Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Feb 24, 2026 visibility 30 link 13 artists

berkeley art museum women artists gift

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) has secured a major promised gift of over 150 modern and contemporary artworks from collectors Penny Cooper and Rena Rosenwasser. This significant bequest focuses exclusively on women artists, featuring works by major figures such as Louise Bourgeois, Julie Mehretu, and Kara Walker. To celebrate the acquisition, the museum is launching "Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection," an exhibition showcasing 65 pieces that trace the impact of second-wave feminism on artistic production.

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trending_up market schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 20 link 6 artists

met receives photography collection walter artur

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a promised gift of more than 6,500 photographic works from German American collector Artur Walther and the Walther Family Foundation. The collection spans 19th-century vernacular photography to contemporary video, with strengths in African studio photography, German post-war photography, Chinese conceptual art, and early vernacular images. Artists represented include Malick Sidibé, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Thomas Struth, and Bernd and Hilla Becher. A selection will debut when the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing reopens this month, with further displays planned for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing opening in 2030.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 34 link 4 artists, 9 galleries

Art Basel's solution to PDF pre-sales? Ask galleries to reserve works until opening day

Art Basel has announced a new initiative called Basel Exclusive for its flagship Swiss fair in June 2025, asking participating galleries to withhold their most important or expensive works from all pre-fair previews, online viewing rooms, and publicity. Instead, these "marquee works" will be unveiled for the first time during the First Choice VIP preview on 16 June. The initiative aims to restore a sense of surprise and urgency, countering the trend of galleries pre-selling works to clients before the fair opens. Around 170 galleries have already signed up, including major names like Gagosian, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and Sadie Coles HQ.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Sep 9, 2025 visibility 23 link 15 artists

Metropolitan Museum gifted 188 Dada and Surrealist works

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a promised gift of 188 Dada and Surrealist works from collector and trustee John Pritzker, known as the Bluff Collection. The gift includes pieces by Man Ray, Max Ernst, Marcel and Suzanne Duchamp, Jean Arp, Lee Miller, and others, with 35 works debuting in the upcoming exhibition "Man Ray: When Objects Dream" (14 September 2025 – 1 February 2026). Pritzker is also donating over 100 books and ephemera, and funding a new research initiative, the Bluff Collaborative for Research on Dada and Surrealism, through his family fund.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Jul 17, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

Phillips Sues Wealthy Scion for Failure to Come Through on Pollock Purchase

Phillips auction house has filed a lawsuit against film producer David Mimran, alleging he failed to pay $14.5 million for a Jackson Pollock painting after serving as a third-party guarantor. The untitled ca. 1948 white-on-black drip painting, which had appeared in a 1998 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, received no bids at a November auction in New York, leaving Mimran legally obligated to purchase it. Mimran missed two payment deadlines and later claimed he could not meet a third, prompting Phillips to file a complaint with the Supreme Court of New York.

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trending_up market schedule May 14, 2025 visibility 44 link 14 artists

Metropolitan Museum receives 6,500 works from photography collector Artur Walther

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has received a promised gift of more than 6,500 works from German American photography collector Artur Walther and his Walther Family Foundation. The trove spans post-war and contemporary photography from Africa, Japan, Germany, and China, alongside vernacular photos from Europe and the Americas. A special showcase of African photographers' works will debut in the Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing when it reopens after renovation later this month. The collection, which has operated exhibition spaces in Neu-Ulm, Germany, and New York's Chelsea district since 2010, includes major names such as Malick Sibidé, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Thomas Struth.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 32 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

Comment | Galleries are looking to merch to keep spirits up—it's a joyful move in challenging times

The article discusses how galleries are increasingly turning to merchandise and playful, low-cost art items to maintain public engagement during a downturn in the art market. It cites the example of Lucy Sparrow's hand-stitched felt fish and chip shop at Lyndsey Ingram gallery in London, which drew large crowds and media attention but generated far less revenue than traditional fine art sales. The piece notes that while the global art market fell 12% to $57.5bn in the past year, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, galleries like Unit and Palmer are offering items such as Gavin Turk T-shirts and Andy Holden records to attract visitors.

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trending_up market schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 15 link 3 artists

Billionaire Collector Ken Griffin Buys Second Rare Constitution Printing

Billionaire collector Ken Griffin has quietly acquired a second rare first printing of the US Constitution, known as the Van Sinderen copy, through a private deal after it was pulled from a planned Sotheby’s auction in 2022. Griffin, who previously paid $43.2 million at Sotheby’s in 2021 for another copy, now holds the only two copies of the 1787 document still in private hands. The newly acquired document will go on public display starting May 27 at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York, headlining an exhibition titled “The Promise of Liberty” that includes other foundational texts.

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trending_up market schedule Feb 26, 2026 visibility 15 link 12 artists

Central Chidlom's 'Art Department' auction promises a new experience

The Art Auction Center is hosting a major auction titled "Art Department" at the Central Chidlom department store in Bangkok, featuring over 130 artworks. The event aims to democratize the auction experience by integrating masterpieces and contemporary works into a retail lifestyle setting, moving away from traditional, formal auction environments.

newspaper Bangkok Post open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Jun 1, 2025 visibility 22 link 21 artists

Italian art convinces, international art surprises

Sotheby's and Il Ponte held Modern and Contemporary art auctions in Milan at the end of May, achieving strong results for Italian 20th-century icons and international art. Sotheby's sale on 28 May featured 93 lots, 80 of which were auction debuts, and closed at approximately €11.4 million with a 90% sell-through rate. Top lots included Lucio Fontana's 'Concetto Spaziale, Attese' (1968), which sold for €1.56 million, and works by Giorgio de Chirico, Emilio Vedova, and Alighiero Boetti that far exceeded their high estimates. International highlights included Robert Indiana's 'Decade Autoportrait' selling for €245,000 and Willis Baumeister's 'Moby Dick' setting a record for the artist in Italy.

newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE open_in_new Read original