Art Market Archives

Hauser & Wirth Buy Soho’s Groucho Club For £40m

The Groucho Club, an infamous Soho watering hole known for its literary and arty crowd, has been purchased by gallerists Hauser & Wirth

Horniman Return Benin Bronzes To Nigeria – Henry Darger Federal Lawsuit Revealed – Green Light For Gormley Alan Turing Sculpture

Horniman Agrees To Return Benin Bronzes To Nigeria – Henry Darger Federal Lawsuit Revealed – Green Light For Gormley Sculpture Celebrating Codebreaker Alan Turing

Documenta Director Sabine Schormann Resigns Over Antisemitism Row – Sotheby’s Sell $2.5m Tables Made From Asbestos – Complete Hilma af Klint Catalogue Raisonné To Be Published

Paris+ par Art Basel: New Kid On The Block Announces Exhibitors

Paris+ par Art Basel, which has all but replaced the French art fair FIAC in the Grand Palais, has announced the lineup for the 2022 fair.

Victor Pinchuk Donates £10.2m Jeff Koons Balloon Monkey Proceeds To Aid Ukraine

The sale proceeds of Jeff Koons’ iconic Balloon Monkey (Magenta) (2006-13), which sold for £10,136,500 / $12,437,486 / €11,738,067 at Christie’s last night…

Man Ray Sets New Photography Record Price at $12.4m

A Man Ray photograph ‘Le Violon d’Ingres’ has set a new record price for a photograph, selling for $12.4 million

Otto Dix Watercolours From The Gurlitt Hoard Auctioned

Ten years after the Gurlitt Hoard (“Schwabing Art Trove”) hit the headlines worldwide, two important watercolours by Otto Dix will go under the hammer at Ketterer Kunst

Andy Warhol Marilyn Breaks 20th c Auction Records – Art Fund Museum Of The Year Shortlist Announced – Sackler Name Removed From National Gallery London And Guggenheim

Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn made double history last night as the most expensive pCostly Costly painting ever sold by a US artist and the most costly 20th-century work of art to sell at auction

The Return Of A Post Pandemic Art Brussels – Paul Carey Kent

Art Brussels sprouts back to life after two years missed for Covid, from 28 April – 1 May.

Maurizio Cattelan Sued – New York Auction Industry Deregulation – Major Tate Liverpool Refurbishment

The Italian Conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan is being sued in Paris over intellectual property infringement.

Rembrandt Landscape Discovered In Berlin Museum Collection – Titian Penitent Magdalene To Be Auctioned In Vienna

A Landscape painting depicting an arch bridge thought to be the work of one of Rembrandt’s students, Govert Flinck, has been attributed to the master himself. “Landscape with Arch Bridge “was acceded into the Berlin collections in 1924, and up until the 1980s, it was always considered an original work by Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn. […]

UK And France Export Bar For Cézanne And Chardin Paintings

The UK Government has placed an export bar on ‘Ferme Normande, Été’ (Hattenville) 1882 by Paul Cézanne to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the painting. The privately-owned masterpiece had been on loan to the Courtauld Gallery in London since 1980. Valued at £10 million, the work was once part of […]

Anish Kapoor Calls For Boycott Of Russian Owned Phillips Auctioneers – Damien Hirst Claimed Millions in Furlough Payments – Cecilia Vicuña Awarded Hyundai Commission At Tate Modern

The Turner Prize-Winning sculptor Anish Kapoor has called for a boycott of Phillips Auctioneers. In a statement published in the New York Times, he said, “Putin’s cronies are a legitimate target wherever they are.” “Phillips is as good a target as Chelsea football club,” he said, referring to the football team owned by Russian billionaire […]

No Surprises: Annual Art Basel Global Art Market Report 2022 Revealed

The Art Basel Market Report 2022 is a highly anticipated industry barometer.

Mega Dealer Ivor Braka Sued By Artist Collection Societies – Mariupol Museum Levelled – Artist Steve McQueen Knighted

The Art dealer Ivor Braka is being sued by artists’ resale rights groups for not paying royalties to living artists or their estates. The Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS) and the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) have challenged the dealer in a rare court case. The suit is expected to set a legal precedent for […]

Should The V&A Close Their Fabergé Egg Exhibition – Tate And RA Sever Relations With Russian Billionaires – Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams Cancel Russian Art Sales

Whenever you hear the name Fabergé, you think of opulent, lavish, jewelled, decorated, and, let’s face it, kitsch, Russian Imperial eggs. Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution opened on the 20 November 2021 at the V&A London. It is set to run until 8 May; however, should we be selling tickets to a show that […]

Russian Raphael Painting Withdrawn From London Show – Jeff Koons Loses Another Court Battle – Metropolitan Museum To Deaccess $30m Picasso Bronze

One of the centrepieces of the National Galleries’ long-awaited Raphael exhibition has been withdrawn due to the escalating war in Ukraine. Raphael’s The Holy Family, part of Russia’s State Hermitage Museum collection, in St Petersburg will not be exhibited. This is a direct result of the situation that has arisen due to Russia’s invasion of […]

Ukraine Goes Ahead With Venice Biennale Pavilion – Russian Art Collector Roman Abramovich Slapped With U.K. Sanctions – Katharina Fritsch And Cecilia Vicuña Win Golden Lions

The organisers of the Venice Biennale have confirmed that the Ukraine pavilion will go ahead as planned this April.

Restituted Franz Marc Painting Achieves £42.6m At Inaugural Christie’s Shanghai Sale – Ukraine Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Bombed By Russia – Jerwood Donates £5m Gallery To Hasting’s Contemporary

Christie’s has launched the inaugural 20th/21st Century: Shanghai to London sale series with staggering results. This pioneering cultural dialogue between two major international art hubs, live-streamed from Christie’s in Shanghai and London with incorporated salerooms in Hong Kong and New York proves you can sell from anywhere. The sale series coincides with Christie’s new gallery […]

Roy Lichtenstein Widow bequeaths Artist’s Studio To The Whitney – Large Roman Mosaic Unearthed In London – Art Basel Announces Spring Exhibitors List

The widow of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein has announced that the Lichtenstein family has donated the late artist’s studio building to the Museum. The Whitney, who since moving downtown in 2015 has been a neighbour of the studio, operating four blocks north on Gansevoort Street, will adapt the space to serve as the first permanent […]

The Upside Of Macklowe’s Toxic Divorce – Sotheby’s Settlement Auction

Last November’s Sotheby’s sale of 35 works from The Macklowe Collection was nothing less than historic, realising $676.1 million, the highest value single-owner auction ever staged. Its success is a homage to the art of collecting in its highest form. Now, this spring, Sotheby’s will offer 30 more blue-chip works from this celebrated collection. Furthermore, […]

Punk It! Sotheby’s $30m NFT Sale – Yinka Shonibare Takes On Sketch Revamp – Museum Recovery Support Announced By ACE And Lottery Fund

Following the success of Sotheby’s inaugural NFT sales in 2021, which to date have achieved $100 million since launching less than a year ago, Sotheby’s announces the first dedicated live evening auction for NFTs, Punk It!, a single-lot sale of 104 CryptoPunks on 23 February. Carrying the landmark estimate of $20/30 million, the sale marks […]

Tate Permanently Removes Sackler Name From Buildings – Picasso Guernica Tapestry Returns To UN – Henry Darger Estate Rights Dispute

Tate has backtracked under public pressure and will now remove the existing Sackler names from two of its London museums. The disgraced philanthropic Sackler family were the manufacturers of the highly addictive opioid drug OxyContin, which they marketed through Purdue Pharma, a family-owned private company. Over 500,000 deaths have been recorded in the US alone […]

US Treasury Releases Report On Illicit Art Market Money Laundering

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has published their study on the facilitation of money laundering and the financing of terrorism through the trade in works of high-value art. Heavyweight art dealers and auction houses spent over $1 million lobbying federal officials in Washington on this and other regulatory issues over the past two years. […]

Theaster Gates To Create 2022 Serpentine Pavilion – $30 Estate Sale Albrecht Dürer Reoffered At $10m – Biden Reverses Trump’s Public Art Policy

Theaster Gates’ The Black Chapel will be the 21st Serpentine Pavilion. The Chicago-based artist, along with the architectural support of Adjaye Associates, will open to the public on Friday, 10 June 2022. The Pavilion’s design alludes to the performative and meditative qualities of a small chapel Drawing inspiration from the significance of the great kilns […]

New Damien Hirst NFT Announced But Is It A Flash In The Pan

After earning a cool $25m from his first NFT publication, Damien Hirst, the artist who loves to print money is releasing his second series of NFTs. The Empresses is a series of five prints depicting carefully composed images of butterflies by Damien Hirst and published by HENI Editions. The prints are available to purchase on […]

FOG Design + Art In San Francisco Kick Off 2022 – Virginie Puertolas-Syn

I really enjoyed attending the FOG Design+Art Opening Gala in San Francisco on the 19th of January.

Three New Royal Academicians Announced – Late Botticelli Painting Sells for $45.4m – Robbie Williams £10m Banksy Paintings Auctioned At Sotheby’s

The Royal Academy of Arts has elected three new Royal Academicians: Michael Armitage, in the category of Painting, Peter Barber, in the category of Architecture, and Ryan Gander, in the category of Sculpture. In addition, professor Dame Sarah Gilbert and Hisham Matar were elected as Honorary Fellows. This all took place at a recent General […]