News
Mysterious Engravings Question Authorship of Shakespeare's Works
William Shakespeare was a commoner who wrote witty plays attended by Queen Elizabeth. Sir Francis Bacon was a noble who served as her Attorney General. Right?
Auctions
In Brief
$44M O'Keeffe Painting More Than Triples Auction Record for Woman Artist
Hot on the heels of a $1.5 billion art auction week, a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe broke the record for the most expensive work by a female artist sold at auction this morning.
In Brief
Gallery Auctions Off Artworks to the Highest Emotional Bidder
As those of us without mountains of money continue to gawk and gripe over the unceasingly exorbitant sums fetched by art auctions, a Swedish glassware brand has gone out on a limb and tried something different: auctioning off artworks to people who have the strongest physical reactions to them.
Art
The History of Space Travel in 10 Objects
As our shuttles have gone into retirement and we look to the future of what space travel will mean for human exploration, there are plenty of artifacts left behind with which to examine the successes and failures of our journeying into beyond our atmosphere.
News
Portugal Tries and Fails to Sell Art to Help Pay Debts
Can and should a government sell art to help pay off its debts? That's been the question driving ongoing discussions about Detroit, but it's also being raised across the Atlantic, where 85 works by Joan Miró were withdrawn from a Christie's auction this week.
News
NY Court Ruling Allows Auction Sellers to Remain Anonymous
The New York Court of Appeals has ruled in the case of Jenack v. Rabidazeh, reversing a lower court's decision and allowing sellers of objects at auction to remain anonymous.
News
East Africa Has Its First Major Art Auction
Love them or hate them, auctions often signal a milestone, whether it's for new media art or work from a specific region. Recently, Circle Art Agency, a Kenyan arts organization, hosted the first major art auction in East Africa. With 47 works from 43 artists, the auction was incredibly successful,
Opinion
Auction Trolls
Yesterday's first digital art auction at Phillips may have just taken the crown for being the most memorable contemporary art auction for me since Damien Hirst's auction at Sothebys in London the day Lehman collapsed in 2008. I was there. It was wild. So was yesterday.
Art
Want Francis Bacon's Paintbrushes and a Taxidermied Ostrich? This Is Your Moment
Have you ever wanted to own Francis Bacon's old brushes, on which scabs of paint gnarl the worn handles, leftover residue of works of warped forms? Well, good news: there's a Christie's auction for you, and you can even pick up a dancing robot and taxidermy ostrich while you're at it.
News
Record Set for Artwork Offered Online Only, $1.98M
There are new signs that collectors are becoming more comfortable with online art sales. Last Friday, June 21, a watercolor by Egon Schiele, “Reclining Woman” (1916), clicked in the highest price yet for an artwork offered in an online-only auction.
News
Historic Night at Christie's as 12 Post-War Artists Set Records, Biggest Sale in History
Tonight, auction world records have been set for 12 artists at Christie's contemporary evening sale in New York, including records for Basquiat, Pollock, de Kooning, Noland, Guston, and Lichtenstein.
News
Metropolitan Museum Snaps Up an Unrecognized David Drawing for $700
What happens when you get the best art historians, curators, and conservators together in a single museum? Well, you're pretty likely to get the best deals in the art world, as the Metropolitan Museum just did when it snagged a Jacques-Louis David drawing for $700 ($840 with premium).