Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists

goddard tiffany window heads to auction

A Tiffany Studios stained-glass window, the Goddard Memorial Window, sold for $4.2 million at Christie's Design Sale on June 12, 2025, exceeding its high estimate of $3 million. Commissioned in 1909 by Mary Edith Jenckes Goddard for St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, the window features a pastoral landscape with an apple blossom tree, symbolic of youth. The sale follows a surge in the Tiffany window market, including a record $12.4 million sale at Sotheby's in November 2024 and recent acquisitions by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum.

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article culture schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

norman rockwell thanksgiving freedom from want three facts

Norman Rockwell's iconic painting "Freedom From Want" (1943), known as the quintessential Thanksgiving image, is examined through three lesser-known facts. The painting was part of a series responding to FDR's "Four Freedoms" speech, initially rejected by the military's Office of War Information before being embraced for a war bond campaign that raised over $132 million. Rockwell used friends and family as models, including his wife and the family cook, who actually prepared the turkey depicted. The work has recently returned to the spotlight: a four-panel Rockwell suite sold for $7.2 million at Heritage Auctions to the White House Historical Association, while Rockwell's family criticized the Department of Homeland Security for using his art in divisive social media posts.

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article culture schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 14 link 9 artists

secrets of the metropolitan museum

The article reveals little-known secrets about the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including that its first home was not on Fifth Avenue but at 681 Fifth Avenue, and later the Douglas Mansion, before moving to its current location in 1879. It also notes that the museum's original red-brick facade is barely visible today, hidden within the Robert Lehman Wing, and that its first director, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, controversially mixed and matched parts of ancient sculptures to create composite works, while also misrepresenting their provenance.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 19 link 18 artists

frida kahlo el sueno sothebys auction

Frida Kahlo's painting *El sueño (La cama)* (1940) sold at Sotheby's New York for $54.7 million on Thursday night, setting a new auction record for any artwork by a female artist. The sale, which lasted under five minutes, exceeded the previous record held by Georgia O'Keeffe's *Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1* ($44.4 million in 2014). The painting was backed by an irrevocable bid and came from the collection of Selma Ertegun, offered as part of a Surrealist group titled "Exquisite Corpus." Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby's head of Latin American art, placed the winning bid on behalf of a client.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

who was felix vallotton

A painting by Swiss-French artist Félix Vallotton, *Femme couchée dormant (Le Sommeil)* (1899), sold for $2.8 million at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday night, exceeding its high estimate of $2.5 million. The work was part of the Pritzker Collection sale, which also featured masterpieces by Van Gogh, Matisse, and Gauguin. Vallotton’s auction record remains at nearly $4.5 million, set by *Cinq heures* (1898) at Christie’s London in late 2023.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 17 link 12 artists

louvre couture mfa houston fashion exhibition

The Louvre's blockbuster exhibition "Louvre Couture," which drew over one million visitors in Paris, has opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). The show pairs high-fashion garments and accessories—from Yves Saint Laurent to Jacquemus—with artworks and decorative objects, illustrating how designers draw from art history. The Houston edition features 36 objects from 23 designers, including pieces by Jean Paul Gaultier, Iris van Herpen, Schiaparelli, and a John Galliano-designed Dior gown, displayed across two buildings and over a dozen galleries.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 20 link 9 artists

frida kahlo painting sothebys record woman surrealism

Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* sold for $54.7 million at Sotheby's New York on November 20, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $40–60 million. The painting, consigned by the estate of Selma Ertegun, was won by a phone bidder handled by Sotheby's senior vice president Anna Di Stasi. The sale broke Kahlo's previous auction record of $34.9 million set in 2021 for *Diego y yo*, as well as the record for a Latin American artwork and the overall record for a work by a woman artist at auction, surpassing Georgia O'Keeffe's $44.4 million *Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1*.

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article culture schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 24 link 18 artists, 3 galleries

the push to preserve nina simones childhood home just got a 6 million boost thanks to venus williams and adam pendleton

The childhood home of legendary singer and activist Nina Simone in Tryon, North Carolina, has been fully restored after nine years of effort by an artist coalition led by Adam Pendleton, alongside Julie Mehretu, Rashid Johnson, and Ellen Gallagher. The restoration, completed with a $6 million boost from a charity auction and gala co-hosted by tennis star Venus Williams and Pace Gallery, preserved the 650-square-foot clapboard house to its 1933–1937 condition, including historically accurate materials, an ADA ramp, geothermal climate control, and a century-old magnolia tree named “Sweetie Mae.” The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announced the completion, and the property remains closed to the public while community programming and ethical cultural tourism are being planned.

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article news schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 28 link 21 artists, 4 galleries

photo archive historic new york gallery shows

The New York Gallery History Project has launched its first installment: an online archive of Jay Gorney Modern Art, which operated from 1985 to 1998. The archive documents over 90 exhibitions held at the gallery, featuring artists such as Catherine Opie, Jessica Stockholder, Gillian Wearing, Haim Steinbach, and Martha Rosler. The material includes installation views, artwork images, and original invitations, all digitized from analog transparencies and slides. The project is an initiative of the Independent art fair and the Contemporary Art Library, a Los Angeles nonprofit.

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article news schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 22 link 18 artists

anonymous was a woman 2025 grant winners

Anonymous Was a Woman, a grant-making organization supporting woman-identifying artists, has announced 15 recipients of its $50,000 grants for 2025. The winners include Candida Alvarez, Park McArthur, Lola Flash, Kunié Sugiura, and Sonya Kelliher-Combs, among others. Founder Susan Unterberg, who initially remained anonymous, revealed herself in 2018 and named the organization after a Virginia Woolf quotation. The grants are primarily for artists over 40, and the organization has recently expanded to fund environmentally minded projects.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 18 link 2 artists

padimai art tech studio singapore olafur eliasson

A new experimental space called Padimai Art & Tech Studio will open in November 2025 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark in Singapore. The launch features a VR work by artist Olafur Eliasson titled "Your view matter" (2022/25), commissioned by the studio's founder, technologist and collector Vignesh Sundaresan (also known as Metakovan). Sundaresan made headlines in 2021 with his record-breaking $69.3 million purchase of Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days." The work guides participants through six geometric virtual environments, with each visitor's trajectory and point of view recorded as a unique data file stored in a blockchain-based archive.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

gustav klimt portrait of elisabeth lederer auction record

Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' (1914–16) sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby's New York on November 18, 2025, after 20 minutes of bidding. The painting, which started at $130 million, was won by a phone bidder represented by Sotheby's specialist Julian Dawes, with the hammer price at $205 million. The work was the highlight of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection sale, a 55-work trove valued at over $400 million, and proceeds will go to the Lauder trust. The portrait had been restituted after Nazi-era confiscation and was acquired by Lauder in the mid-1980s.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

leonard lauders klimt painting fetches sothebys

A Gustav Klimt painting, *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914), sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York, setting a new auction record for the artist and becoming the most expensive work ever sold at Sotheby’s as well as the most expensive Modern artwork at auction. The work was part of a sale dedicated to the collection of the late art patron Leonard Lauder, who died in June at age 92. The bidding lasted about 20 minutes, with Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker opening at $130 million; the winning bid of $205 million came from Sotheby’s staffer Julian Dawes, representing a phone client. The sale included two dozen works from Lauder’s trove, which also featured three Klimt paintings and six Henri Matisse bronzes.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 16 link 7 artists

norman rockwell president white house paintings auction 2

A four-panel suite of paintings by Norman Rockwell, titled *So You Want to See The President!* (1943), sold for $7.2 million at Heritage Auctions on November 14. The work, which hung in the White House for decades, was bought by the White House Historical Association, marking its most expensive acquisition to date. The sale followed a bitter ownership dispute among descendants of the original commissioner, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's press secretary Stephen T. Early, with a federal judge ruling in favor of the current owner, William Elam, in 2023.

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article news schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 13 link 4 artists

pioneer works choke hole performance

At Brooklyn's Pioneer Works, a drag queen professional wrestling event called Choke Hole, part of artist Raúl de Nieves's exhibition, was disrupted when audience member and performer Chiquitita stormed the stage. She objected to a skit that made light of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations, shouting that 'ICE is not entertainment!' and hurling the microphone into a video screen. The performance, titled ARMAGEDDON, featured an alien queen plot involving nuclear codes and ICE, and Choke Hole later apologized, removing the segment from subsequent shows.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 16 link 7 artists

dolce and gabbana exhibition ica miami february

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana announced that its exhibition “From the Heart to the Hands” will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, opening February 6, 2026, and running through June 14. Curated by fashion historian Florence Müller, the show features over 300 pieces from the brand’s archival and recent collections, including its Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria, and Alta Gioielleria lines, displayed in immersive rooms inspired by art, architecture, folklore, and the dolce vita. The exhibition also includes collaborations with visual artists such as Quayola, Alberto Maria Colombo, Obvious, Vittorio Bonapace, and Felice Limosani.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 15 link 3 artists

amoako boafo red dress consignor jesse williams

An Amoako Boafo painting, *Red Dress* (2017), has been consigned to Phillips’s upcoming modern and contemporary art day sale by actor and ARTnews Top 200 collector Jesse Williams. The work, estimated at $150,000 to $200,000, depicts Thelma Golden, director of the newly reopened Studio Museum in Harlem. It was previously featured in Boafo’s 2022 solo exhibition “Soul of Black Folks” at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. This marks another instance of a work from Williams’s collection appearing at Phillips, following a Noah Davis painting consigned by his ex-wife in 2024.

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person people schedule Nov 11, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists

wadsworth atheneum president allison blais

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has appointed Allison Blais as its new president and CEO, effective January 2026. Blais, currently executive vice president and chief strategy and operations officer at New York’s 9/11 Memorial & Museum, will succeed Jeffrey N. Brown, who held the role for five years. The announcement was made by board chair Duffield Ashmead IV MD, who praised Blais's experience with large-scale capital projects and stakeholder engagement. Blais, a Connecticut native, expressed her long familiarity with the Wadsworth and her enthusiasm for working with museum director Matthew Hargraves.

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article culture schedule Nov 10, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

rosalia lux patti smith la yugular

Rosalía's fourth studio album, *LUX*, features a recording of Patti Smith from a 1976 interview on the closing track "La Yugular." The article describes Rosalía's admiration for Smith, recounting a meeting where Smith complimented her dress and discussed the song. Smith's influence is highlighted through her music, memoir *Just Kids*, and her artistic practice in photography and mixed media, including her first solo exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in 2011. Smith also recently released a new memoir, *Bread of Angels*.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

manny davidson collection sale results sothebys paris

Sotheby’s Paris raised €18.6 million ($21.5 million) from two live sales of the Manny Davidson collection this week, with a third online sale still ongoing. The collection, spanning nearly 500 lots, included rediscovered Old Masters, 18th-century gold enamel, and an automaton clock by James Cox. Highlights included Michael Sweerts’s *A young man wearing a turban holding an upturned roemer: the fingernail test* (1648–52), which sold for €1.6 million, and Joshua Reynolds’s *Self-Portrait, in doctoral robes* (ca. 1770), which fetched €838,200. The evening sale achieved 83% sell-through by lot, with most buyers from Europe and a third from the US.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 6, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

manny davidson collection sale sothebys paris

Sotheby's Paris is selling "The Manny Davidson Collection: A Life in Treasures and Benevolence," a multi-owner sale of nearly 500 lots spanning Old Masters, 19th-century British paintings, 18th-century gold enamel, and decorative objects. Highlights include a rediscovered Michael Sweerts portrait estimated at €800,000–€1.2 million, a Thomas de Keyser portrait of a silversmith, and a Joshua Reynolds self-portrait study. The sale, which includes an evening auction on November 5 and an online component, was previewed by Sotheby's global head of private sales, Old Masters, Chloe Stead.

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article news schedule Oct 31, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

talladega college hale woodruff murals partnership

Talladega College, a historically Black college in Alabama, has partnered with the Toledo Museum of Art, Art Bridges, and the Terra Foundation for American Art to share six monumental murals by artist Hale A. Woodruff. Painted between 1939 and 1942, the murals depict key moments in African American history, including the Amistad uprising and the Underground Railroad. Under the agreement, the Toledo Museum of Art acquired *The Underground Railroad* (1942), while Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation jointly acquired the three Amistad murals; the remaining two murals stay at the college. All six works will be periodically reunited on campus, ensuring their continued connection to the institution that commissioned them.

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article news schedule Oct 29, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

perez art museum miami billboard lawsuit

Miami's Frost Museum of Science has filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Transportation seeking the removal of a giant digital billboard on the grounds of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). The 1,800-square-foot sign, which advertises luxury brands like Tiffany and Yves Saint Laurent alongside PAMM programming, was built under a 2023 city commission exception that allowed billboards nearly twice the legal size limit. That exception was later overturned amid controversy over campaign contributions from the billboard's operator, Orange Barrel Media, to the commissioner who introduced it. PAMM argues the sign was approved by all relevant authorities, while Frost Science claims it violates state law, degrades the museum environment, and jeopardizes federal highway funding.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 26 link 13 artists, 6 galleries

altman siegel closes gallery san francisco

Altman Siegel, a key gallery in San Francisco's art scene, will close in November 2025 after 16 years. Founder Claudia Altman-Siegel attributed the closure to a challenging market for mid-size galleries, stating it became too difficult to scale in the current climate. The gallery's final show is a solo exhibition by Shinpei Kusanagi, ending November 22. Its roster included artists such as Simon Denny, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Trevor Paglen, and others. The closure follows a trend of galleries shutting down or scaling back, including Blum and LA Louver in Los Angeles, and Clearing and Venus Over Manhattan in New York.

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article news schedule Oct 27, 2025 visibility 18 link 9 artists

german police bust forgery ring rembrandt picasso

German police have dismantled an international forgery ring attempting to sell fake artworks attributed to masters including Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Frida Kahlo. The suspected ringleader, a 77-year-old German man from Bavaria, was arrested after trying to sell two counterfeit Picasso paintings, one a portrait of Dora Maar. Investigators, who code-named the operation “Dora Maar,” conducted raids across Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, seizing 19 fake works with asking prices ranging from $460,000 to $16 million. A 74-year-old accomplice is accused of producing forged expert reports to authenticate the fakes.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 27, 2025 visibility 24 link 40 artists

biennale of sydney 2026 artist list

The Biennale of Sydney has announced the full artist list for its 2026 edition, titled 'Rememory,' which opens on March 14, 2026. The exhibition is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, marking her second major biennial after the Aichi Triennale. The show will feature over 60 artists and collectives, with a heightened focus on Indigenous art through a partnership with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, facilitating 15 commissions by First Nations artists. Notable participants include Emily Jacir, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and many others from diverse global backgrounds.

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article news schedule Oct 23, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

british museums controversy hit ball raises 3 3 m securing vital funding for its international partnerships

The British Museum held its inaugural fundraising ball, modeled after the Met Gala, raising over £2.5 million ($3.3 million) through ticket sales and a silent auction. The event, attended by celebrities including Mick Jagger, Janet Jackson, Tracey Emin, James Norton, and Naomi Campbell, also secured a £10.3 million pledge from the Garfield Weston Foundation for the museum's Visitor Welcome Program. However, the evening was marred by controversy: a protester from Energy Embargo for Palestine gained access and demonstrated against the museum's £50 million sponsorship from BP, and Greece's culture minister Lina Mendoni criticized the museum for hosting the event near the Elgin Marbles, accusing it of disrespecting the ancient sculptures.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 24 link 12 artists, 7 galleries

50 million picasso in paris industry moves october 22 2025

The ARTnews article reports on several major art market moves as of October 22, 2025. Highlights include Nahmad Contemporary offering a $50 million Picasso at Art Basel Paris, likely the 1941 work 'Femme au corsage bleu (Dora Maar)'; Gagosian Gallery now representing the estate of Richard Diebenkorn with a November exhibition; Alison Jacques Gallery joining Tina Kim and Silverlens to represent the Pacita Abad Estate; Gladstone Gallery taking on Celia Paul in New York; and Freeman's | Hindman expanding its trusts and estates team across the US. The piece also notes Rodder's inaugural show for Wyatt Kahn and Kaufmann Repetto adding Bice Lazzari to its roster.

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article news schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 21 link 7 artists

obama presidential center new york times interview

Barack Obama discussed the Obama Presidential Center, set to open spring 2025 on Chicago's South Side, in a New York Times interview. The four-building complex will include a museum, library, auditorium, basketball court, gardens, and commissioned works by 25 artists, including Julie Mehretu, Maya Lin, Nick Cave, Jenny Holzer, Kiki Smith, and Richard Hunt. Designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, the centerpiece is an eight-story granite museum nicknamed "the Obamalisk," featuring an 83-foot-tall abstract glass work by Mehretu. Obama emphasized the center's role as a public space to inspire community action, not a presidential mausoleum.

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article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

british museum fundraising gala interrupted by protestor

The British Museum's inaugural fundraising gala on October 18 was interrupted by a protester from the group Energy Embargo for Palestine. The woman, who gained access to the Great Court by working as a waitress, took the stage next to board chair George Osborne holding a sign reading 'DROP BP NOW.' She criticized the museum for accepting a £50 million sponsorship from BP, an oil and gas company she accused of causing climate collapse and enabling genocide in Gaza. The gala, co-chaired by Isha Ambani of Reliance Industries, raised over $2 million from ticket sales and featured a silent auction, including a pet portrait by Tracey Emin and a private tour of Coco Chanel's Paris apartment.

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