Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Nov 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

sothebys london lifts lid on its old master and 19th century evening sale with half of works unseen for a century

Sotheby's London has announced the full lineup for its Old Master and 19th century evening sale on December 3, featuring 31 works defined by exceptional scholarly significance and rare discoveries. Half of the lots have been hidden from public view for over a century, and 12 have not appeared on the secondary market in 40 years. Top lots include Hans Eworth's portrait of Thomas Howard (estimate £3 million), Pieter Brueghel the Younger's The Census at Bethlehem (£5 million), a rediscovered Peter Paul Rubens oil sketch (£3 million), and a Rembrandt portrait of Saint John on Patmos (£7 million). The sale also includes works from the collection of Dr Hinrich Bischoff, such as Lucas van Valckenborch's Autumn: Landscape with Archduke Matthias of Austria (£800,000).

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article culture schedule Nov 28, 2025 visibility 18 link 10 artists

art bites monet water lily pond

Claude Monet’s iconic water lily pond paintings are the subject of a new article exploring the artist’s deep passion for gardening. The piece details how Monet, after moving to Giverny in 1883, spent decades transforming his property into a lush, Japanese-inspired garden, complete with a pond, wisteria bridge, and exotic plants. He hired up to eight gardeners, studied botanical journals, and even faced protests from local farmers when he diverted a river to create the pond. The garden became his sole artistic focus for the last 20 years of his life, producing around 250 paintings of the water lilies.

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article culture schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 12 artists

neo pointillism revival

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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article culture schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

vanity fair nuzzi unreleased portrait scandal

Vanity Fair has commissioned and will publish an abstract nude portrait of journalist Olivia Nuzzi, titled "How to Disappear," by artist Isabelle Brourman, in its Dec. 2 Hollywood Issue. The painting, which depicts Nuzzi nude with Americana symbols swirling around her, was created after the two met during Donald Trump's criminal trial and will also be exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach as part of Jeffery Deitch's presentation "The Great American Nude."

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trending_up market schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists

collector sues sothebys modigliani authenticity

Collector Charles Cahn has filed a lawsuit against Sotheby’s in New York Supreme Court, alleging the auction house reneged on a buy-back agreement made in 2016 regarding a Modigliani portrait he purchased in 2003. Cahn paid $1.55 million for *Portrait de Leopold Zborowski* at a Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern sale, and later agreed to consign the work back to Sotheby’s if he sold it within 15 years, with the house guaranteeing the greater of the original price plus 2.5% annual compound interest or the future sale price, and waiving vendor fees. However, Cahn claims that in April 2016, Sotheby’s own appraisal questioned the painting’s authenticity, stating it failed certain criteria and would have no sale value in the international art market. Despite Cahn’s letters in June and September 2024, Sotheby’s has not responded, leading to the breach-of-contract claim seeking at least $2.7 million in damages.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 18 link 6 artists

john oliver bob ross auction public media

A 1987 Bob Ross painting, *Cabin at Sunset*, sold for $1.04 million in a benefit auction hosted by late-night comedian John Oliver, setting a new auction record for the artist. The work was painted during the second episode of the 10th season of Ross's television series *The Joy of Painting*. The online sale, which concluded November 24, included 65 eclectic lots—from presidential wax figures to a signed bucket of dolls—and raised funds for the Public Media Bridge Fund, which supports independent broadcasters amid federal cuts to public broadcasting.

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article culture schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 20 link 7 artists

frida kahlo auction record op ed

Frida Kahlo's 1940 painting *El Sueño (La Cama)* sold for $54.7 million at Sotheby's New York, setting a new auction record for the most expensive work by a woman artist, surpassing Georgia O'Keeffe's *Jimson Weed, White Flower No. 1* ($44.4 million in 2014). The sale sparked widespread commentary, with many framing it as a milestone for gender equity in the art market, while others noted the persistent gap between this price and those achieved by male artists like Leonardo da Vinci ($450.3 million) and Gustav Klimt ($236.4 million).

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 18 link 11 artists

tokushima modern art museum wolfgang beltracchi forgery

A painting in Japan's Tokushima Modern Art Museum, originally attributed to French Cubist Jean Metzinger and purchased in 1999 for 67.2 million yen ($426,000), has been confirmed as a forgery by notorious German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The museum withdrew the work, titled *At the Cycle-Race Track 55*, from an upcoming exhibition after experts identified synthetic pigments from after the mid-20th century. The Osaka-based seller agreed to a refund and return, completed in October and November 2024, and the painting has been removed from the prefectural government's inventory.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

family says firm funding its legal battle for stolen paintings sought control of lawsuits

The son of late Palestinian businessman Uthman Khatib, Prince Castro Ben Leon, is suing LitFin Capital, the Prague-based litigation funder that financed his family's legal battle to recover 135 Russian avant-garde paintings allegedly stolen by Israeli Russian Mozes Frisch. The paintings, attributed to El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, and Wassily Kandinsky, are valued at $323 million. A Paris court secured the works in January after they were seized from Paris-based authenticators ArtAnalysis, which had been holding them for Frisch. Castro claims LitFin is now refusing to pay legal bills unless it gains control of the lawsuits, violating their funding agreement. LitFin denies the allegations, stating it has always honored its contractual obligations.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

collector sues sothebys modigliani painting authenticity

Collector Charles C. Cahn, Jr. has filed a lawsuit against Sotheby’s in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, alleging the auction house refuses to resell a painting attributed to Amedeo Modigliani that he purchased in 2003 for $1.55 million. The work, titled *Portrait de Leopold Zborowski* (1917), was consigned under a 2016 agreement allowing Cahn to resell it within 15 years, but Cahn claims Sotheby’s raised authenticity concerns and failed to respond to his recent attempts to consign the piece. He is seeking $2.67 million in damages.

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article culture schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

jackson pollock children drip patterns study

A new study published in *Frontiers of Physics* analyzed paintings created during a 2003 'Dripfest' experiment, where children aged 4–6 and adults aged 18–25 were asked to splatter paint like Jackson Pollock. Using fractal and lacunarity analysis, researchers found that adults produced denser, more intricate patterns, while children's paintings were more clustered and smaller in scale, likely due to differences in biomechanical balance and coordination. Notably, Pollock's own fractal values fell near the children's range, suggesting his physical limitations influenced his technique.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 23 link 15 artists

sothebys surrealism modern auction november 2025 new york

On Thursday night, Sotheby’s concluded a week of evening sales with a three-part modern art auction that achieved $304.6 million, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $211.3–$289.3 million. The evening featured 13 works from the collection of Cindy and Jay Pritzker, which sold for $109.5 million, followed by the 'Exquisite Corpus' Surrealist sale from Selma Ertegun’s collection totaling $98 million, and a multiple-owner modern art auction that brought in $97 million. The standout was Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* (1940), which sold for $55 million, setting records for Kahlo, a Latin American artist, and a female artist at auction. Vincent van Gogh’s *Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans une verre (Romans parisiens)* (1887) achieved $62.7 million after a seven-minute bidding war.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists

churchill painting hudsons bay company auction

The Hudson's Bay Company, a historic Canadian department store chain that declared bankruptcy in March, began selling off its art collection. On November 19, 27 paintings from the retailer's trove were auctioned by Canadian auction house Heffel, all selling well above estimate. The top lot was an impressionistic painting of a Marrakech street by Winston Churchill, which sold for $1.5 million, more than tripling its low estimate. Other notable sales included Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith's 'Lights of a City Street' at $691,250 and works by William von Moll Berczy and Charles Pachter.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 31 link 12 artists

phillips modern contemporary art auction report francis bacon

Phillips held its modern and contemporary evening sale in New York on Wednesday, following Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions that had already generated nearly $1.4 billion. The 33-lot sale achieved $67.3 million, a 24% increase from the equivalent sale last year, with a 94% sell-through rate. Headlining lots included an untitled Joan Mitchell painting ($14.3 million), a Francis Bacon diptych ($16 million), and a juvenile triceratops skeleton that sold for $5.3 million, exceeding its high estimate. Only two lots failed to sell, and notable results included works by Ruth Asawa, Firelei Báez, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Max Ernst.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 14 link 13 artists

alexander calder painted wood mobile christies

Alexander Calder's painted wood mobile "Painted Wood" (ca. 1943) sold for $20.4 million at Christie's 20th-century evening sale in New York, exceeding its $15–$20 million estimate. The work, from the collection of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, was acquired over 30 years ago and made its auction debut. Bidding was competitive among Christie's staffers Alex Rotter, Max Carter, and Patrick Saich, with Saich winning the lot for a client after a brief technical hiccup. The result is the second-highest price ever for a Calder at auction, behind "Poisson volant (Flying Fish)" (1957) which sold for $25.9 million in 2014.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

klimt waldabhang unterach attersee lauder sale

Gustav Klimt's landscape painting *Waldabhang in Unterach am Attersee* (1916) sold for $70.8 million at Sotheby's on Tuesday night, hammering at $61 million. The work was the third Klimt painting sold by Sotheby's from the collection of the late mega-collector Leonard A. Lauder, and was the first Klimt landscape Lauder ever purchased. The sale comes after Lauder's other Klimt landscapes achieved record prices, including *Blumenwiese* ($86 million) and his portrait of Elisabeth Lederer ($236.4 million).

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

gustav klimt blumenwiese blooming meadow lauder sale

Gustav Klimt's 1908 landscape painting *Blumenwiese* (Blooming Meadow) sold for $86 million at Sotheby's, slightly above its $80 million-plus estimate. The work was part of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, a major consignment also featuring pieces by Matisse, Munch, and Martin. Lauder had acquired the painting in 1985, drawn to Viennese modernism and Klimt's Attersee period. The sale marks the second-highest price ever for a Klimt landscape, trailing the $104.5 million record set by *Birch Forest* in 2022.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

picasso panama papers ganz collection

The Panama Papers leak has revealed that the 1997 sale of the Victor and Sally Ganz collection at Christie's New York was secretly orchestrated by billionaire currency trader Joseph Lewis. Lewis had already purchased the top works from the collection through a Christie's subsidiary, Spink & Son, months before the auction, and structured a guarantee that shared profits above $168 million. The sale, which set a private collection auction record at $206 million, included Pablo Picasso's "Women of Algiers (version O)" fetching $31.9 million. The documents also confirm that a Modigliani painting involved in a Nazi restitution case belongs to the Nahmad family.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

scope art show miami 2025

Scope Art Show Miami has announced its 2025 edition, themed "Be Here Now," which will take place December 2–7. The fair will feature 95 galleries from 18 countries and territories, including over 30 first-time exhibitors, along with large-scale installations, performances, and collaborative activations. Highlights include a reprisal of The Better Together Bar by Chris Allen Darsow and Al Hamm, a monumental installation by Victor Quiñonez (Marka27) titled "Elevar La Cultura" (2025), Shepard Fairey's "Phone Booth" presented by Mortal Machine Gallery, and Dan Witz's hyperrealist painting "Crown Heights" (2025).

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trending_up market schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

liebermann resituted gurlitt auction

Max Liebermann's painting *Two Riders on a Beach* (1901), recently restituted to the Rosenburg family from the Cornelius Gurlitt hoard, will be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on June 24, with an estimated price of up to £500,000 ($850,000). The work is one of the first two artworks returned from the trove discovered in Gurlitt's Munich apartment in 2012; the other, Henri Matisse's *Woman with a Fan* (1932), was also handed back to the Rosenburg family last week.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 14 link 7 artists

art market minute nov 17

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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article news schedule Nov 13, 2025 visibility 15 link 1 artist

jeffrey epstein emails art guy leonardo salvator mundi

Newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein, published by House Republicans, show the disgraced financier discussing Leonardo da Vinci's *Salvator Mundi* with journalist Michael Wolff. In a May 2019 exchange, Epstein referenced the $450.3 million painting—the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction—and suggested its sale was linked to a real estate deal involving a Russian billionaire and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Epstein also mentioned that his "art guy" thought the painting wasn't very good.

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person people schedule Nov 6, 2025 visibility 16 link 5 artists

sara friedlander christies chairman post war contemporary art

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 Nov 4, 2025 visibility 15 link 3 artists

norman rockwell family speaks out about department of homeland security misuse of artwork

The descendants of Norman Rockwell have publicly condemned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for using reproductions of Rockwell's paintings on social media to promote anti-immigrant rhetoric. Since August, DHS posts on X, Instagram, and Facebook have featured Rockwell's works such as "Salute the Flag" (1971), "Working on the Statue of Liberty" (1946), and "And Daniel Boone Comes to Life on the Underwood Portable" (1923), overlaid with captions like "Protect our American way of life" and "Protect your homeland and defend your culture." The Rockwell family responded with an op-ed in USA Today, arguing that the artist would have been "devastated" by this misuse, and provided context about his later civil rights-themed works.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 3, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

brian eno sells paintings

Brian Eno, the renowned musician and artist, is selling a cache of paintings for £500 each (around $666) through his London gallery, Paul Stolper. The online sale begins November 12, following a two-day performance where Eno created over 400 works using stencils, spray paint, and found objects like dried pasta and wooden blocks. The paintings, measuring about 5 by 7 inches, are priced individually, with four-block assemblages available for £3,000. An exhibition accompanies the sale from November 14 through January 17 at Paul Stolper.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 3, 2025 visibility 18 link 12 artists

faked artworks japan wolfgang beltracchi

A painting long attributed to Moïse Kisling, titled *Kiki de Montparnasse* and held by Japan's Yamada Bee Company Group, has been identified as a forgery by notorious art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The discovery, reported by NHK, follows a wave of Beltracchi-linked fakes uncovered in Japanese museums and collections, including a purported Marie Laurencin portrait in Tokyo and a forgery of Heinrich Campendonk's *Girl with Swan* at the Museum of Art, Kochi. Beltracchi admitted to forging the Kisling around 1990, claiming he studied the artist deeply.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 19 link 1 artist

canaletto 2026 christies old masters sale

A Canaletto painting titled *Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day* (ca. 1754) will lead Christie’s Old Masters sale in New York this February 2026, with an estimate of over $30 million. The monumental canvas, commissioned by the King family (later Earls of Lovelace), is the last known version of this subject by the artist. It last sold at Christie’s 20 years ago during the Champalimaud Collection sale, setting a record. The work will tour exhibitions in New York, Hong Kong, and London before returning to New York for a pre-sale exhibition.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

pablo picasso dora maar portrait sells 37 million

A previously little-known Pablo Picasso portrait of Dora Maar, titled *Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)* (1943), sold for $37 million at Lucien Paris auction house on October 24, 2025—nearly four times its $9.5 million estimate. The painting had been owned by the same family since 1944 and was shown publicly for the first time in 80 years at Hôtel Drouot before the sale. Auctioneer Christophe Lucien called it the highest auction price for any artwork in France this year.

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article culture schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

barnett newman mayoral run new york city

A new biography titled *Barnett Newman: Here*, written by art historian Amy Newman, reveals that the Abstract Expressionist painter Barnett Newman ran for mayor of New York City in 1933—long before he became a famous artist. At age 28, with no paintings to his name, Newman campaigned on a vague, socialist-utopian platform that included a free city-run art school, waterfront parks, cleaner waters, and public ownership of utilities. He ran specifically to oppose the spread of Communism among intellectuals, but he admitted he did not expect to win. He lost, and his candidacy became a family joke.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 16 link 7 artists

sothebys records highest ever totals in france for surrealist and modern sales during art basel paris week

Sotheby's Paris achieved record-breaking totals for surrealist and modern art auctions during Art Basel Paris week, with combined sales of €89.7 million ($104 million) across its Surrealism and Its Legacy and Modernités sales—a 50 percent increase over the same event last year. The top lot was Amedeo Modigliani's *Elvire en buste* (1918-1919), which sold for €27 million ($31.3 million), the highest auction price for a painting by the Italian artist in France and the most valuable work ever sold by Sotheby's Paris. Other highlights included Modigliani's *Raymond* (1915) at €10.6 million, René Magritte's *La Magie Noire* (1934) at €10.7 million, and a complete set of Pablo Picasso's *Séries 347* etchings, which set a French auction record for any print by the artist.

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