On Monday evening, firefighters battled against a truly devastating fire that tore its way through one of Paris’s national treasures – the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The cathedral was undergoing an extensive restoration programme when the fire started, although the cause is unknown. Continue reading
Move over Musée d’Orsay and Louvre. A new museum has docked in Paris and it’s the first in the world to float on water. Continue reading
The trial of three men involved in an extraordinary art heist worth €180 million (£155 million), which began on Monday (31 January) is due to resume today in Paris.
Earlier this week, the court heard that the five paintings stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2010 were tossed in the trash by one of the co-defendants. Panicked by the thought of imminent capture, Yonathan Birn is said to have removed the stolen works from their hiding place in his studio and binned them in 2011. Continue reading
French conceptual artist ORLAN has been ordered to pay music superstar Lady Gaga £17,000 (€20,000) after Paris’ High Court rejected her plagiarism suit on 7 July.
ORLAN, whose own body forms the centre of her artistic practice of ‘carnal art’, accused Lady Gaga of appropriating her work and sought £24.2 million (US$31.7 million) from the singer. Continue reading
Two Parisian antique dealers have been arrested on suspicion of selling fake Louis XV chairs to the Palace of Versailles, Le Monde reported on Thursday (9 June).
Laurent Kraemer, of Kraemer Gallery and Bill Pallot, both experts in 18th century furniture, were detained by art fraud officers from a specialist French police unit, ‘l’office central de lutte contre le trafic de biens culturels’ (l’OCBC) on Tuesday (7 June). They had been under investigation by the OCBC since 2012. Continue reading
Leonardo di Caprio and Hilary Swank may be toasting the opening of Art Basel Miami this week but an art event of an entirely different nature in Paris is capturing the world’s attention. Continue reading
New twists are emerging in the case of the missing Picassos we wrote about a few weeks back.
It is now believed that more than 60 works owned by the Spanish artist’s step-daughter Catherine Hutin-Blay were sold without her consent by the Parisian art dealer Olivier Thomas. Continue reading
A court of appeal in Paris has ordered online auction house artnet to pay damages of 764,412 Euros to auction house photographer Stéphane Briolant for violation of copyright relating to 6,758 of his images used alongside auction sales results in the artnet Price Database. Continue reading
