An iconic “Balloon Dog” sculpture by Jeff Koons has been accidentally smashed to pieces in Miami. According to witnesses of the shocking mishap, the unnamed art collector said she “just wanted to disappear” after knocking the $42,000 (£35,000) piece off its stand.
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Over the past few months, there has been increasing tension in the art world over AI-generated images. In January of this year, for example, a class-action lawsuit was brought by three American artists, Kelly McKernan, Sarah Anderson and Karla Ortiz against three AI imagery generators. The artists said that they had not consented to having their copyrighted works of art included in a database used by the image generators, they had not been compensated, and their influence was not credited when AI images were made using their works.
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Tate Britain has announced that over the coming months it will be working on a complete rehang of their free displays, which is to be unveiled in May 2023. The new display will feature over 800 works by more than 350 artists, with a focus on female artists and works acquired since the millennium.
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A masterpiece by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) that was recently restituted to the heirs of a Jewish collecting couple could fetch up to $45 million (£37.4 million) at Sotheby’s. It is one of the most important works by the artist ever to appear at auction as a rare example of his early style.
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According to Bloomberg, Bonhams itself could be offered for sale for $1 billion (£823 million) by its owners, the private equity group Epiris, who are reportedly seeking advice from JP Morgan Chase & Co.. The 230-year-old auction house is one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques.
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Last week, the much anticipated Rijksmuseum exhibition, Vermeer, opened to the public and is already receiving outstanding reviews. The popularity of the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was confirmed when over 200,000 advance tickets for the exhibition were sold.
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The luxury goods conglomerate LVMH has given a Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) painting to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris worth a whopping €43 million (£38.3 million). According to experts, it was one of the last Impressionist masterpieces still in private hands before the donation.
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Global superstar Madonna is best known for being the “Queen of Pop”, but recently she’s been making headlines as the owner of a possible long-lost masterpiece. Experts believe the early 19th-century artwork that now hangs in Madonna’s home was once displayed in the Amiens museum in France, before it mysteriously disappeared during the first world war.
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A rare heart-shaped pendant linked to Henry VIII (1491-1547) and his first wife, Katherine of Aragón (1485-1536) was unveiled at the British Museum alongside thousands of treasures discovered by metal detectorists in 2021. Although the spectacular pendant is still to be valued, it has already been designated as an object of national importance.
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A repatriation ceremony held in Bethlehem last month marked the first time the US has repatriated an item to Palestinian authorities. The object in question was one of the 180 stolen artifacts uncovered in the collection of American billionaire Michael Steinhardt last year. Steinhardt has since received a lifetime ban from collecting antiquities.
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