Your weekly 5 art world updates: August 1st!
Contrary to what you might have expected, the art world is very much buzzing on this first day of the slowest month of the year. Let's take a look at what's making headlines these days:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art removed a 2.300 year old vase from their Greco-Roman galleries last week, after investigators issued a warrant on suspicion that the vase was looted by tomb raiders in the 1970’s.
The krater depicts the god of the grape harvest: Dionysus, and remains in a fine condition. It is believed that, before the MET bought it at a Sotheby’s auction in 1989, the vessel passed through the hands of Giacomo Medici, the infamous art dealer that was convicted for trafficking antiquities in 2004.
The evidence, including polaroids that were found in Medici’s warehouse, is currently being reviewed.
Terracotta bell-krater, attributed to Python, ca. 360–350 B.C., h 36.8 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Auction houses have been having a difficult time these past few years, but the future of Christie’s looks bright. Auction proceeds within the first half of 2017 already accumulate to more than 2.63 billion euro’s, meaning that profits are up by 30%.
Hence why Christie’s now seems to feel comfortable enough to start implementing new strategies, having just announced that they will be moving their Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern art sale from Dubai to London this autumn.
The decision is part of Christie’s “global strategy”, aiming to internationalize the market for Middle Eastern art by engaging a wider audience.
Christie's in King's Street, London.
The Rijksmuseum has just updated their online collection of Rembrandt drawings, consisting of 64 works by the master’s hand. The drawings were already up on the website, but detailed descriptions and explanations by the expert Peter Schatborn have now been added to them.
Schatborn worked for the Rijksmuseum prints gallery for over 30 years, during which he put together a small group of drawings which he deemed as emblematic of Rembrandt’s style and method.
The recent illustrations form a renewed digital version of the first catalogue of Rembrandts drawings that was published in 1985. Schatborn and the museum both preferred a digital publication, because the biggest advantage of the internet is the fact that users can zoom in on all of the details.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Self-portrait with Tousled Hair, c. 1628 - c. 1629. Rijksmuseum, De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland.
Eclecticism is still a hot topic within the art world, as demonstrated by a recent venture between the two renowned dealers Nicholas Hall and François Laffanour.
Hall, who specializes in old masters and Laffanour, a mid-century design gallerist, have teamed up to show New York that European Master paintings and Modern furniture form an excellent combination within any interior.
Cross-collectors are invited to step into the townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East side to come and admire these surprising juxtapositions.
Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), Dining Table, c. 1960. Image retrieved from http://www.nicholashjhall.com.
And to finish off on a rather whacky note we need to move back to the US, where Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee Bubbles has just managed to sell five paintings through a Florida gallery exhibition. This however doesn't count as Bubbles’s grand entrée into the realm of art.
The famous chimp was already immortalized in the 1980’s, when Jeff Koons created three sculptures of Michael Jackson with his beloved pet.
Eversince Michael's passing, Bubbles has been spending his days in the Center for Great Apes, a retirement home for showbusiness monkeys in Wauchula, Florida.
There, he was encouraged to pick up the therapeutic paintbrush, resulting in bright and lively abstract expressionist masterpieces. All proceeds go to the sanctuary, a philantrophic endeavour Michael would have undoubtedly been very proud of.
Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1998, porcelain, private collection.
