British Museum and the UK Government formally declined UNESCO’s request to enter into mediation on the subject of transferring the Parthenon marbles back to Greece. Removed by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the 1800s, the marbles were sold to the British Museum in 1816 and have remained there ever since. The sculptures date from 447-432 BC, and are divided between London and a purpose built museum in Athens. Continue reading
It was widely reported last week that a Palestinian man had complained to police that he had been duped into selling a Banksy that had appeared on the door of his bomb-damaged house. Police have now seized the work in dispute. Continue reading
