Art News. Vasari Codex

rate_review review schedule Jun 5, 2026 visibility 40 link 18 artists

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait review – the radiant, uncontainable star she always wanted to be

The National Portrait Gallery in London has opened a new blockbuster exhibition, "Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait," marking what would have been the star's 100th birthday. The show presents Monroe through photographs, paintings, and film excerpts, tracing her transformation from Norma Jeane Baker into a global icon. It features works by renowned photographers such as Richard Avedon, Milton Greene, Cecil Beaton, Eve Arnold, Philippe Halsman, Weegee, and André de Dienes, as well as paintings by Pauline Boty and Andy Warhol. The exhibition emphasizes Monroe's agency and control over her own image, challenging the notion of uncovering a "real Marilyn" behind the glamour.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2026 visibility 26 link 5 artists

Nazi-looted Georg Kolbe fountain breaks German artist's auction record

A fountain by German sculptor Georg Kolbe, titled *Tänzerinnen-Brunnen* (Dancer’s Fountain), sold for a record €4 million (with fees) at Villa Grisebach’s summer auction in Berlin on June 4. The work had been in the collection of the Georg Kolbe Museum since the 1970s, but after a research project initiated in 2024, the museum deaccessioned and restituted it to the descendants of its original commissioner, Heinrich Stahl, a prominent Jewish community member murdered in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The fountain, commissioned in 1922, features a bronze dancer and limestone figures of Somali men, reflecting colonial representational conventions. The sale broke Kolbe’s previous auction record of €1.4 million, also set at Grisebach last year.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2026 visibility 36 link 5 artists

‘Scandalous’ $60 Million Modigliani Nude Headlines Sotheby’s Lewis Collection Sale

Sotheby's announced that Modigliani's 'Nu assis au collier' (1917), estimated at £45 million ($60.6 million), will headline the single-owner auction of portraits from British billionaire Joe Lewis's collection. The painting, one of only seven full nudes from Modigliani's scandalous 1917 solo show that was shut down by police for indecency, returns to auction for the first time in over 30 years. Sotheby's specialist Oliver Barker noted rising interest in Modigliani, citing Johnny Depp's 2024 biopic and a new catalogue raisonné by Marc Restellini. The work last sold in 1995 for $12.4 million and will be offered on June 24, with public viewing in London from June 10–23.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 5, 2026 visibility 15 link 8 artists

Photographs of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson’s shared studio go on show in London

The Courtauld Gallery in London is presenting an exhibition of 23 black-and-white photographs taken by Paul Laib in 1932-33, documenting the shared Hampstead studio of sculptor Barbara Hepworth and painter Ben Nicholson. The images, drawn from a larger archive of 22,000 glass-plate negatives gifted to the Courtauld in 1974, reveal the creative partnership between the two artists, who were a couple from 1931 to 1951. The show includes fourteen vintage prints and nine modern prints, curated by Chloe Nahum and Gerlind May, and runs from 6 June to 4 October.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 5, 2026 visibility 21 link 8 artists

A MoMA Retrospective Proves Duchamp Was More Sincere Than He Seems

A new retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York surveys the full career of Marcel Duchamp, featuring 300 works across media. The exhibition traces his evolution from early paintings—such as a placid chess scene of his brothers and the watercolor *Woman Hack Driver* (1907)—through his iconic readymades like *Pharmacy* (1914) and *Nude Descending a Staircase* (1911–12), to the monumental *The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even* (The Large Glass, 1915–23). It is the first comprehensive survey of Duchamp's oeuvre since 1973, and includes reproductions, facsimiles, and even contemporary caricatures from the American press.

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article local schedule Jun 4, 2026 visibility 36 link 26 artists

A Guide to Museum Mile, New York’s Premier Cultural Corridor

The article serves as a guide to New York City's Museum Mile, highlighting the annual Museum Mile Festival on June 9, which closes Fifth Avenue to traffic and offers free admission and special programs at a core group of about eight museums. It provides an overview of key institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Neue Galerie New York, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, noting upcoming exhibitions such as "Musical Bodies" at the Met and a Carol Bove survey at the Guggenheim, as well as the Met's planned merger with the Neue Galerie in 2028.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 4, 2026 visibility 21 link 33 artists, 4 galleries

Mega Gallery Pace is Dropping Some 50 Artists, 50 Staff in ‘Model Correction’

Pace Gallery, a mega gallery with seven locations worldwide, is laying off approximately 50 staff members and dropping about 50 artists from its roster. CEO Marc Glimcher announced the gallery will refocus on 85 artists, down from 135, calling it a "model correction" and a return to the gallery's roots. The news was first reported by the New York Times, though Pace sources said the story ran early, causing confusion among staff. Artists now missing from the gallery's website include Keith Coventry, TeamLab, John Gerrard, and Glenn Kaino, who expressed that the gallery's model was "optimized for a vision of the art world that never materialized."

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trending_up market schedule Jun 4, 2026 visibility 28 link 37 artists, 3 galleries

Pace Gallery Downsizes, Cutting Artists and Staff

Pace Gallery, a major force in the contemporary art market, is cutting approximately 50 artists and estates from its roster of over 130 names and laying off about 50 of its 250 staff members. CEO Marc Glimcher announced the downsizing, citing a broken gallery model and a prolonged downturn in the market for contemporary art. The gallery plans to focus on around 80 artists going forward, dropping names such as Keith Coventry, Glenn Kaino, teamLab, and John Gerrard, while retaining recent additions like Anicka Yi and the estate of Constantin Brancusi. Pace will continue to participate in major art fairs, including Art Basel in Switzerland.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 3, 2026 visibility 30 link 9 artists

Emily Sargent’s Watercolors Arrive at Auction After Decades Hidden in a Trunk

A cache of 19 watercolors by Emily Sargent, the sister of famed painter John Singer Sargent, is heading to auction at Dreweatts in Newbury, England, on July 7, with an upper estimate of £102,000 ($137,000). The works were discovered in a forgotten trunk in 1998 by a descendant, and over a third of the original 440 watercolors have since been donated to major U.S. and U.K. museums. The sale also includes seven works by John Singer Sargent, bringing the total estimate to £489,000 ($658,000). Emily Sargent, who suffered from a childhood spinal injury, began painting in her 30s and traveled extensively with her brother, producing accomplished watercolors that showcase her skill with composition and light.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 3, 2026 visibility 46 link 12 artists

‘A kind of reconnecting with the past’: the Met celebrates the art of the portrait

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition, 'The Face of Modern Life,' featuring nearly 80 works from its permanent collection that challenge traditional definitions of portraiture. Curated by Stephanie D’Alessandro, the show includes pieces by Max Beckmann, Wifredo Lam, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miró, among others, exploring how portraits can be rooted in memory, myth, and abstraction rather than mere physical likeness. Highlights include Picasso's iconic portrait of Gertrude Stein and Lam's recent acquisition 'Ídolo,' which draws on Santería imagery.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 2, 2026 visibility 80 link 224 artists, 74 galleries

Art Basel Reveals More Participating Galleries and the Artists Selected for its ‘Exclusive’ Initiative, Which Withholds Artworks from Email Previews

Art Basel has announced that 193 of its 232 main-sector exhibitors (83%) have signed on to a new initiative called Basel Exclusive, which requires participating galleries to withhold at least one artwork—or their entire presentation—from emailed PDF previews sent to collectors and advisors before the fair opens. The initiative debuts at the upcoming Art Basel in Basel (June 18–21, with VIP previews June 16–17) and includes major galleries such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, and Pace, as well as smaller venues like Bortolami and James Cohan. About 230 artists are covered, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, David Hockney, and Andy Warhol. Participating galleries will be marked on floor plans, and selected works will be highlighted by plaques.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 2, 2026 visibility 41 link 10 artists

Lucian Freud Painting He Spent Decades Denying Will Go on Public View for the First Time

A portrait long denied by Lucian Freud, titled *Man in a Black Scarf*, will go on public display for the first time this summer at London’s Garden Museum. Painted in 1939 while Freud studied at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, the work depicts John Jameson, heir to the Jameson whiskey family. Freud disavowed the painting in 1985 after Christie’s initially cataloged it as his, and he continued to deny it until his death in 2011. New evidence, including student records found in the Tate Britain archives, confirms Freud was working on a portrait of Jameson in 1939, matching the painting’s date and subject.

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article culture schedule Jun 2, 2026 visibility 14 link 3 artists

Mystery, controversy and the butterfly’s sting: James McNeill Whistler book aims to dispel the fog around his legacy

A new book, *Whistler's Legacy*, by historian Daniel Sutherland aims to correct the myths and misconceptions surrounding the enigmatic artist James McNeill Whistler. Sutherland critiques early biographers Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell for factual errors and doctored accounts, and reexamines Whistler's paradoxical life—an American expatriate, a self-styled provocateur, and a meticulous painter of nocturnes and pastels. The book also addresses Whistler's controversial relationships, including his legal battle with critic John Ruskin over *Nocturne in Black and Gold–The Falling Rocket*.

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article culture schedule Jun 2, 2026 visibility 15 link 8 artists

Mapplethorpe nudes, the NEA and the birth of America’s culture wars

Isaac Butler's new book, *The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars*, examines the 1989 controversy over Robert Mapplethorpe's retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibition, funded in part by a $30,000 NEA grant, was canceled after conservative backlash, then hosted by the Washington Project for the Arts. Butler, whose mother served on the WPA board, also covers related battles over Andres Serrano's *Immersion (Piss Christ)*, music warning labels, and the "NEA Four" performance artists whose grants were denied. The book was inspired by the 2020 decision to delay a Philip Guston retrospective over concerns about his Klan imagery, which Butler sees as a liberal act of self-censorship.

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article culture schedule Jun 2, 2026 visibility 15 link 4 artists

How Andy Warhol’s textile and fashion work influenced his art

A new publication by Montreal-based curator Paul Maréchal, titled *Andy Warhol: The Complete Textiles and Fashion*, catalogs over 200 textile designs by Andy Warhol, spanning from border patterns in the 1950s to screen-printed garments from the 1960s through the 1980s. The book explores Warhol’s early commission for an awning at the Fleming-Joffe boutique in St. Louis, his 1966 use of cellulose and cotton dresses from Abraham & Straus as silk-screen supports, and his late 1970s hand-printed T-shirts featuring logos like Brillo, Hershey, Campbell’s soup, and Coca-Cola. Maréchal argues that these textile works paved the way for Warhol’s Pop aesthetic.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 1, 2026 visibility 44 link 24 artists

Sotheby’s Offers Art and Design From Estate of Revered Dealer Barbara Gladstone, Led by Richard Prince and a Jean Prouvé Sideboard

Sotheby's will auction 140 lots of art and design from the estate of revered dealer Barbara Gladstone, who died in 2024 at age 89. The sale, scheduled for June 9 during New York design week, includes contemporary works by Richard Prince, Alex Katz, Kai Althoff, and Yayoi Kusama, alongside midcentury modern design pieces by Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret, and Joaquim Tenreiro. The collection is estimated to bring between $6.9 and $10 million, with a public preview opening June 2 at Sotheby's Madison Avenue headquarters. A prior sale of contemporary artworks from Gladstone's collection in May achieved $18.5 million, exceeding its high estimate.

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article news schedule Jun 1, 2026 visibility 18 link 1 artist

Brazilian Police Believe They Have Identified Architect of Matisse Theft at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade

Brazilian police have identified Laéssio Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva as the alleged mastermind behind the December 2025 theft of eight Henri Matisse prints and five Cândido Portinari illustrations from the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade in São Paulo, Brazil's second-largest library. The heist occurred on the final day of the exhibition “From Book to Museum,” organized with the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art; two armed men held a guard and an elderly couple at gunpoint before fleeing with the works. Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva, already in custody for a separate attempted theft, is described by investigators as a longtime rare-book thief who allegedly coordinated the operation through intermediaries. Two other suspects have been arrested, but one gunman remains at large and the artworks have not been recovered.

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trending_up market schedule May 28, 2026 visibility 62 link 14 artists

What the May Auctions Revealed About Art as an Asset Class

Christie's sold Jackson Pollock's drip painting *Number 7A* (1948) from the collection of S.I. Newhouse for $181 million, the top lot of the $2.5 billion May auction season in New York. However, analysis shows the work's annualized return of about 6.6% over 26 years underperformed a passive S&P 500 investment, which would have grown to roughly $240 million in the same period. Many other major lots also sold at significant losses compared to their previous auction prices, including a Pollock work on paper that fell 40% to $9.2 million, Andy Warhol's *Sixteen Jackies* down nearly 40% to $16.2 million, and a Warhol *Double Elvis* that lost almost 30% for billionaire Lorenzo Fertitta.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 28, 2026 visibility 29 link 5 artists

SXSW London’s Art Program Spotlights Spain’s ‘Underrated’ Contemporary Art Scene

SXSW London returns for its second edition, taking over more than 20 venues in Shoreditch from June 1–6. The festival, known for blending technology, business, and music, will feature a visual art program titled “Spain in Transmission: New Digital Work,” curated by Patrick Moore, former director of the Andy Warhol Museum. The program spotlights five artists—Enrique Agudo, Filip Custic, Jesús Moratiel, Marina Núñez, and American artist Molly Gochman—whose works explore how technology reshapes identity, borders, memory, and humanity. Agudo’s installation "You Are Beautiful" uses 3-D animation and personal digital archives to create a non-figurative self-portrait, while Custic debuts a new AI-driven work questioning human experience.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 27, 2026 visibility 68 link 10 artists

Leonora Carrington work painted during psychiatric confinement to go on show for first time

A recently discovered painting by surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, titled *Villa Pilar* (1940), will be publicly displayed for the first time this summer in London. Carrington created the work while confined in a Spanish psychiatric hospital during World War II, after fleeing Nazi-occupied France and suffering a psychological breakdown. The painting depicts the hospital as a symbolic underworld and was given to her psychiatrist, Dr. Luis Morales, as a parting gift. It remained in his family for decades until researchers rediscovered it while preparing an exhibition for the Faro Santander arts center. The work will debut at the Freud Museum in London as part of the exhibition *Leonora Carrington – the Symptomatic Surreal*, which has been extended through August before traveling to Spain.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 27, 2026 visibility 24 link 25 artists

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts gifted collection of nearly 2,000 photographs

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) has received a major gift of 1,986 photographs from Joy of Giving Something Inc (JGS), a nonprofit founded by Howard and Janet Stein. The donation includes works by over 450 artists, spanning the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, with highlights from photographers such as Charles Marville, Eugène Atget, Nadar, Alfred Stieglitz, Dora Maar, and Dorothea Lange. The collection, largely assembled by financier Howard Stein, also features rare daguerreotypes, vernacular photographs, and contemporary works. A previous transfer in 2023 included portfolios by Paul Strand and Larry Clark, and the JGS board has now elected to donate the vast majority of its remaining holdings to the museum.

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gavel restitution schedule May 27, 2026 visibility 20 link 2 artists

Heir Says Cézanne Watercolor Shown in Basel Was Lost During Nazi Era

A Cézanne watercolor, *La Montagne Sainte Victoire* (ca. 1888), recently exhibited at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, may have been lost by its Jewish owner due to Nazi persecution. Provenance researcher Willi Korte, working for the owner's heir, uncovered documents showing that Gustav Schweitzer, a Jewish businessman who fled Berlin in 1935, loaned the work to a 1936 exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. After the exhibition, Schweitzer asked the museum to safeguard the watercolor and help find a buyer; it was returned to his secretary in Paris in 1939, after which its whereabouts became unclear. The Fondation Beyeler stated it would inform the lender but return the work, citing a lack of legal authority to retain it.

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trending_up market schedule May 27, 2026 visibility 48 link 11 artists

Five Questions for Five Advisors on the May Marquee Sales

The article reports on the May 2023 marquee auction sales at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips, which collectively topped $2.5 billion—nearly double the $1.3 billion from the same period last year. The sales were headlined by the record-breaking $181.2 million sale of S. I. Newhouse's Jackson Pollock painting, Number 7A, 1948, and buoyed by the $630.8 million generated from Newhouse's 16-lot collection. ARTnews asked five art advisors for their takes on the sales, including insights on high attendance at previews, the performance of specific works like a Gerhard Richter painting from Marian Goodman's collection, and the emergence of millennial and Gen Z buyers.

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gavel restitution schedule May 26, 2026 visibility 24 link 2 artists

Heir says Cezanne watercolour in Basel show was lost due to Nazi persecution

A watercolor by Paul Cézanne (1888) shown at the Fondation Beyeler's recent exhibition once belonged to Gustav Schweitzer, a Jewish businessman who fled Berlin in 1935. Provenance researcher Willi Korte discovered documents in Basel's public archives showing Schweitzer loaned the work to the Kunsthalle Basel for a 1936 exhibition. Correspondence continued until 1939, when the work was returned to Schweitzer's secretary. How Schweitzer lost ownership remains unknown, but Korte says it was either sold under duress or looted in Nazi-occupied territory. The Fondation Beyeler has stated it will return the work to its current lender, an unnamed private collector based in the US.

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article policy schedule May 26, 2026 visibility 55 link 5 artists

Fee or free? How entry charges affect museums in the US

The article examines the financial impact of eliminating or reducing admission fees at US museums, using Baltimore's Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art as case studies. While the Walters saw a 45% attendance increase and a tripling of minority participation after going free in 2006, the surge did not generate enough ancillary revenue from merchandise, food, or memberships to offset lost ticket income. Over time, attendance at both institutions declined—by 18.6% at the Walters and 12.7% at the BMA—according to a 2021 survey. Experts like former Met president Daniel Weiss and economist John Silvia argue that free admission often fails to meaningfully boost visitation and can strain museum finances.

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article culture schedule May 23, 2026 visibility 22 link 6 artists

From high BMI to the ‘GLP-1 look’: how weight-loss jabs are changing the face of beauty

Researchers and art historians are examining how weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro are reshaping ideals of beauty in art. Prof. Rosalind Gill and Dr. Michael Yafi argue that the rapid fat loss caused by GLP-1 medications produces a distinctive gaunt facial appearance—dubbed 'GLP-1 face'—which could become a new aesthetic standard reflected in contemporary art, similar to 'heroin chic' in the 1990s. Yafi presented his findings at the European Congress on Obesity, noting that while artists like Fernando Botero continue to celebrate fuller figures, future artworks may increasingly depict thin individuals with hollowed features.

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trending_up market schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 25 link 8 artists

Andy Warhol’s Patek Philippe Poised for $400,000 Sale—and Other Hot Finds on the Market

Christie's will auction a Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 570 watch formerly owned by Andy Warhol on June 12, with an estimate of $200,000–$400,000. The timepiece, double-signed by retailer Hausmann & Co., was first sold in Sotheby's 1988 sell-off of Warhol's estate and later resold at Christie's in 2021 for $150,000. The article also highlights other market offerings, including a collection of John Keats letters estimated at $1.5–$2.5 million at Sotheby's, celebrity-painted garden gnomes for a Chelsea Flower Show charity sale, and spy-themed memorabilia at Bonhams.

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article news schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 19 link 6 artists

What am I bid for a blown-up van? The bizarre art auction aiming to build an eco power station in Reform-held Clacton

Artists Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn are auctioning off their work from the past 15 years this Saturday to raise at least £250,000 for a community-led renewable power station in Clacton, the constituency of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. The auction, which will be conducted by former YBA Gavin Turk, includes a gold Ford Transit van wreckage containing fake banknotes that the pair blew up in 2019 as part of their film *Bank Job*, now reconstituted as a mobile sculpture. An online auction runs until 31 May, but currently only £750 has been raised.

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article news schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 28 link 10 artists

New York auctions, James McNeill Whistler at Tate Britain, Edvard Munch—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covers three major stories: the spring auction results in New York, which saw record prices for works by Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi, and Mark Rothko; the opening of the largest James McNeill Whistler exhibition in Europe in over 30 years at Tate Britain in London, which will later travel to the Van Gogh Museum and The Mesdag Collection in the Netherlands; and a feature on Edvard Munch's 1922 frieze from the Freia Chocolate Factory, currently on loan to the Munch museum in Oslo for the exhibition 'Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory.'

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article culture schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 22 link 5 artists

A hated portrait and a forged masterpiece: two new thrillers with paintings at their centre

Two new thrillers center on paintings: "The End of the Vodka" by an unnamed author, which fictionalizes the real story of Frida Kahlo's commissioned portrait of Dorothy Hale—a painting that horrified its patron Clare Boothe Luce—and weaves an imagined conversation between Luce and Wallis Simpson amid the backdrop of World War II. The second, "Sacrifice" by Lynda La Plante, follows Detective Jack Warr as he investigates a possible forgery of a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, leading to murder and a missing art forger.

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