London’s High Court granted victory to a husband and wife art advisory team on Tuesday (16 January) following a high stakes legal battle over a US$10 million (£7 million) commission. Continue reading
Tag: Art
East End rejoices as ‘Old Flo’ makes her triumphant return
Local councils battled for her, a disgraced mayor tried to sell her and Storm Brian almost toppled her. Now Henry Moore’s ‘Draped Seat Woman’ has at long last returned to London’s east end after holidaying in the green hills of Yorkshire. Continue reading
Fake Pollocks sold by mad collector circulating the art market
A forgery scandal on the scale of the Old Master fakes and Knoedler Gallery debacles has broken in the United States. Up to as many as 700 fake Jackson Pollock paintings may be circulating the art market according to a report by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR).
The Foundation has identified four fake Pollocks since 2013. Continue reading
Late artist’s window cleaner robbed boss of prized paintings
A window cleaner jumped at the chance to steal £500,000 worth of art from the home of late Scottish painter Alan Davie, a UK court has heard.
Daniel Pressland had cleaned Davie’s windows and performed odd-jobs for him since 2002. Aware of a first floor window in the artist’s Hertford home that could not be closed properly, Pressland burgled the house several times in the months following Davie’s death in 2014. Continue reading
Christie’s defeated in court battle over artist’s royalties
In a landmark judgment, a French court held on 24 March that art sellers must pay artist’s resale rights.
The ruling from the Versailles Court of Appeal marked the culmination of an eight-year legal battle between Christie’s auction house and two French associations of antique dealers and galleries. The battle began when the Syndicat National des antiquaires (SNA) and the Comité des galeries d’art sued Christie’s for unfair competition and abuse of its position. Christie’s had insisted that buyers pay artist’s royalties for works sold during an Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé sale in 2009. Continue reading
London grieves through street art
In the wake of Wednesday’s (22 March) terror attack in Westminster Londoners have paid an artistic tribute to those who perished.
Chalk drawings bearing positive messages of hope, peace and solidarity appeared on the paving in Trafalgar Square. They were crafted by four homeless street artists who handed out chalk and invited members of the public to inscribe their works with words and names. Continue reading
Van Gogh masterpieces return home
Two masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh stolen in an art heist were returned to display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam last Monday (20 March). Continue reading
Man arrested following attack on Thomas Gainsborough painting
London’s National Gallery was partially evacuated on Saturday (18 March) after a man armed with what appeared to be a screwdriver attacked a painting by English artist Thomas Gainsborough. Continue reading
German research fund to uncover stolen art in private collections
The German government has announced a €3.4 million (£2.95 million) national fund to subsidise provenance research into privately-owned artworks, which may have been looted during World War II. The decision marks a departure from previous arrangements, which were used to fund research into works held by German museums and libraries. It was prompted by the 2013 discovery of the Gurlitt art trove of which five works have been identified as looted or sold under duress. A further 153 works in the hoard are suspected of being stolen. Continue reading
Stubbs’ painting mistaken as copy quadruples in value
A painting previously thought to be a copy of a work by celebrated English artist George Stubbs has skyrocketed in value after it was reattributed to the artist himself.
‘Two Hacks, the property of Henry Ulrick Reay Esq of Burn Hall Co. Durham and their blue-liveried groom in a landscape’ (1789) depicts a groom exercising a pair of horses. It sold for US$215,000 (£177,000) at Christie’s New York in June 2016 with the attribution “After George Stubbs”. The vendor, the Huntington Library in California, had once considered the painting to be a genuine work by Stubbs. Later, in what art historian and BBC Fake or Fortune? team member, Bendor Grosvenor, has called “one of the biggest deaccessioning blunders of modern times” the library decided it was a later copy of an authorised painting held in the Ambrose Clark collection in America and offered it for sale. Continue reading
