This week's Art Collecting and Investment News

Posted on July 13, 2008 at 7:37 PM.

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Sunday 13^th, 2008

Progressive's prized artworks go on view in a collection of essays ...
CORPORATE - In 1974, the board granted half that amount. Leaning on the ad vice of dealer Arthur Feldman, who specialized in prints and contemporary art, Lewis purchased his first work: Jasper Johns' 1968 litho graph "Black No.
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA

Stampede 2009 bronc poster sold for $105000
CANADA - A painting of next year's Stampede poster subject, Grated Coconut, one of the most honoured bareback broncs in professional rodeo, sold for a record $105,000 at Thursday's annual art auction.
Calgary Herald - AB, Canada

Saturday 12^th, 2008

Art protest over Chinese human rights
SWITZERLAND - Amnesty Switzerland says said this type of protest was chosen because China refuses to deal with the organisation. It claims that the Olympic Games, which are due to start on August 8, have caused further human rights abuses in China.
                                                                                                               Swissinfo - Switzerland

Eleventh International Art and Artificial Life Competition Vida ...
MADRID - The competition is open to art projects that explore the interaction between "synthetic" life and "organic" life as a reflection of the field of artificial life. 572 artists from 32 countries have participated, and awarded projects include robots, electronic avatars, chaotic algorithms, cellular automats, computer viruses and virtual ecologies.
                                                                                                                             Art Daily - USA

Art's first summit
INDIA - Some of the panelists include Rajiv Lochan, director, NGMA, Pooja Sood, chairperson Khoj, Robert Storr, Dean, Yale University School of Art. "It's not just an art fair but a platform for different stakeholders to deliberate.
                                                                                                               Hindustan Times - India

Friday 11^th, 2008

Nan Rosenthal Retires From the Metropolitan Museum of Art
NEW YORK - Nan Rosenthal, senior consultant for modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, retired on July 1, the museum announced today. Rosenthal spent 15 years curating such exhibitions as this year's "Jasper Johns: Gray"
                                                                                                 ARTINFO - New York,NY,USA

Living Art
LONDON - Among more recent stars making their mark was South African figurative painter Marlene Dumas, who drew the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living female artist: $6.3 million for "The Visitor,"
                                                                                                         Wall Street Journal - USA

'La Surprise'
LONDON - On July 8, Christie's sold "La Surprise" for nearly $24.4 million. "This is not only one of the most extraordinary rediscoveries of recent years, but also the most expensive French Old Masters painting ever sold at auction," explained Richard Knight and Paul Raison, both directors at Christie's.
                                                                                                                      Forbes - NY,USA

French Man Pleads Guilty in Art Heist
FRANCE - Bernard Jean Ternus - who faces a maximum federal prison sentence of up to 15 years for the crime and a related charge of visa fraud - he and his co-conspirators tried to sell the stolen paintings to undercover agents from the FBI and the French National Police.
                                                                                                                        ABC News - USA

MoMA Buys a Suite of 3 Johns Paintings
NEW YORK - The Museum of Modern Art's relationship with Jasper Johns stretches back half a century, to his first solo exhibition, in 1958, at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York.
                                                                                                  New York Times - United States

Museum Investigated in Purchase of Painting
DENVER, US - The acquisition was financed through an unusual arrangement with Philip Anschutz, the Denver billionaire and art collector. In return for a financial donation. Mr. Anschutz received a 50 percent ownership stake in the painting, as well as a comparable stake in a painting already in the museum's collection, reported The Post.
                                                                                                  New York Times - United States

Prices soar for modern Pakistani art
PAKISTAN - They are looking for paintings by Mansoor Aye, who died earlier this year, or by the elderly and frail Tasadduq Sohail. In Pakistan's increasingly speculative art market, posthumous sales of better known painters can bring windfall profits.
                                                                                                                           BBC News - UK

New faces and the new spaces: Rebirth of the British art scene
LONDON - The nature of the spaces has changed, too. "The main change is economic," says Nick Hackworth, director of Paradise Row. "The strength of the art market, the popularity of contemporary art and the viability of selling work."
Independent - London,England,UK

Thursday 10^th, 2008

Turner, Hals Works Sold in 51.5 Million-Pound Sotheby's Auction
LONDON - Paintings by Turner and Hals helped Sotheby's last night raise 51.5 million pounds ($102 million) with fees, its second-highest total for an Old Master sale in London.
Bloomberg - USA

Insurance for Art Collectors Covers Ownership Disputes
ART INSURANCE, US - A new insurance product, art title insurance, is meant to protect both buyers and sellers against these kinds of problems. At the moment, only one company, called ARIS, offers it.
New York Sun - United States

Bubbles, Booms, and Busts: The Art Market in 2008
GLOBAL - Most important, it's not just about the work of art; rather, the value placed on a particular work derives from how it feels to own that art. Most art dealers know that art buying is all about what tier of buyers you aspire to join, about establishing a self-identity and, yes, getting some publicity.
New York Sun - United States

Wednesday 9^th, 2008

Painter completes zero-G artwork
VIDEO, MOSCOW - British painter Nasser Azam has said he is "ecstatic" after completing two sets of artwork in zero gravity. The 44-year-old climbed 23,000 feet in a specially modified plane to work on two large triptychs while weightless. The flight took a series of dramatic climbs and dives that allowed Azam to experience short bursts of "zero-G".

BBC News - UK

Artfest International and Romanho Company Bring Art From the East
DALLAS, US - Artfest International, Inc. (OTCBB: ARTI) -- Artfest is bringing to the USA art community a once in a lifetime exclusive opportunity to appreciate international Russian art that has never been shown in exhibition this side of the iron curtain.
CNNMoney.com - USA

New York's Chrysler Building Bought by Abu Dhabi Fund (Update1)
NEW YORK - New York's Chrysler Building, an Art Deco icon that helps define the New York skyline, was bought by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, the second purchase of a Manhattan landmark by Middle East investors in as many months.
Bloomberg - USA

France brushes up on modern art
PODCAST, FRANCE- Under a proposed law, corporate collectors will get generous tax breaks when they buy work from living artists. French auction houses will be deregulated and guarantee minimum prices and individuals will be offered interest-free loans.
Marketplace - Los Angeles,CA,USA

Party Lines
NEW YORK, POLITICAL ART - There is often an assumption that the market is at best indifferent--and at worst, hostile--to political art. So Chan's career trajectory prompts the question: Is addressing the issues of the day really the commercial liability conventional wisdom would suggest?
ARTINFO - New York,NY,USA

Tuesday 8^th, 2008

Rich Spend on Art; Lower-Price Works Languish, UK Survey Says
GLOBAL - A net balance of 43 percent more respondents reported rising prices in the 50,000 pounds-plus tier. Forty-one percent more reported falling prices for items valued at less than 1,000 pounds, according to the survey.
                                                                                                                      Bloomberg - USA

Developed five-year business plan with Christie's International ...
LONDON - Edward Dolman is Christie's first chief executive officer to have been a specialist, who understands the pressure and the nature of valuing art. Part of his mission is attracting other highly motivated specialists into their business.
                                                                                                                                 CNN - USA

India to hold biggest-ever art summit in August
NEW DELHI - (IANS) India will join the ranks of global art hubs like Basel in Switzerland and Miami in the US with its first multi-disciplinary global art fair, the India Art Summit, here August 22-24.
                                                                            Thaindian.com - Bangkok,Bangkok,Thailand

Largest art show in Beijing opens to mark Olympics
BEIJING - An international sculpture art exhibit, the largest and of the highest standard since new China was founded in1949, opened here on Tuesday to mark the August Olympiad. Themed "Colors and Olympics," the Beijing International Art Biennial.
                                                                                                                         Xinhua - China

Bright picture for super-rich despite gloom
GLOBAL - While surveyors say that confidence in the arts and antiques market for the rest of the year is weakening as a slowdown in the housing market leads to fewer house clearances, reducing the number of items being offered at auction.
                                                                                                                   Times Online - UK

Sainsbury's gift of art is a national treasure
LONDON - Simon Sainsbury, having the good fortune to become immensely rich, spent his money wisely. The 18 paintings that he left outright to the nation (not in lieu of tax) are well worth seeing at Tate Britain in London,
guardian.co.uk - UK

First (and last) chance to see Sainsbury's bequest
LONDON - One of the most significant bequests to the nation in a century, including masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, goes on public display from today.
Independent - London,England,UK

Koons blooms, Hirst stalls
LONDON - It was also a tricky time for Damien Hirst ahead of his one-man sale at Sotheby's in September. One sold on its low estimate, four below the estimate after supportive bidding from one of his dealers (London's White Cube gallery), and the sixth, a medicine cabinet estimated at £450,000, was unsold.
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Monday 7^th, 2008

Louis Vuitton, LA Museum Sued by Art Collector Over Prints
US - Louis Vuitton North America and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles were sued by a collector who alleges they sold artworks without proper documents supporting the value.
Bloomberg - USA

Art demand 'bucks credit crunch'
GLOBAL - Investors are looking to purchase items that will provide a high return in future sales. Contemporary art, such as urban art, was the strongest sector, the survey found. One work by Banksy called "Laugh now but one day we will be in charge" sold for £100,000.
BBC News - UK

Indian art: unique yet mainstream
LOS ANGELES, US - But Saloni Mathur, a professor of art history at UCLA, sees two major developments at work. The first, she agrees, is "the opening up of the Indian economy and in general the whole phenomenon of globalization that's spearheaded by the Internet." .
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA

Vuitton's Richard Prince Bags, Hermes at Tate: Fashion Art
GLOBAL - ``I think there's a huge collapse between fashion, art, and music right now,'' said the 58-year-old artist, standing near his images of nurses and nude biker girls. ``The snobbery factor I don't think really exists anymore. It's because artists are much more collaborative.''
Bloomberg - USA

Art market defies the gloom
GLOBAL - Contemporary art was the best performing sector for the second quarter running, with 48 per cent more surveyors reporting a rise rather than a fall in prices. Activity was strongest at the top end of
Times Online - UK

Art with a mission
ART & CHARITY - While selling online is easy and inexpensive, it is open to debate whether a traditional auction house would attract higher prices: a Hirst Spin Painting of the same size, format, materials and date sold last December at an auction house in Paris for €25,000
guardian.co.uk - UK

'Outstanding' art to be displayed
VIDEO, LONDON - A collection of important works by artists including Francis Bacon and Claude Monet are to go on display to the public for the first time. The art was left to Tate Britain and the National Gallery by collector Simon Sainsbury, who died in 2006.
BBC News - UK