Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 26 link 27 artists, 17 galleries

Rare ‘Ocean Dream’ Diamond Sells for Record $17.3 Million at Christie’s

A rare 5.5-carat blue-green diamond known as the 'Ocean Dream' sold for $17.3 million at Christie’s Geneva jewelry sale, setting a record for a fancy vivid blue-green diamond at auction. The sale far exceeded its presale estimate of $9 million to $13 million after a 20-minute bidding battle. In other auction news, Sotheby’s New York sold over $433 million worth of art in its contemporary art sales, including 11 pieces from the Robert Mnuchin collection. Meanwhile, London’s Wellcome Collection agreed to return around 2,000 sacred Jain manuscripts to the Jain religious community under a new restitution framework, acknowledging they were acquired unethically. Several art fairs were announced, including Zero 10 curated by Trevor Paglen at Art Basel in Switzerland, CAN Art Fair Ibiza’s fifth edition, and Art-o-rama’s 20th edition in Marseille. Notable gallery news includes the bankruptcy and closure of French gallery Air de Paris after 36 years, and Carine Karam becoming director of Opera Gallery’s New York outpost. Hong Kong’s M+ and Paris’s Centre Pompidou announced a multi-year strategic alliance, and New York’s Frick Collection entered a three-year partnership with Louis Vuitton.

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trending_up market schedule May 21, 2026 visibility 5 link 17 artists, 1 gallery

Richter and Judd works top Christie's solid if not stellar sale of post-war and contemporary art

Christie’s held a two-part evening sale on May 20, featuring 42 lots from the estate of dealer Marian Goodman and the single-owner collection of Henry S. McNeil Jr. The auction achieved a hammer total of $132 million ($162.6 million with fees), just above the low end of its pre-sale estimate. The top lot was Donald Judd’s untitled plexiglass and copper stack sculpture, which sold for $12.8 million with fees, setting a new record for a Judd stack at auction. A surprise standout was Richard Artschwager’s Two-Part Invention (1967), which hammered at $500,000—more than six times its high estimate. The McNeil collection achieved a white-glove sale, while all but two of the eight Gerhard Richter works from the Goodman collection were guaranteed by third parties.

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trending_up market schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 16 link 24 artists, 4 galleries

Rothko from Robert Mnuchin’s Estate Sells for $85.8 M., Leading Sotheby’s New York’s $433.1 M. Contemporary Art Sale

Sotheby’s New York held a $433.1 million modern and contemporary art sale at its Madison Avenue headquarters, led by Mark Rothko’s *Brown and Blacks in Reds* (1957), which sold for $85.8 million. The auction opened with 11 works from the estate of legendary dealer Robert Mnuchin, totaling $166.3 million, including a second Rothko and pieces by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Pablo Picasso. The contemporary art segment followed, with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s *Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)* (1983) selling for $52.7 million. The overall sale was described by advisers as robust but not particularly exciting, and it significantly exceeded the $186.1 million equivalent sale from last year.

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trending_up market schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 13 link 11 artists

Contemporary Icons and Modern Masters Headline This Major May Sale

Rago/Wright is hosting two major spring sales on May 14, 2026: 'Pure Edge: American Geometric Abstraction, Selected Works from the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires' and a Post War and Contemporary Art sale. The first features 19 works from the museum's premier collection of American geometric abstraction, while the second spans 20th- and 21st-century art. Highlighted lots include Sam Gilliam's 'Sun Woman' (1970, est. $300,000–$500,000), Annie Morris's 'Stack 7 (Ultramarine Blue)' (2015, est. $150,000–$200,000), Miyoko Ito's 'Adam and Eve' (1957, est. $200,000–$300,000), and Maria Martins's 'Impossible' (1946, est. $150,000–$200,000).

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trending_up market schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 21 link 2 artists

Rare Keith Haring Self-Portrait and Other Intimate Works Go on View in NYC

A collection of intimate works by Keith Haring, including a rare self-portrait, a painted crib, and personal letters, has gone on view at Sotheby's Breuer building in New York City. The works were gifted by Haring to his childhood best friend and fellow artist, Kermit Oswald, over the course of their friendship from 1977 to 1989. The free public exhibition precedes a series of three auctions beginning May 14, with highlights including the self-portrait estimated at $3–5 million and a crib-and-dresser set expected to fetch $250,000–350,000.

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trending_up market schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 4 link 12 artists

Early David Hockney piece expected to fetch thousands at upcoming auction

A rare early artwork by David Hockney, created when he was just 19, is heading to auction at Tennants Auctioneers' Modern and Contemporary Art Sale on June 13. The mixed media piece, titled *Bolton Junction Eccleshill, Bradford*, depicts scenes from Hockney's hometown and is expected to fetch between £7,000 and £10,000. Originally purchased by Hockney's tutor Malcolm Riley at the artist's end-of-year show, the work reflects the perspective lessons Hockney learned at Bradford Regional College of Art. The sale also features works by other notable northern artists, including two drawings by L.S. Lowry, pieces by mining artists Norman Cornish and Tom McGuinness, and ceramics by Pablo Picasso, alongside lots by Damien Hirst and David Bailey.

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trending_up market schedule May 7, 2026 visibility 14 link 39 artists, 3 galleries

Your guide to Christie's 20/21 auction week in New York

Christie's is holding its 20/21 auction week in New York from May 9–22, 2026, featuring seven live auctions and two online sales at its Rockefeller Center galleries. Highlights include the dedicated sale "MASTERPIECES: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse" (led by Constantin Brancusi's *Danaïde* and Jackson Pollock's *Number 7A, 1948*), the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale, and "Defined Space: The Collection of Henry S. McNeil, Jr.," which focuses on Minimalist works by Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. Other consignors include prominent collectors Agnes Gund, Marian Goodman, and Joanna Carson. The public can view works for free from May 9–21.

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trending_up market schedule May 21, 2026 visibility 6 link 8 artists

A world record for Lena Cronqvist and several million-plus sales at Stockholms Auktionsverk’s spring art auctions

Stockholms Auktionsverk's spring auctions, The Modern Art Sale and The Contemporary Art Sale, achieved strong results including a world record for Lena Cronqvist's sculpture "Flicka med flätor och parasoll", which sold for nearly SEK 1.9 million. Other top sales included Andy Warhol's "Queen Elizabeth II" at SEK 2.5 million, Jean-Paul Riopelle's "Arthur" at SEK 1,875,000, and Warhol's triptych "Ingrid Bergman" at SEK 1.25 million. Karin Parrow also set a new personal record with "Kappseglingsdag" selling for SEK 231,250.

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trending_up market schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 26 link 18 artists

Stockholms Auktionsverk Presents: The Modern Art Sale and The Contemporary Art Sale

Stockholms Auktionsverk is holding two live auctions, The Modern Art Sale and The Contemporary Art Sale, on May 20 and 21, 2026, at Nybrogatan 32 in Stockholm. The sales feature a curated selection of Swedish and international artists from the early 20th century to the present day, including works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Tony Cragg, Lena Cronqvist, and a newly discovered painting by Gösta Adrian-Nilsson. The Modern Art Sale highlights modernist masterpieces by Otte Sköld, Sigrid Hjertén, and Ragnar Sandberg, while The Contemporary Art Sale pays tribute to Ola Billgren and includes works by David LaChapelle, Cindy Sherman, and Britta Marakatt-Labba.

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trending_up market schedule May 21, 2026 visibility 7 link 15 artists

La grande artista Carla Accardi e l’arte italiana sono da record nell’asta da Dorotheum a Vienna

Dorotheum opened its Contemporary Week in Vienna on May 19, 2026, with modern and contemporary art sales that achieved strong results, particularly for Italian artists. Carla Accardi set a new auction record when her 1986 triptych *Fonda Notte Pieno Giorno* sold for €520,000, while works by Piero Dorazio, Emilio Vedova, Marino Marini, and Gino Severini also far exceeded their estimates. Top lots included Claude Monet’s *Waterloo Bridge* (€611,000) and Mikuláš Medek’s *Too Deep a Sleep V* (€546,000).

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trending_up market schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 16 link 11 artists

L’arte italiana del Dopoguerra va in asta da Sotheby’s a Milano: tutti i nomi più attesi

Sotheby's will hold a live auction of Modern and Contemporary Art at Palazzo Serbelloni in Milan on May 27, 2026, featuring major Italian post-war artists. Highlights include works by Lucio Fontana, Giorgio Morandi, Carla Accardi, Alighiero Boetti, Emilio Vedova, Salvo, Piero Dorazio, and Tancredi, many appearing at auction for the first time. Key lots include Fontana's "Concetto Spaziale, Attese" (1965-66, estimate €700,000-1,000,000) and a Yves Klein monochrome from 1959.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 16 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

THE ART OF SCALE: LARGE WORKS | An Online Exclusive Exhibition

JoAnne Artman Gallery presents 'The Art of Scale: Large Works,' an online exclusive exhibition running from April 27 to June 1, 2026. The show features 11 large-scale artworks by artists including America Martin, Mandy Racine, Martin Adalian, Mary Finlayson, Greg Miller, Anja Van Herle, CRASH (John "Crash" Matos), and Chris Watts, with prices ranging from $9,500 to $72,000.

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trending_up market schedule May 19, 2026 visibility 6

18TH POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART SALE

Virág Judit Gallery and Auction House will hold its 18th Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale on May 19, 2026, at the Budapest Music Center. The auction will feature a selection of works from the post-war and contemporary periods, with a public exhibition running from May 4 to May 18, 2026 (closed on May 17), daily from 10 am to 6 pm at the gallery.

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