Picture provided by the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation , BKA, in Berlin on Monday June 28, 2010 shows the painting ‘The Taking of Christ, or The Kiss of Judas’ by Italian painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) . Police say they have recovered the stolen Caravaggio painting and arrested four members of an international gang of art thieves in the German capital. Police said Monday the painting was recovered Friday after they arrested four men – three Ukrainians and a Russian – as they tried to sell it to an interested buyer in Berlin. The 16th-century painting – “The Taking of Christ, or the Kiss of Judas” – is worth several million euros (dollars) and was stolen from the Museum of Western and Eastern Art at the Ukrainian city of Odessa in July 2008.

A Caravaggio painting stolen from a museum in Ukraine two years ago was recovered by police as four men tried to sell it in Berlin, official said Monday.

Police confiscated the 16th-century painting — known as “The Taking of Christ,” or “The Kiss of Judas” — and arrested the three Ukrainians and a Russian on Friday, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said.

Continue reading — German Police Seize Stolen Caravaggio, Make Arrests

Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto by Pablo Picasso

The highest-profile piece sold was Picasso’s Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, purchased for £34,761,250 at the much anticipated sale by Christie’s on Wednesday evening.

Picasso’s piece was from the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber and was dropped from a New York sale four years ago at the last moment due to an ownership claim.

Continue reading — Art auction breaks British sale record

Edouard Manet’s Self-portrait With a Palette has been owned by such renowned collectors as Auguste Pellerin and Jakob Goldschmidt. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

An important Édouard Manet self-portrait – one of only two that the artist ever painted – set an auction record last night when it sold in London for £22.4m.

The artist’s depiction of himself as a dandyish gentleman, complete with palette in right hand and brush in left hand, broke the previous record for a Manet of £16.3m, set in 1989.

It was a brisk evening at Sotheby’s, with bidders buying £112m of impressionist and modern art. But it was not a blockbuster night – that could come tonight at Christie’s, with its two star lots of a blue period Picasso and a Monet waterlily painting.

Continue reading — Manet self-portrait fetches record £22m at Sotheby’s auction

A stone sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani has sold for €43 million (£36 million) at a Paris auction.

“It’s a record for a work by the artist in any category,” said Christie’s, which organised the sale.

Continue reading — Stone sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani sells for €43 million

Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939), “Roses and Apples”. Estimate £100,000-150,000. Sold for £937,250.

The mid-season Russian Art Sale took place today at Christie’s and realized £11,935,750 / $17,330,709 / €14,466,129 selling 76% by lot and 90% by value. The sale had a pre-sale estimate of £7 to £10 million. Enthusiasm and excitement for unique objects and paintings led to a packed saleroom and to a very high bidding participation throughout the day. Christie’s Russian Picture section result 2010 is up by 92% compared to December 2009 and this season works selling above £100,000 has nearly tripled.

Continue reading — Christie’s Russian Art Sales Results Illustrate a Buoyant Market

Workers hang a painting as they prepare the exhibition “Klee meets Picasso” at the “Zentrum Paul Klee” museum in Bern. The exhibition of works by Swiss artist Paul Klee and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso will open on June 6 and run until September 26

Two masters, four themes, eight pictures. Poetry here, drama there. Irony here, sensuality there. Romanticism here, spirituality there. Paul here, Pablo there. The interactive exhibition «Paul und Pablo» by the children’s museum Creaviva invites guests to take part in a journey of creative dialogue beginning on the 6 June 2010.

The exhibition «Klee meets Picasso» at the Zentrum Paul Klee highlights the differences and similarities between two of the most renowned painters of the 20th Century in a unique confrontation of themes and techniques. Simultaneously, the children’s museum Creaviva is using this encounter as a platform for playful interaction with Paul and Pablo in the generous Loft where everyone is invited to participate and assimilate creative dialogue with modern art.

Continue reading — “Klee Meets Picasso” Exhibition Confronts Themes and Techniques at Zentrum Paul Klee

Scientists have pinpointed exactly where Claude Monet was in the Savoy Hotel when he painted Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge in heavy smog.

When Monet painted Waterloo Bridge in 1903 he was on the fifth floor balcony of the Savoy Hotel, say the scientists.

Through a thick blanket of pre-war smog, it is hard to make out the bridge reaching across the Thames and the sun shining weakly above it.

Continue reading — Meteorologists track down Monet as he painted London bridges in smog