News

02 July 2025

Major Raphael Discovery Emerges From Vatican Museum Restoration

The Vatican Museums have finally unveiled the finished restoration of the stately Hall of Constantine, one of its renowned Raphael Rooms. As the monumental 10-year project draws to a close, museum officials have announced a major art-historical discovery made during the meticulous conservation process. ... read more (external link)

02 July 2025

Historic Canaletto Masterpiece Shatters the Painter's Auction Record

Canaletto's sublime view of Venice, which once hung in the offices of Robert Walpole, the U.K.'s first prime minister, set a new auction record for the Italian painter when it sold for GBP 31.9 million ($43.9 million) at Christie's Old Masters evening sale in London on Tuesday. The final bid for the work, titled Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, surpassed its presale estimate of GBP 20 million ($26.4 million). ... read more (external link)

02 July 2025

Why Is Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory So Important?

The Persistence of Memory (La persistencia de la memoria) (1931) is a trifecta of superlatives: Surrealism's most famous painting, created by its most famous artist, featuring its most famous motif. The painter, of course, is Salvador Dali�, and his iconic rendering of melted pocket watches is instantly recognizable to nearly everyone, even those with little or no interest in art. ... read more (external link)

02 July 2025

Billionaire Art Collector Ken Griffin Buys Lincoln's Handwritten Copy of 13th Amendment for $13.7 M.

Billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin has been revealed as the winner of last week's auction at Sotheby's for President Abraham Lincoln's handwritten copy of the 13th Amendment, the auction house said in a statement Monday. ... read more (external link)

25 June 2025

Italy Finally Bows to Local Pressure and Slashes Art VAT to 5 Percent

On Monday, the Italian government announced it will cut the country's VAT on art sales from 22 percent the highest in the European Union to just 5 percent. The slashed rate, set to go into effect later this week, will now be the lowest in the EU. Germany and France are the closest, with 7 percent and 5.5 percent VATs on art sales, respectively. ... read more (external link)

25 June 2025

No Fireworks, but Women Artists Ensure Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Sale in London Takes in Respectable $84 M.

Last June, the house sold Jean-Michel Basquiat's triptych Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict for $20.2 million just above its low estimate but well below the $30 million valuation Christie's had placed on the work just two years earlier, before withdrawing the lot. And then there's the broader backdrop: Christie's scrapped its own June evening sales last year, severely curtailing what had long been the traditional post-Basel finale. Last month's marquee New York sales did little to restore confidence that the art market is turning again. ... read more (external link)

25 June 2025

Romania secures hold on stolen El Greco as court filings reveal Dmitry Rybolovlev is its owner

The legal dispute over ownership of an El Greco painting that was pulled from a Christie's New York sale in February, following a claim by the Romanian government that the work belongs to its national collection, is moving forward. ... read more (external link)

25 June 2025

Blue-Chip Works Headline Art Basel, Where Dealers Cast Wide Range of Price Points and Styles Against Market Uncertainty

For decades, Art Basel in Switzerland was the only fair that mattered the undisputed apex of the art market calendar. But in 2025, that certainty has splintered. With a bloated and chaotic global fair circuit and new contenders arriving every year (oh, hello Art Basel Qatar), even loyalists have started to ask: is Basel still top dog? ... read more (external link)

04 June 2025

Italian Museum to Restore Ancient Etruscan Treasure in Public View

The Etruscan custom of writing on linen has left little for scholars to pick over. We have no Etruscan histories, philosophies, or epics and so ignoring the often-disparaging commentaries produced by Greeks and Romans some of the best evidence of the central Italian civilization emerges from its funeral monuments. ... read more (external link)

04 June 2025

Trial Begins for Ron Perelman's $410 Million Insurance Claim Over Warhol, Ruscha, Twombly Paintings

The trial between mega-collector Ron Perelman and a group of insurers began on Monday in New York Supreme Court, nearly seven years after a fire struck Perelman's home in the Hamptons, costing him, per his argument, five paintings by Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, and Cy Twombly insured for a collective $400 million claim. ... read more (external link)

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