Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Jan 12, 2026 visibility 10 link 3 artists

art market minute jan 12 2736336

Artnet's Price Database reveals signs of recovery at the top end of the art market in 2025, following three years of contraction. The article highlights gains in high-value sales, exemplified by Gustav Klimt's "Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer" pictured at Sotheby's Marquee Sales Series in New York. It also notes a growing trend of small and emerging galleries working with artists' estates, and reports that roughly half of art-backed loans by non-bank businesses defaulted in 2024.

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article policy schedule Jan 5, 2026 visibility 11 link 2 artists

extraordinary artist visas social media influencers 1234768831

Immigration lawyers report that social media influencers and OnlyFans models are increasingly qualifying for O-1B visas—the U.S. visa category for individuals with extraordinary ability in the arts—by presenting online metrics such as follower counts, earnings, and brand deals as evidence of distinction. Traditionally, visual artists have needed exhibition histories, recommendation letters, and press clips to apply, but attorneys say the criteria have shifted to accommodate digital fame, with some arguing that the quality of approved applicants has been "watered down."

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article culture schedule Dec 29, 2025 visibility 16 link 3 artists

reframing the frame 2711779

Artnet News revisits the trend of inventive, sculptural frames in contemporary painting, originally explored in Katie White's essay "Bordercore." The article features a podcast conversation between White and editor Ben Davis, examining how artists like Stephanie Temma Hier use frames as surreal, symbolic extensions of their work, moving beyond traditional containment to comment on and disrupt the artwork's boundaries.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 26, 2025 visibility 21 link 12 artists

meet 5 artists transforming photography 2731217

Soho Beach House in Miami has reoriented its art collection around photography in late 2025, featuring works by established figures like Isaac Julien, JR, Laurie Simmons, Marilyn Minter, and Ming Smith alongside emerging artists such as René Matić, Caroline Allison, and Walead Beshty. The rehang, overseen by chief art director Kate Bryan, spans polaroids, performance-derived imagery, collage, and cameraless prints, with a focus on artists who use photography as a tool for broader inquiry.

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article news schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 20 link 8 artists

the round up 2025s highs lows and wtfs 2713053

In this year-end roundup episode of The Art Angle, co-hosts Kate Brown and Ben Davis, joined by Artnet Pro editor and art critic Andrew Russeth, review the defining trends, themes, and stories of 2025. They cover the art market's slump and subsequent rebound in New York's fall auctions and Art Basel Miami Beach, the political impact of Trump 2.0 on arts funding and museum governance, the question of a 'post-woke' art world, the return of digital art, and the ongoing power of red chip art. The episode also highlights the multi-front crisis facing institutions due to changing public expectations, rising costs, and political shifts, alongside lighter, unusual stories from the art world.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 20 link 16 artists

top auction moments of 2025 2712941

Artnet News rounds up the standout auction moments of 2025, highlighting both triumphs and disappointments. M.F. Husain's *Untitled (Gram Yatra)* (1954) smashed expectations at Christie's, selling for $13.8 million—more than double the artist's previous record and the first South Asian Modern work to exceed $10 million. In contrast, Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* (1922) fell short of its $50 million estimate at Christie's, missing the artist's auction record, while Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince* (1955) failed to sell at Sotheby's despite a $70 million asking price, underscoring market volatility.

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

phillips records 10 rise in global sales for 2025 taking 927 m as private sales surge by 66 1234767520

Phillips reported global sales of $927 million for 2025, a 10% increase over the previous year. Auction sales accounted for $725 million, while private sales surged 66% to $202 million. The auction house attributed growth to the launch of Priority Bidding, a platform offering reduced buyer's premiums for early bids, which led to a 275% increase in early selling bids. Phillips achieved an 88% sell-through rate by lot, with seven white-glove auctions and over 110 world auction records. Notable sales included a Patek Philippe watch for $17.6 million and Francis Bacon's *Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer* (1967) for $16 million. The luxury watch division generated $290 million, its highest annual total, and the Dropshop platform attracted many first-time and younger buyers.

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article news schedule Dec 10, 2025 visibility 21 link 6 artists

miami beach legacy purchase no vacancy 2025 1234766050

Miami Beach announced Ximena Garrido-Lecca as the winner of its 2025 Legacy Purchase Program, acquiring her copper-rope work "Modulations – Sequence XXIX" for the municipal collection. The piece, shown with Livia Benavides Gallery, was selected by public vote and has been installed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Separately, the sixth edition of the No Vacancy public-art program placed 12 site-specific installations in hotel lobbies across the city, running from November 13 through December 20, with $35,000 in total prizes.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

most expensive lots sold at auction in 2024 2592965

Artnet News analyzed the 10 most expensive lots sold at auction in 2024, drawing on the Artnet Price Database. The top lot was René Magritte's *L'Empire de Lumières* (1954), which sold for $121.2 million at Christie's New York in November, setting a new auction record for the artist and becoming the only work to break nine figures this year. Other notable sales included Ed Ruscha's *Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half* (1964) at $68.3 million, Claude Monet's *Nymphéas* (1914–17) at $65.5 million, and Jean-Michel Basquiat's *Untitled (ELMAR)* (1982) at $46.4 million. Seven of the top 10 lots sold in New York, with Hong Kong, London, and Vienna also represented.

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article culture schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 18 link 6 artists

pantone color of the year white 2724115

Pantone has announced 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, a soft shade of bright white, as its 2026 Color of the Year. This marks the first time the company has chosen a white hue since launching the initiative in 1999, following last year's Mocha Mousse. The decision, announced by Pantone Color Institute vice president Laurie Pressman, is framed as a symbol of calm and a desire for a fresh start in a frenetic society, drawing comparisons to Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist compositions and Robert Ryman's white paintings. The announcement has sparked debate over its cultural and political implications, with critics noting the choice's potential elitism and its resonance amid ongoing racial tensions.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 13 link 10 artists

barbra streisand regrets selling gustav klimt 2720106

Barbra Streisand posted on Instagram expressing regret over selling Gustav Klimt's "Ria Munk on her Deathbed" (1912), which she owned for 30 years. The post came three days after another Klimt portrait set a record at auction. Streisand bought the painting in 1969 for $17,000 and sold it in 1999, explaining she had shifted her interest to Frank Lloyd Wright and the Arts & Crafts movement.

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article culture schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 14 link 12 artists

neo pointillism revival 2612834

Santina Semadar Panetta, a Canadian artist, is pioneering Neo-Pointillism, a contemporary evolution of the 19th-century pointillist style. She creates vibrant, intricate paintings that blend portraiture and landscape, using bold color palettes and meticulous technique. Panetta is the only Canadian artist selected for the Biennale di Palermo, Biennale di Mantova, and the Biennale of the Nations in Venice, and her work was recently featured at the LA Art Show. In an interview, she discusses her shift from journalism to art, inspired by the events of September 11, 2001, and her academic training at Académie Art et Beaux, which led her to develop a philosophical and rhetorical approach to Neo-Pointillism.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 12 link 7 artists

art market minute nov 17 2714089

The U.K. Crown Prosecution Service has charged Hauser & Wirth and an art shipping firm with violating criminal sanctions by making George Condo's 2021 work on paper, *Escape from Humanity*, available to a person connected to Russia in 2022. Separately, Frida Kahlo's 1940 painting *El sueño (La cama)*, estimated at $40–60 million, will be auctioned at Sotheby's on November 20, potentially yielding a 78,400 percent return for its consignor. Qatar is also planning the first duty-free art storage unit in the Gulf.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 11, 2025 visibility 8 link 3 artists

emerging risks art collecting insure against 1234755776

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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person people schedule Nov 6, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

sara friedlander christies chairman post war contemporary art 1234760436

Sara Friedlander has been named chairman of Post-War & Contemporary Art for the Americas at Christie's. In an interview, she discusses her philosophy of prioritizing client relationships and the art itself over market speculation, criticizing the trend of 'wet paint' sales that inflate young artists' prices. She has overseen major private collection sales including the Edlis | Neeson Collection, which will anchor Christie's 21st Century Sale, and has set records for artists like Ernie Barnes and Joan Mitchell.

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article news schedule Oct 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

dubai reveals plans for first modern and contemporary art museum 1234759438

Dubai has announced plans for its first museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art, the Dubai Museum of Art (DUMA), designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Located along Dubai Creek, the five-story museum will feature a curved shell inspired by the sea and pearl, with a central roof opening, library, study rooms, and flexible spaces for art fairs. The project is developed by the Al-Futtaim Group with support from Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. No opening date has been set.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 29 link 15 artists

phillips london evening sale frieze results 1234757669

Phillips’s Frieze Week evening sale in London totaled £10.33 million ($13.88 million) across 22 lots, a 32% decline from last year’s £15.1 million on 31 lots. The sale was 82% sold by lot and 84% by value. Highlights included a new world auction record for Emma McIntyre, whose painting *Seven Types of Ambiguity* (2021) sold for £167,700, and strong results for Martha Jungwirth and Flora Yukhnovich. However, major lots by Banksy, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat underperformed or failed to sell, and four lots went unsold, including works by Andreas Gursky and Sigmar Polke.

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candle obituary schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 15 artists

robert wilson memorial silence 1234755995

A memorial for the late theater visionary Robert Wilson was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Harvey Theater, featuring a 30-minute period of silence as requested by Wilson before his death at age 83. The gathering drew luminaries including Philip Glass, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, ANOHNI, Christopher Knowles, Joan Jonas, and Paula Cooper, none of whom spoke during the main program. The silence was punctuated by shifting lighting and a recorded ringing telephone, followed by remarks from William Campbell, chairman of Wilson's Watermill Center, and Joseph Melillo, former BAM executive producer.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 16, 2025 visibility 11 link 8 artists

nayland blake mathew marks dungeon studio duke 1234751652

Nayland Blake, a conceptual artist known for blending cerebral ideas with visceral, queer sensibilities, is the subject of a major solo exhibition at Mathew Marks Gallery in New York, running through October 2025. Concurrently, a new book titled *My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio: Writings and Interviews 1983–2024* is set for release next month, compiling decades of the artist's writings and interviews. The article explores Blake's unique approach to art, which combines psychoanalytic theory, queer aesthetics, and a critical stance toward institutional power, as seen in their analysis of figures like Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and artist Jack Smith.

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article news schedule Sep 9, 2025 visibility 23 link 12 artists

school of visual arts transfers ownership alumni society 1234751224

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York has transferred ownership from the Rhodes family, which owned it for nearly 80 years, to the SVA Alumni Society, a nonprofit that has funded student scholarships since 1972. The transfer took effect on September 1, with longtime president David Rhodes stating that day-to-day operations would not change. The move comes amid financial difficulties, a recent faculty unionization effort by SVA Faculty United (affiliated with United Auto Workers), and reported layoffs of around 30 workers.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 18, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists

sothebys van halen guitar grails week 1234749497

Sotheby’s will auction Eddie Van Halen’s custom-built 1982 Kramer guitar, estimated at $2–3 million, as the centerpiece of its inaugural “Grails Week” in New York this October. The instrument, unseen for over 40 years, was played on tour, later owned by Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars, and features Van Halen’s iconic red, black, and white striped design. The week-long sales series will also include Bob Dylan lyrics, Rolling Stones album artwork, and a Beatles cymbal.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 28, 2025 visibility 9 link 6 artists

priority bidding phillips 2671429

Phillips auction house announced a new fee structure for fall 2025 called "priority bidding," which offers lower buyer's premium rates to bidders who place written bids at least 48 hours before a live sale. The move aims to encourage early engagement and generate more spirited bidding, while also providing certainty for sellers. The house is simultaneously raising its standard buyer's premium to as high as 29 percent on works up to $1 million, making it the highest among major auction houses. CEO Martin Wilson, who took over in January, hopes the program will mitigate risk and shore up sales of mid-priced works.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 28, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

art market minute jul 28 2671920

Artnet News reports that AI-generated artworks are achieving record prices at art fairs and auction houses, with increasing presence in major exhibitions like the Digital Art Mile during Art Basel and a dedicated AI art auction at Christie's. The article features commentary from Artnet's European news reporter Jo Lawson-Tancred, who discusses how artificial intelligence is transforming both the market and business practices in the art world, while noting lingering concerns about market readiness and ethics.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 23, 2025 visibility 21 link 10 artists

art market mugrabi nahmad kenny schachter 2669458

Kenny Schachter critiques the art market's doomsaying media narrative, coining the acronym Salsa (Scribes Always Love Sensational Apocalypse) to describe clickbait-driven hype. He contrasts current market anxieties with past downturns, notably the 1991-1996 recession when the market evaporated, citing a 1991 Roberta Smith article. Schachter observes that the Nahmads and Mugrabis, once feuding families, now invest together, and he recounts his experience at Phillips during his "Hoarder 6" exhibition, where young collectors showed genuine interest. He argues that the market, though wounded, remains healthy and calls for a less transactional, more patient approach to selling art.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 17, 2025 visibility 18 link 6 artists

why no one trusts art prices anymore 2666290

Artnet News editor-in-chief Naomi Rea joins Kate Brown on The Art Angle podcast to discuss the unraveling of traditional art pricing logic. The art market has cooled beyond a typical downturn, entering what Rea calls a "danger zone" where dealers and advisors are quietly recalibrating as speculation dries up and confidence wanes. The episode examines how pricing mechanisms that once held the market together have broken down, affecting everyone from mega-galleries to emerging dealers.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 8 link 5 artists

global auction sales h1 2025 arttactic analysis 1234747389

Global auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips fell 6.2% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, while the number of lots sold rose 1.3%. ArtTactic’s analysis reveals significant category shifts: post-war and contemporary art dropped 19.3% to $1.22 billion, impressionist and modern art fell 7.7% to $989.5 million, and luxury sales were nearly flat. In contrast, Old Masters surged 35.6% to $171.2 million, and design, decorative arts, and furniture rose 20.4% to $172 million. The decline in high-value trophy lots, including the withdrawal of Andy Warhol’s *Big Electric Chair* and Alberto Giacometti’s *Grande tête mince*, contributed to the slump in contemporary sales.

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article news schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 13 artists

simon de pury artnet hans neuendorf 2667480

Simon de Pury pays homage to Hans Neuendorf, the visionary founder of Artnet, following the announcement of Artnet's sale at the end of May. De Pury recounts Neuendorf's background as a successful art dealer who championed underappreciated artists like Francis Picabia, and describes how Neuendorf revolutionized the art world by creating the world's most comprehensive auction results database in 1989 (initially called Centrox). The article contrasts the pre-digital era of manually filing auction results with the instant access Artnet now provides, and notes that Neuendorf later expanded the platform with Artnet News and Artnet online auctions.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 10 link 9 artists

christies first half results 2025 2667914

Christie's reported that its auction sales for the first half of 2025 totaled $2.1 billion, identical to the same period last year, suggesting the art market may be stabilizing. However, the $2.1 billion figure marked a 22 percent drop from the first half of 2023, indicating stabilization at a lower level. The house sold seven of the top 10 works at auction, led by Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black, and Blue* (1921) for $47.6 million from the collection of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio. Luxury sales rose 29 percent, while Old Master sales increased 15 percent, but Asian art and Classics fell 28 percent and 32 percent respectively. The Americas led buyer activity at 45 percent, followed by EMEA at 34 percent and APAC at 21 percent.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 24, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

art market minute jun 23 2659130

Art Basel 2026 confirmed that the global art market remains a buyer's market, with sales occurring across various price brackets. A new generation of collectors is emerging, driven by curiosity, community, and long-term engagement rather than speculation. Meanwhile, former Sotheby's executive Adam Chinn has quietly built the art lending firm International Art Finance, backed by the Nahmad family.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists

art market minute jun 16 2657259

Art Basel, the world's largest art fair, returns from June 17 to 22 amid ongoing market contraction and geopolitical instability. Meanwhile, Sotheby's London will auction the private collection of legendary art patron Pauline Karpidas in a 250-lot sale this September, estimated to fetch a record-setting $81 million. Additionally, Frieze will relocate to a new venue in Seoul for its fourth edition in the South Korean capital.

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