Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 57 link 21 artists, 1 gallery

Artist Foundations’ Net Worth Has Nearly Tripled to $9 B., Led by Cy Twombly Foundation’s $1.5 B. in Art and Assets

New research from the Aspen Institute’s Artist-Endowed Foundation Initiative (AEFI) reveals that artist-endowed foundations in the U.S. now control roughly $9 billion in assets, nearly triple the $3.5 billion reported in 2011 and up 17% from $7.7 billion in 2018. The Cy Twombly Foundation leads with $1.5 billion in art and assets, followed by foundations for Alexander Calder, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Robert Rauschenberg, each holding over $500 million. The data, drawn from public tax forms, shows that just five of roughly 500 foundations account for more than half the total, with most established by postwar American artists born before 1931.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 12, 2025 visibility 29 link 23 artists, 2 galleries

venus over manhattan closing adam lindemann

Adam Lindemann announces the closure of Venus Over Manhattan, the gallery he founded in 2012 after a career as a contemporary art collector and writer. The gallery opened with a show titled "À Rebours," inspired by a novel about a decadent aristocrat, and featured works by Warhol, Hammons, and others—a show that famously saw a Dalí stolen from the wall. Over its 14-year run, Venus Over Manhattan mounted exhibitions including a Maurizio Cattelan show during a market lull, a Calder installation with spotlights and fans, and a show mixing African masterpieces with works by Koons, Prince, and Hirst. Lindemann reflects on the challenges of opening a gallery against advice, the theft that made international news, and the quiet validation he received from artists like David Hammons.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists, 2 galleries

ripleys buys maurizio cattelan gold toilet sothebys

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! has been revealed as the buyer of Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-karat gold toilet sculpture “America” (2016), which sold for $12.1 million at Sotheby’s “Now & Contemporary” auction on November 18, 2025. The work, consigned by billionaire collector and Mets owner Steve Cohen, hammered at $10 million after a single bid, just above the value of its raw gold. Sotheby’s had previously only identified the buyer as a “Famous American Brand.” Ripley’s announced the acquisition on Instagram, calling it the most valuable object in its collection and noting plans for public display, possibly allowing visitors to sit on the fully functional toilet.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 19 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

maurizio cattelan america sothebys sale toilet 12 million

Maurizio Cattelan's 18-karat gold toilet, titled *America* (2016), sold for $12.1 million at Sotheby's “The Now & Contemporary” sale on Tuesday evening, falling short of the artist's auction record. The work, owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, hammered at $10 million—just above the value of its gold content—after a single bid. It was installed in a bathroom at Sotheby's Breuer Building for viewing but not use. The consignor was revealed to be Cohen, who acquired the piece from Marian Goodman Gallery in 2017. The sale accepted cryptocurrency, and the work did not carry a guarantee.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 31, 2025 visibility 19 link 3 artists, 2 galleries

maurizio cattelan golden toilet sothebys auction

Sotheby's is auctioning Maurizio Cattelan's solid gold toilet, titled "America" (2016), during its November evening sale at the Breuer Building in New York. The 18-karat, 100-kilogram functional toilet will be on view from November 8, though visitors will not be allowed to use it. The starting bid will be determined by the work's weight in gold, estimated around $10 million. The piece was previously exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016, where over 100,000 visitors used it, and at Blenheim Palace in the UK, where it was infamously stolen in a smash-and-grab heist and never recovered. Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrency for the sale, following the precedent set by Cattelan's banana artwork last year.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 13, 2026 visibility 19 link 10 artists, 10 galleries

artist estates

The article examines the growing role of artist estates in the art market, particularly for smaller and emerging galleries. While mega-galleries like Hauser & Wirth have long profited from managing blue-chip estates, a new wave of smaller galleries is now turning to overlooked and under-researched artists who died without established legacies. These galleries invest in building archives, cultivating institutional relationships, and reintroducing artists to contemporary audiences, often at more accessible price points with significant room for growth. Examples include Gunia Nowik Gallery working with the estate of Polish artist Krzysztof Jung and Gianni Manhattan representing Estonian sculptor Anu Põder.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 43 link 50 artists, 15 galleries

Strong sales and digital art buzz mark Art Basel Miami Beach opening

Art Basel Miami Beach opened with a VIP preview that saw strong sales across price points, from blue-chip acquisitions to mid-range works. David Zwirner led with a Gerhard Richter painting for $5.5 million, while Hauser & Wirth sold a George Condo for $4 million. The debut of Zero 10, a platform for digital art, sold out its presentation. Other notable sales included works by Alice Neel, Josef Albers, Louise Bourgeois, and Andreas Gursky, with galleries like Pace, White Cube, and Gladstone also reporting significant transactions.

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trending_up market schedule Feb 18, 2026 visibility 20 link 4 artists

sothebys hikes buyers fees restitution battle franz marc painting

Sotheby's has increased its buyer's premiums globally, with the new fee structure taking effect on February 13. The changes mean buyers of lower-value lots will pay higher rates, with the premium for works sold in New York for up to $2 million rising from 27% to 28%. This move follows similar adjustments by rivals Christie's and Phillips, as auction houses seek to bolster revenue during a prolonged art market downturn. Sotheby's also recently raised $900 million through art-backed loans via securitization.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 1, 2026 visibility 17 link 5 artists

how the dinosaur came roaring back

2025 has been a landmark year for dinosaur fossils in the art world, marked by high-profile sales, seizures, and ethical controversies. In November, a pair of Allosaurus fossils and a Stegosaurus skeleton worth £12 million ($15.6 million) were seized by the UK's National Crime Agency from Binghai Su, a Chinese national linked to a major money-laundering case in Singapore. The fossils had been purchased at Christie's Jurassic Icons auction in 2024. Meanwhile, Sotheby's sold a juvenile Ceratosaurus fossil for $30.5 million in July, far exceeding its $6 million estimate, and Phillips entered the dinosaur market for the first time, selling a juvenile Triceratops skeleton for $5.4 million in November. The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever, a Stegosaurus named Apex bought by hedge fund titan Kenneth Griffin for $44.6 million in 2024, was loaned to the American Museum of Natural History.

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trending_up market schedule May 8, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

justin sun responds david geffen counter response giacometti

Hong Kong crypto entrepreneur and art collector Justin Sun has filed a new 100-page legal response in his ongoing lawsuit against megacollector David Geffen over Alberto Giacometti's sculpture *Le Nez* (1949/1965). Sun claims his employee Xiong Zihan Sydney stole the $78.4 million artwork—which he bought at Sotheby's New York in 2021—and sold it to Geffen without his knowledge. Geffen counters that Sun is experiencing "seller's remorse" and that the lawsuit is a sham. Sun's latest filing alleges that Geffen paid $2 million "under the table" to dealers David and Cole Tunkl to secure the piece, and reveals that Xiong has been detained in China since February at the Dezhou Detention Center.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 31, 2025 visibility 21 link 5 artists

Maurizio Cattelan’s Gold Toilet Returns to Market at Sotheby’s This November

Sotheby's has announced that an edition of Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet sculpture "America" (2016) will be auctioned in its The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction on November 18, 2025, with a starting bid of approximately $10 million based on its 101.2-kilogram weight in gold. The work first gained fame at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2009, where over 100,000 visitors used it, and later made headlines when it was stolen from Blenheim Palace in a raid that caused structural damage and flooding. The stolen piece was never recovered and is presumed melted down, making this edition the only one in existence.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 11, 2025 visibility 8 link 2 artists

emerging risks art collecting insure against

Private Client Select (PCS), an insurance partner for serious art collectors, highlights the growing complexity of protecting fine art and collectibles. The article details unusual but real claims—such as a conceptual artwork mistaken for trash, a fiber work unraveled by a cat, or a sculpture damaged by a housekeeper—alongside more common risks like climate damage, transit mishaps, and theft. PCS's Art Services team, led by Senior Vice President Muys Snijders, offers proactive risk management, coordinating conservators, appraisers, and storage solutions. Emerging threats include climate change (wildfires, floods), social media exposure, financial complexities (tariffs, collateral lending), and material degradation of contemporary works using nontraditional materials.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 6, 2025 visibility 19 link 9 artists

On the Market: Artist Lorna Simpson's Studio, Custom-Designed by David Adjaye in Brooklyn, New York

Lorna Simpson's custom-designed Brooklyn studio, created by architect David Adjaye in 2006, has been listed for sale at $6.5 million. The 3,300-square-foot, four-story property at 208 Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene features a double-height great room, three bedrooms, a rear garden, and was originally built as a live/work space for the artist and her then-husband James Casebere. The listing is handled by Leslie Marshall and Nick Hovsepian of the Corcoran Group. Simpson, whose survey exhibition "Lorna Simpson: Source Notes" is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has moved her primary practice to a larger nearby space, using the Vanderbilt Avenue property for archives and events.

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