The week's Art Market News...

Sothebys London Offers Chant 2 the Most Important Painting by ...     
NEW YORK-Sotheby's announced it will offer Chant 2, the most important painting by Bridget Riley (b.1931) ever to come to the market, in its Evening Auction of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, 1st July 2008. Estimated at £2-3 million
                                                                                                                       Art Daily - USA

Capital gains for the elite 
DUBAI-Indeed, the club has a very active events committee, says Guillemard. Over the past 18 months, it has hosted exclusive events with high-powered international experts and organised seminars on global investment opportunities, on branding and on the building of private and corporate art collections.               
                                                 Emirates Business 24/7 - Dubai,Dubai,United Arab Emirates

A Close Look at Personal Property Appraisers
Increasingly appraisers are being "called on the carpet" and closely scrutinized by the Internal Revenue Service, the legal and insurance professions to perfect their performance in the execution of their appraisals.

                                                                                                          New York Art Journal

26^th April 08

Art Appreciation
Some of the highest prices for Indian art have been reached on Mumbai-based Saffron Art, an online art auction house. Last month, a sale of edgy contemporary Indian paintings raked in $7.15-million in sales, more than double

                                                                               Financial Post - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Lord Jeffrey Archer's Down Under drawcard
BEST-selling British author Lord Jeffrey Archer forked out $250,000 on Australian art during his trip here earlier this month. Archer said he had a particular fondness for Australian art, which he buys largely through Brisbane-based art dealer Philip Bacon...                           
                                                                                              Melbourne Herald Sun - Australia

Stokes writes off WAN board skirmish
Colleagues at ACE's Perth office say Stokes refers to the art collection -- made up of everything from Monets to Picassos and examples of Andy Warhol's pop art. Stokes senses the current market meltdown could create premium art-buying opportunities.
                                                                                     The Australian - Sydney,Australia

25^th April 08

"Deutsche Bank congratulates Frieze Art Fair..." says Head of Private Wealth Management
Exciting new galleries from fast expanding markets of Brazil, China, India and Russia will exhibit alongside the leading galleries from across America, Europe, Japan and Scandinavia, presenting exceptional artworks by over 1,000 of the world's top artists.        
                                                                                                                   Art2Bank

Top end of market still thriving                                       
MELBOURNE: Three big sales on three consecutive nights: ...The action began on Monday evening at Joel Fine Art in Prahran, where John Albrecht, chief executive and head of paintings, reported that proceedings went "reasonably well".
                                                            Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales, Australia

Art breathes new life into Berlin bunker               
BERLIN-"This is a wonderful example of how you can create something new with old things through a new spirit," Boros said, referring to his collection which features 57 artists including Olafur Eliasson, Elizabeth Peyton and Wolfgang Tillmans" says Art collector Christian Boros.                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                           Reuters - USA

Newson Table Fetches 168500 Pounds in Design Sale (Update1)
LONDON: `Unlike contemporary art's "irrationality or seismic shifts." Phillips de Pury's first-ever sale of modern and contemporary design in the U.K. unlike New York and Paris, London lacked a large structure of commercial galleries...
                                                                                                                Bloomberg - USA

Rich People Should Give More to Art, UK Museums Say (Update1)
The U.K., where 68 billionaires reside and 100 new millionaires emerge each day, receives less charity money than it did in 1992, three U.K. cultural institutions said, urging the wealthy to give more. Of the 9.5 billion pounds ($18.8 billion)                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                      Bloomberg - USA

Nice poster, but where's the painting, Paris asks
PARIS -Organizers of a major Paris art show have been left red-faced after the painting used to advertise the event was impounded by an auction house and failed to make it to the exhibition.                                                                                                    Reuters - USA

Christie's: Record sales for high-profile auction                            
NEW YORK-Paintings from the biggest names in contemporary art, including De Kooning, Lichtenstein and Warhol, could bring in $280 million to $390 million for Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art sale on May 13, a record pre-sale estimate for the department.
                                                                Crain's New York Business - New York,NY,USA

24^th April 08

Bearden mural valued at $15 million                                            
PITTSBURGH-A Romare Bearden mural, appraised at $15 million and could cost the transit agency more than $100,000 a year if it is forced to insure it. The financially troubled Port Authority is now struggling to decide what to do with the mural.
                                                                             Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh, PA, USA

5 Stocks With a Cash Cushion  
The 264-year-old auctioneer Sotheby's has fallen on hard times since hitting its all-time high of $61.40 in October -- shares have subsequently fallen nearly 60%.So here we have a stock with about 20% of its market value in cash, but is it a value trap?

Weekend festival turns city into art destination for all tastes
CHICAGO-The Merchandise Mart is the epicenter of this international artistic metropolis. Three shows will take place concurrently in the massive Mart: Art Chicago, NEXT, and the Merchandise Mart Antiques Fair.
                                                                                        Chicago Maroon - Chicago, IL, USA


Credit Suisse Supports the Enigma Helvetia Exhibition
In keeping with established tradition, Credit Suisse will once again be supporting the Museo d'Arte Moderna of the City of Lugano this year as a sponsor of the major exhibition dedicated to the Swiss cultural world.


Art fairs don't die they just multiply
What concerns most of them is that the new owners Merchandise Mart (who also own the Armory, Volta and the Toronto Fair) were simultaneously holding three other fairs in the same building.
                                                                                                               By Ossian Ward
Carrie Secrist's guide to Artropolis
CHICAGO-"There are the younger artists the galleries are focusing on in NEXT, and then there's the blue-chip artists they're doing for Art Chicago," she explains. "It's interesting to see them going in both directions, and that's what I'm doing, too.
                                                                                    Chicago Sun-Times - United States

Is Moscow the new Big Apple?                                   
MOSCOW-Contemporary art is also big business. "Over the past seven years we have had this new class of people who want to buy and collect art," says Igor Markin, owner of Moscow's Art4 museum.
                                                                                      Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Vornado Subsidiary Wins Pier 94 Contract                  
NEW YORK-While would-be prognosticators look for signs that the art market may be softening, art fairs are expanding.The owner of the Armory Show...
                                                                                           New York Sun - United States

Canada's nouveaux riches bank on art             
UBS's art banking operation -  brought her to Canada to meet about 50 of its richest clients, as part of its new efforts to tap the fast-growing Canadian interest in art collecting - an offshoot of the country's unprecedented wealth boom of the past few years.

23^rd April 08

Fine Art Trade Guild elects artist as master for first time              
The Fine Art Trade Guild has elected a new master: artist and Crabfish founder Colin Ruffell. This is the first time in its history, which spans almost 100 years, Ruffell was a pioneer in the once revolutionary medium of acrylic paint.
                                                              SpringFair.com Marketplace - London, England, UK

Evoke your Digital Senses                                
KYIV-In line with the latest digital art fad, the Digital Senses: When Digital Data Turns Into Art exhibition, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard in Ukraine, opened at Kyiv's  Centre for Contemporary Art.
                                                                                                    Kyiv Post - Kyiv,Ukraine

comments on this article from msn money?
The reputations of contemporary artists can swing wildly, depending on factors such as recent auction results, major exhibitions, media visibility (or lack thereof) and the state of the global economy, says Anders Petterson of ArtTactic.
                                                                                                                    By Cheif D

LA Showcases a Vast and Varied Contemporary Art Scene
LOS ANGELES-BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum) is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to LA's wealth of contemporary art. LA is home to major contemporary art collections at several other museums as well as art galleries that draw collectors from all over the world.
                                                           Hospitality 1st (press release) - Cape Coral,FL,USA

22^nd April 08

Art market booms amid financial market turmoil                                
LONDON (Reuters) - Auction prices of arts and antiques are rising on the back of growing demand from investors trying to mitigate financial market volatility, a survey shows.
                                                                                                              Reuters UK - UK

Art sales soar despite credit crunch
According to the RICS, the popularity of modern artists such as Banksy, Damien Hirst and Peter Doig has pushed up the market.
                                                                                      Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Good Cop/Bad Cop: London Dealer 'Stung' By Art Loss Register
Claiming that he was intentionally misled by the Art Loss Register (ALR) while performing due diligence in regard to two paintings, then set up during a sting operation after he had purchased them and ultimately sued regarding ownership.                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                               Antiques and Arts Weekly - Newtown, CT, USA

Sotheby's lines up Indian contemporary art in London
KOLKATA: Sotheby's is unfurling a comprehensive sale of Indian modern and contemporary art in London in early May. The auction sports an overall estimate of around £2.4 million and will see some 120 lots go under the hammer.
                                                                          Economic Times - Gurgaon,Haryana,India

Artes Mundi, National Museum, Cardiff
WALES:The biennial Artes Mundi, the Welsh international art exhibition and prize, has become a hub of serious contemporary art. This third competition is no exception.
                                                                                   Independent - London,England,UK

21^st April 08 

Riley on the Rise At Sotheby's
NEW YORK: A key driver of the art market is the continual shift of value toward a previously overlooked or undervalued artist. Already the market is gravitating toward another British artist who is rapidly gaining in prominence: Bridget Riley.
                                                                                    New York Sun - New York,NY,USA