On this week’s art crime blotter: artists demand their work back from LA’s bankrupt Ace Gallery, a billionaire collector realizes she’s been missing a Picasso since 2009, and art dealer Perry Rubenstein is arrested and charged with embezzlement.
Pablo Picasso
France Lost Track of 23,000 State-Owned Artworks and Historic Objects
Nearly 23,000 works of state-owned art are missing in France and its overseas territories, lost over time from museums, town halls, and major institutions largely due to poor documentation and even theft.
Beyond Drips: Investigating Jackson Pollock’s Many Artistic Phases
“Come over here to the drips,” a visitor at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) advised friends.
Panama Papers Shed Light on the Shadowy Art Market
The leaked files pertaining to the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca have helped shed light on dealers and collectors’ pervasive use of shell companies to buy, sell, and hold art.
Previously Unpublished Pics of Picasso in His Studio
Rare, previously unpublished photographs of Pablo Picasso in his studio are now on view in Paris, offering intimate views of the artist in several of his French ateliers.
Learning About the Figure from Picasso’s Sculptures
Seeing the current retrospective of Picasso’s sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art reminded me of a graduate school experience, because as I wandered through the show I saw work that cleverly illustrated problems that sculptors would need to solve and questions they might have to answer in the course of plying their practice.
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a disgraced antiquities dealer’s stash of loot was discovered, a fake Picasso was seized by Turkish police, and a stolen portrait of R2-D2 was returned.
From Michelangelo to Marden, Seven Fierce Fistfights from Art History
WASHINGTON, DC — In her ongoing series Le ‘NEW’ Monocle, Shana Lutker creates stage sets and performances based on the circumstances and philosophical undertones of fistfights instigated by Surrealists in Paris in the 1920s.
How Artists Portrayed Prostitution in 19th-Century Paris
PARIS — Perhaps out of a kindred permissive, libertine spirit, prostitution — both chic demi-mondaine and lascivious, pierreuse street-walker style — played a central role in the nascent development of modern painting.
150,000 People Will Vote to Preserve or Pulverize a Picasso
Would you rather help donate an original Picasso to a museum, or keep a 1.5-square-milimeter scrap of it for yourself?
Best of 2015: Our Top 20 NYC Art Shows
Occasionally, we are forced to venture beyond Brooklyn to see art.
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a trucker took down an Antony Gormley statue, vandals hammered a shiny public sculpture, and a Swiss dealer got in trouble for selling stolen Picassos to a Russian billionaire.