A view of a portrait which Italian art experts now believe to have been created by Renaissance genius Raphael in Florence, Italy, 07 May 2010. The painting had lain in storage in a ducal palace since the 1970s. At the time, experts said it was probably a 17th-century copy of a painting from the Raphael School. But Mario Scalini, an arts assessor, thinks it is actually an early version of a famous painting, the Madonna of the Pearl, which is held by the Prado Gallery in Madrid. EPA/STR.

A finely painted portrait of a demurely looking woman nestled in an exceptionally ornate frame that was kept in an Italian ducal palace storeroom appears to be a Raphael original and not a copy as long thought, an art official in central Italy said Friday.

Continue reading — Painting in Storage at Italian Ducal Palace May Be Raphael’s

A 1932 Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress has sold for $106.5 million, a world record price for any work of art at auction.

Pablo Picasso’s 1932 ‘Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust’ is seen at Christie’s auction house in New York. REUTERS

“Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which had a pre-sale estimate of between $70 million and $90 million, was sold at Christie’s auction house on Tuesday evening to an unidentified telephone bidder.

There were nine minutes of bidding involving eight clients in the sale room and on the phone, Christie’s said. At $88 million, two bidders remained. The final bid was $95 million, but the buyer’s premium took the sale price to $106.5 million.

Continue reading — Picasso Sells at Christie’s for $106.5 Million

Only two of the four artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner prize – Susan Philipsz and Angela de la Cruz – are worthy contenders. Not good enough.

“A candidate for the world’s first talent transplant”? Detail from Death of David Kelley (2008) by Turner prize shortlisted artist Dexter Dalwood. Photograph: Dave Morgan/Prudence Cuming Associates/Gagosian Gallery

Wot, no Banksy? There was some gossip before the announcement of this year’s Turner prize shortlist that the street artist who comically portrayed his own cultural milieu this year in his film Exit Through the Gift Shop might make the grade. Given that, according to Tate Britain’s director Penelope Curtis, no artist turned the nomination down, perhaps the judges never seriously considered him. But they should have done: the cult of Banksy may be annoying, but he has added new dimensions to his work this year that prove him a worthwhile and clever artist who would have added a lot of excitement to this year’s Turner prize. Frankly, it needs some.

Continue reading — Turner prize 2010

Mark Rothko, Untitled. Signed and dated 1961 on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 93? x 80? in. (236.5 x 203.5 cm) Est. $18/25 million.

On 12 May 2010 Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sale will offer works by some of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Brice Marden, among many others. The sale presents an interesting survey of the key artistic schools of the period including Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism and more recent contemporary art. The auction presents collectors with an opportunity to acquire works that, in many cases, have not been offered for decades. The overall estimate for the sale is $114/162 million.

Continue reading — Interesting Survey of Key Artistic Schools at Sotheby’s Sale

The Russians are coming. The multi-million pound herd of buyers who stampede around the world in pursuit of the art market’s “next big thing” is rushing this weekend to buy into what they hope will be the latest bubble: Russian art.

Natalia Goncharova, who died in 1962, was already the highest selling female artist at auction when Espagnole, painted during the First World War, sold in February for £6.4m. It beat her previous record of £5.5m set for Les Fleurs, sold in 2008

Auctioneers in Manhattan shifted more than 600 works from the former Soviet Union in just two days of what is being described as a “Russian tidal wave”.

The surge is partly thanks to the economic downturn which has seen the volume of work sold by the relatively cheaper artists soar.

Continue reading — The Russians are coming

Marcel Wanders Bon Bon Gold

Sotheby’s announced a new and exciting collaboration with Sudeley Castle with an inaugural selling exhibition of cutting-edge contemporary design to be staged in the spectacular grounds of the estate from Friday 28 May to Sunday 1 August 2010. The Sotheby’s selling exhibition, arranged in association with Carpenters Workshop Gallery, will showcase a series of one-off and limited edition pieces by leading contemporary artists and designers including Marc Quinn, Lionel Scoccimaro, Pablo Reinoso, Marcel Wanders, Jurgen Bey, Wendell Castle, Robert Stadler, Vincent Dubourg and Ingrid Donat, as well as the design ateliers Studio Job, Demakersvan and Atelier Van Lieshout.

Continue reading — Sotheby’s Announces its First Ever Outdoor Exhibition at Sudeley Castle

To the untutored eye little is different about “The Actor,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rare Rose Period Picasso, other than that it is now safely behind plexiglass. It’s virtually impossible to tell that on a January afternoon a woman taking an adult education class accidentally fell into the canvas, causing a six-inch vertical tear along the lower right-hand corner.

“The Actor,” left, by Picasso, is back on display in a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art after having a rip repaired.

“The Actor” went back on the museum’s wall last week as curators started installing “Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” an exhibition that opens next Tuesday (with previews for members through the weekend) and includes nearly all of the institution’s collection of Picasso’s oeuvre: paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints and ceramics.

Continue reading — Damaged Picasso Returns to the Met After Repair