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).
Auctions
Posted inArt
Bidding on Oblivion
On Election Day, The New York Times featured an above-the-fold story in its Arts section about the fate of fake art as the country was deciding the fate of a fake politician. The article was illustrated by a tiny, smudged color reproduction of, as the caption states, a “disputed Jackson Pollock that a Manhattan gallery sold for $17 million.”
Posted inNews
Study Finds Google Hits Correspond With Art Sales
A researcher at Washington State University has used Google hits as an indicator of an artist’s fame in a study measuring the factors that influence sales at auction.
Posted inArt
Tribeca Film Fest Special: In Saint Laurent Film, Opposites Attract
When fashion impresario Yves Saint Laurent was once asked to name his favorite poet, he paused for a moment, smiled and spoke Pierre Bergé’s name in a soft tone. This “poet” was the designer’s devoted companion for over fifty years. He was also the impresario that ran the logistics of the Yves St. Laurent Couture House from day one in 1961 until its final bow in 2002. But his was probably his knack for finding the right word at the right time that enabled both their business and romance to last.
Posted inOpinion
Why China’s Auction Market is Tops
A study by Artprice finds that the Chinese art market is the largest in the world — but only in terms of auctions. The misleading news bite is telling in other ways, though. The Chinese domestic auction market is growing so quickly in part because Western auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have failed to dominate even while the Chinese collector community has grown hugely.
Posted inNews
The Ides of March Auctions
The New York Observer has a report about the recent New York art auctions and it lists who the author thinks are some of the winners and losers … In other news, BBC announced that China just became the second biggest auction market in the world.
Posted inArt
New Year’s Resolutions for the Art World
The new year is always a time of idealism. We want to improve ourselves, lose weight, find success in a new career: everyone has high aspirations. Why shouldn’t we do the same for the art world? Here’s a list of resolutions I have for the contemporary art community in 2011. There are some suggestions, some criticisms and some predictions, but what they all have in common is a desire to foster a better public artistic dialogue, free of some of the snares we encountered over this past year. Click through for a small flash of optimism before what promises to be a roller coaster ride.
Posted inNews
Candy Sells For $4.5 Million At Philips de Pury Auction
Halloween is already past, so candy is supposed to be on sale, right? Not at last night’s Philips de Pury sale when a lucky bidder ended up paying $4.5 million for 200 pounds of blue cellophane-wrapped treats. The candy pile by Felix Gonzalez-Torres was only one of a number of high-selling works at the auction house’s Carte Blanche and Contemporary Art Part I auctions.
