Vasari Art Codex

trending_up market schedule May 6, 2025 visibility 2 link 5 artists, 9 galleries

egon schiele artworks recently restituted head to christies 2372976

Seven works on paper by Egon Schiele have been restituted to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish cabaret performer killed at Dachau concentration camp in 1941 after being forced to surrender his art collection to the Nazis. Six of these pieces will be auctioned at Christie’s New York in November 2024, with three watercolor portraits—including *Stehende Frau (Dirne)* (1912), *Selbstbildnis* (1910), and *Ich liebe Gegensätze* (1912)—headlining the 20th Century Evening Sale on November 9, and three more offered in the Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper Sale on November 11. Estimates range from $150,000 to $2.5 million per work, and proceeds will be split among Grünbaum’s heirs, who plan to fund a scholarship program for young musicians.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Sep 29, 2025 visibility 4 link 4 artists

greek police arrest abbot art trafficking morning links 1234754255

Greek authorities arrested an abbot from the historic Mega Spilaio monastery in Peloponnese following a months-long undercover sting operation, charging him with trafficking Byzantine icons and other antiquities. Six defendants were arrested on Monday for their alleged involvement in an attempt to sell 14 looted Byzantine icons and two gospels for €200,000 ($235,000), with connections to auction houses in Germany and Cyprus. Separately, the Almaty Museum of Arts (ALMA) opened in Kazakhstan as the country's first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art, showcasing over 700 artworks from the collection of auto and real estate tycoon Nurlan Smagulov. A major Yoshitomo Nara painting, 'Haze Days' (1998), is heading to Christie's London with an estimate of £6.5-8.5 million, and the Museum of Women's Art (MOWA) opened in China as the first art institution dedicated to women artists.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 4 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

Gunmen stole works by Matisse and Portinari from Brazilian library in brazen daytime heist

On Sunday, December 7, two armed gunmen entered the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade (BMA) in São Paulo during public visiting hours and stole 13 artworks: eight engravings by Henri Matisse and five works by Candido Portinari. The theft occurred on the final day of the exhibition "Do livro ao museu" (From the Book to the Museum), organized in collaboration with the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP). The thieves subdued a security guard and an elderly couple, broke a glass display case, and escaped with the works in a canvas bag. Police have identified one suspect and seized the getaway vehicle; Interpol and other agencies have been alerted to prevent the works from being sold on the commercial market.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 2

thirty five arrested in bulgaria criminal art trafficking network 1234762594

Bulgarian authorities, with support from Europol, arrested 35 individuals and conducted 131 searches across Bulgaria, seizing over 3,000 cultural artifacts valued at more than €100 million. The operation targeted a criminal network trafficking artifacts from Thracian and Greco-Roman civilizations across Europe, with connections to illegal excavations in Bulgaria and the Balkans. The investigation, which began after a 2020 house raid that uncovered 7,000 artifacts, involved law enforcement from Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the UK, and was coordinated from Sofia and Eurojust in The Hague.

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gavel restitution schedule Jan 25, 2026 visibility 2 link 1 gallery

Sotheby’s to Hold Auction in Diriyah Featuring over 60 Artworks

A priceless 2,500-year-old golden helmet and three golden bracelets from Romania's Dacia civilization, stolen from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands in January 2025, were returned to Romania on Tuesday. The artifacts arrived at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport under guard and were displayed at Bucharest's National History Museum, flanked by armed security. The recovery followed 14 months of investigations, diplomatic tensions, and an ongoing trial of three suspects; one bracelet remains missing but Dutch authorities vow to continue the search.

newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat open_in_new Read original