Sunday, 11th May 08

Contemporary art commanding high prices
The much-awaited Sotheby's auction of domestic art far exceeded expectations. The recently-held auction fetched £4.28 million, which in fact is much higher than the pre-sale estimate of £2.4-3 .4 million. At the auction, 79 percent of the lots were sold.                       

                                                                                       Economic Times - Gurgaon, Haryana, India

New Leadership Announced at Art Forum Berlin
BERLIN - Eva-Maria Häusler and Peter Vetsch have been signed up as co-directors  of ART FORUM BERLIN, the International Trade Fair for Contemporary Art, with effect from 1  January 2009. Ambitious plans to develop this trade fair and make it even more international.                                                                                           Art Daily-USA     

William Kay: Art sales hammer home the message
While the London market has recovered well in recent weeks and people who should know are beginning to say the worst is over, saleroom action points to a high degree of disagreement and indecision about the outlook.                                       
                                                                                                             Times Online - UK

ARTNET DESIGN
But with this new show, he is certain to secure a far greater following in the hipster contemporary art world. The estimate for this icon of 20th-century architecture is a mere $2,000,000-$3,000,000, a figure that makes recent prices for sculptures by Damien Hirst or Alberto Giacometti seem woefully inflated.                                           
                                                                                                Artnet - New York, NY, USA

A Vivid Spectrum of Commentary
Corcoran College of Art and Design student Benjamin Jurgensen. So what sets Jurgensen apart? For one, a remarkably cogent set of works that display, if not maturity beyond his years, then at least a level of finesse that has to be taken seriously.
                                                                                               Washington Post - United States

Christie's Sale of South Asian Masters to fetch $7m
Christie's sale of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art here June 11 will feature 112 works including noted Indian artists like F.N. Souza and Tyeb Mehta. It is expected to fetch more than 3.7 million pounds (over $7 million).
                                                                                NEWSPost India - New Delhi, Delhi, India

Dali Art Revealed
New York Author and journalist Lee Catterall and Michigan-based art dealers, Park West Gallery, have announced the publication of a new book which will update the continuing story of the murky underworld of counterfeit art attributed to the Spanish artist Salvador Dali.
                                                                                                      PR Newswire (press release)

Is the art market heading for a crash?
Coming up for auction this week, Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, valued at £17m. Ian Peck, Art Capital's chief executive, says auction houses are acting more like private dealers in finding buyers for trophy works to ensure they sell. And these figures disguise the real situation.                                   
                                                                                           Independent - London, England, UK

Lady Helen Taylor
She was styled The Lady Helen Windsor until her marriage, on 18 July 1992 to Timothy Taylor, an art dealer and the eldest son of Commander Michael Taylor, RN. They married at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Lady Helen is now styled Lady Helen Taylor.

Saturday, 10^th May 08

Doubts over Picasso sale
ROD Menzies, the owner of art auction houses Deutscher-Menzies and Lawson-Menzies, makes no secret of his ambition to be the market leader and has announced his decision to sell a 1954 Picasso painting through his own D-M Sydney auction next month, even industry colleagues were perplexed.
                                                                                           The Australian - Sydney, Australia

Carrying forward the Art Gallery legacy: Roshini Vadehra
Roshini Vadehra, Director, Vadehra Art Gallery hopes to be running the finest museum of contemporary art in India in five years. At 25, she is taking forward the legacy of two-decade old Vadehra Art Gallery.                                                           Moneycontrol.com - Mumbai, India

Do the Uber-Rich Care About the Slowing Economy?
Last night's results from Sotheby's were modest and uninspiring. What do the newly rich know about Contemporary Art? Some would argue that they know nothing. They just raise the paddle and pay more and more because it's currently fashionable and because they can.

                                                                                HULIQ (press release) - Hickory, NC, USA

Closing Lecture and Reception for Bob Trotman: Business as Usual
Bob Trotman: Business as Usual consists of ten figures carved from basswood and poplar and painted with tempera in muted tones so that the wood grain, cracks, and tool marks are clearly visible. His work is in numerous public and private collections.  
                                                                            Rockbridge Weekly - Lexington,VA,USA

Australia's dark undercurrents
Adam Cullen His works command big prices and he is represented in important galleries and corporate and private collections. Elton John, Amanda Vanstone and Tasmanian politician Duncan Kerr, who has become friends with Cullen, are among those who have bought his work.
                                                       Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Sotheby's Posts Loss on Lower Sales, Higher Salaries (Update3)
``The demand for great works remain high,'' Ruprecht said. ``The economic elite continue to drive our business, many of them somewhat insulated from the sub prime credit crunch that we read and hear about all day long in New York City.''

                                                                                                                    Bloomberg - USA

Sotheby's Not Hot Right Now
While a lot of Americans are cutting back citing hard times, international art broker Sotheby's is saying that demand for its high-priced art is still strong.
                                                                                                                   Forbes - NY,USA

Sotheby's Posts Loss as Revenue
A shortfall in auction-commission revenue and higher operating costs produced a first-quarter loss at Sotheby's. The auction house, which is in the midst of spring art sales, said revenue fell 12% to $129.3 million, primarily due to lower auction-commission margins.
                                                                                                   Wall Street Journal - USA

How the Tate got streetwise
It's the anti-establishment movement that has taken the art market by storm, keenly collected by hedge-funders and Hollywood' s A-list. Now, even Tate Modern is giving Street Art its stamp of approval.                                                                                       The Observer - UK

Friday, 9^th May 08

Contemporary Art Evening Auction

VIDEO - Sotheby's specialists including Tobias Meyer, Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art. This season's Contemporary Art highlights, includes the most important Francis Bacon triptych left in private hands, masterpieces by Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, Takashi Murakami, Donald Judd and others.

The Estella Collection, went on the block in April in Hong Kong, it brought in $18 million and set some record prices. But the sale of the works has stirred indignation among many of the artists and their dealers and some curators.
                                                                                      International Herald Tribune - France

Tagore tag at Sotheby's breathes life into Bengal art
Back in India, this school of art has also been classified as National Treasures. Thus, they are non-exportable. This situation of non-availability, for quite some time, has given rise to fakes. Given the state of affairs, a Bengal School work                                 Economic Times - Gurgaon, Haryana,India

 Frieze announces new winner of the Cartier Award, Wilfredo Prieto

Halcyon Gallery to Hold First Gallery Exhibition of Bob Dylan Art
One of London's most prestigious galleries, Halcyon Gallery in Mayfair, will present the first ever gallery exhibition of Bob Dylan's artwork, beginning 14 June 2008.
                                                                                                                 FOXBusiness - USA

Sotheby's Posts Loss Amid Drop in Revenue
Sotheby's swung to a first-quarter loss amid a shortfall in auction-commission revenue and higher operating costs. The auction house, which is in the midst of spring art sales, reported a net loss of $12.4 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with year-earlier net income of $24.3 million.                                                                                                Wall Street Journal - USA

Sotheby's keen to change luck with sizzling Bacon
The auctioneer hopes that it will attract as much as $477 million from its sales of contemporary art in New York next week, when Mark Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow goes under the hammer, possibly for about $33 million.                                 Times Online - UK

Art Review | The International Fine Art Fair Contemporary May be ...
Whatever your tastes, the fair's seamless integration of Old World and New makes for an enjoyable guessing game. The 15th annual International Fine Art Fair features 61 exhibitors at the Park Avenue Armory.                                                          New York Times - United States

Art of making money despite market turmoil
what is driving people to fork out such huge sums on art? In part, it is a result of the weak dollar, and Europeans grabbing the chance to pick up a bargain -- 52 per cent of the bidders at Christie's were European.                                            CITY A.M. - London, England, UK

Sotheby's Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Sotheby's First Quarter 2008 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.                                Seeking Alpha - New York, NY, USA

Delhi HC quashes obscenity case against MF Husain
"We have been called as the land of Kama Sutra then why is it that in this land we shy away from its very name? Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and so does obscenity," Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said after reasoning that nudity is part of contemporary art.
                                                                                                                          Times of India - India

Noted Real Estate Entrepreneur and Art Collector Mera Rubell to ...
Mera Rubell to Receive Distinguished Alumni Award from Long Island University. The Partner in Rubell Hotels is to attend Brooklyn Campus Commencement on May 15. Primarily known for assembling a vast collection of contemporary art, The Rubell Family Collection.
                                                                                         LIU Blackbirds - Brooklyn, NY, USA

 
Sotheby's Announces 2008 First Quarter Results
Net auction sales increased a modest 2%; however, this reflects an increase in higher value works of art, consistent with our long-term strategic objectives, and is partially offset by a significant decrease in single owner sales from the prior first quarter.

                                                                 Primenewswire (press release) - Los Angeles,CA,USA

Thursday, 8^th May 08

Art collectors defy US downturn at Sotheby's
Richard Nagy, a London dealer, said buyers were now being more selective, bidding hard for exceptional works by major artists but ignoring their "overpriced" lesser creations.
                                                                                                      Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Cultural revolution
In oil-rich Venezuela, money is no object. Between 2006 and 2007, the cultural sector's budget rose by 33 per cent. This year the culture ministry will spend nearly $18m (£9m) on a film by Danny Glover;  the National Museums Foundation will have a budget of £12m.                                                        
                                                                                       New Statesman - London, England, UK

Contemporary art "to connect" to China
NEW YORK. When the new American embassy opens in Beijing just before the start of the summer Olympics in August, it will display work by at least 18 American and Chinese contemporary artists, including Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Louise Bourgeois, to name a few.                                                                      
                                                                                       The Art Newspaper                    

Artnet News
Fine Art Fair Hits NYC, Loop'08 in Barcelona, Tom Sachs at Lever House, Lincoln Center Prints at UBS, Carnegie Prizes to Celmins, Weerasethakul
                                                                                                         Artnet - New York,NY,USA

Americans Are Heaviest Bidders on Impressionist and Modern Art at ...
But unlike at the Christie's sale, which was dominated by European buyers, at Sotheby's Americans took home 67 percent of the work, and Europeans bought 27 percent.
                                                                                               New York Times - United States

Marc Schwartz
This weekend marks the debut of Art Detroit Now, one of the most widespread art events ever to take place in metro Detroit. A three-day open house will thread together art venues in a flurry of lectures, exhibit openings and artist receptions.

                                                                                            Detroit Free Press - United States

US buyers defy economy at Sotheby's NY art auction
NEW YORK: American art collectors defied a sinking U.S. economy on Wednesday, making up nearly 70 percent of buyers at a Sotheby's New York sale that saw records smashed for work by artists Edvard Munch and Fernand Leger.
                                                                                 Economic Times - Gurgaon, Haryana, India

Ambani art collection to be auctioned at Christie's
The auction will include masters of the Progressive Artists Group era such as M F Husain, Tyeb Mehta and S H Raza, through to leading names in contemporary art including Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, T V Santhosh and Riyas Komu.
                                                                                                         Times of India - India

Tiananmen Painting May Fetch 11 Times Its 2005 Price at Auction
A sardonic painting by Chinese artist Yue Minjun on the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown fetched HK$4.9 million ($628,600) in Hong Kong in November 2005. This month, it may sell for HK$55 million, said Christie's International.
                                                                                                             Bloomberg - USA

Art Market Watch
Some highlights from May 7, 2008, evening sale of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's New York. Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer had a difficult time.
                                                                                                     Artnet - New York, NY, USA
                                                                                                                  
Fear of Fakes Effects Russian Market.
Wrongly authenticated by such respected institutions as the State Tretyakov Gallery: "Sales in Moscow of 19th-century Russian art have fallen because of the hysteria over fakes,'' said Georgy Putnikov, vice president of the Confederation of Art and Antique Dealers
                                                                                                   ARTINFO - New York, NY, USA

Renting the Lifestyles of the Rich
The survey conducted by Prince & Associates, more than half of respondents worth between $1 million and $10 million plan to rent luxury goods, including fine art, in the next 12 months.

Triple player
Maya Lin. Monuments are a middle ground for her, combining Lin's skills as architect and artist. Both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale are in architecture. But art is something she has always done. Her husband, Daniel Wolf, is a well-known photography dealer; they have two daughters.  
                                                                                            San Diego Union Tribune - United States

Art Collecting Is Not Just for the Rich
Indeed, the art market's huge gains of the past seven years must look pretty attractive to anyone with an eye toward diversifying a portfolio with a Josef Albers print or a Franz Arthur Bischoff oil.                                                                                                               US News

Wednesday, 7^th May 08

Record Monet Fails to Stem Dip in Christie's Impressionist Sale
Monet and Rodin failed to prevent Christie's International missing its low estimate for an evening impressionist and modern art auction for the first time in four years.                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                   Bloomberg - USA

Christie's sale breaks Monet record
Christie's auction of Impressionist and Modern Art made more than 277 million U.S. Dollars and broke auction records for works by Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti.

                                                                                                                             Reuters

Sotheby's - Contemporary Art - May 14-15, 2008
Sotheby's Spring 2008 sales of contemporary art in New York on May 14-15^th to feature important works by Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenburg and Jean-Michel Basquait, among many others.
                                                                                      News-antique.com (press release) - Garden City,NY,USA

Missing 'Ship of Oblivion' sculpture returned to Bill Lowe Gallery
Margarita Checa's "The Ship of Oblivion" is back at Bill Lowe Gallery after disappearing about three years ago, valued at $95,000, showed up on the gallery's doorstep last week, in excellent  condition.
                                                                                              Los Angeles Times - CA, USA

Records fall at NY art auction, foreigners dominate
Christies auction house reaped more than $277.2 million at the Impressionist and Modern Art sale where 44 of the 58 lots were sold -- 32 percent to U.S. buyers, 52 percent to European buyers, and the rest to other parts of the world.                                   
                                                                                             Ottawa Citizen -  Ontario, Canada

All eyes on Hong Kong for ART HK, the Convention and Exhibition Centre, 14 - 18 May 08

Momentum is building for ART HK 08, the inaugural international contemporary and modern art fair which firmly establishes Hong Kong's position as the centre of the art market in Asia.

Chapman, Lane and Ashton collaborate at Matches in Marylebone 13 Jun - 31 Aug
Paintings by Juan Cossio at the Albemarle Gallery from 8 - 31 May
Lucifer's Greatest Work of Art at Fred- Liepzig, 1st May - 22 Jun
Fiona Rae at Timothy Taylor Gallery from 23 May - 28 Jun
'PATTERNA", a group show at the Vegas Gallery from 24 Apr - 18 May
Frieze Art Fair Announces New Architect
Celebrated artist, architect and product designer, Ron Arad joins Timothy Taylor Gallery     
Tal R at the Camden Arts Centre from 2 May - 29 Jun
Claire Barclay's sculptural installation at Camden Art Centre 2 May - 29 Jun
Ryan McClelland at the Foster Gallery from 25 Apr - 24 May
WINNER of the Pulse Prize, Philip Gurrey at MADDER139 15 May - 21 June
Spencer Finch at the Lisson Gallery, 52-54 Bell Street, 29 May - 26 Jul
Jonathan Yeo at the Lazarides Gallery from 5 Jun - 11 Jul

NEW YORK ART NEWS

Nobuyoshi Araki at 1018 ART, Madison Avenue, May 10- Jul 25

Martin Barré by Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner at Andrew Kreps to Jun 7^th
Christopher Wool at Luhring Augustine, May 10 - June 21
Nelleke Nix at SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery, 22nd Apr to 17th of May
Zhao Nengzhi at ChinaSquare, West 25th Str. from June 5th
Solo show of Judith Belzer at Morgan Lehman from Apr 24- May 31
Milton Resnick(1917 - 2004) at Cheim & Reid Gallery 1 May - 7 June
Ken Solomon at Josée Bienvenu gallery Apr 12- May 17
Jeff Koons at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 5th Ave from 22 Apr - 26 Oct       
Group exhibition with Kusama, Ufan ... Yvon Lambert, May 3 - June 7 
Piotr Uklański at the Gagosian West 21st Str, Mar 27 - May 17

INTERNATIONAL ART NEWS

BALTIC presents ICA touring exhibition 'Double Agent', Gateshead, UK, 21 May - 17 Aug
LUCIFER'S GREATEST WORK OF ART at FRED, Leipzig, 1st May - 22 Jun
Xiao Min and Gao Shan 1918ArtSpace, Shanghai, May 17 - Jun 15
Wang Guangyi at Borobudur's SE Asian Contemporary Spring Sale, Singapore, May 17 & 18 Etcétera...artist collaboration at galerie frank elbaz until 17th May, Paris
Zhou Yilun at Andrew James Chinese Contemporary, Shanghai 19th Apr - 18th May China
Vivan Sundaram at Gallery Chemould, Mumbai from 22 Apr to 17 May  
Enrico Bacci at Damien B. Contemporary Art Center, Miami, to 9th Jun
Luis Molina Pantin at Federico Luger Gallery, Milan from 6 Apr - 24 May
New Works by Stephan Balkenhol at Mai 36, Zurich, Apr 12 to May 17                 
Piero Manzoni at Moderna Museet from 1 May - 7 Sept, Stockholm
Balthasar Burkhard at Scalo/Guye in West Hollywood until 31 MayEssl Museum, Austria: Bazelitz, Kiefer, Lassnig, Lupertz, Polke... until 25 May
Rirkrit Tiravanija and Neil Logan, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, Italy 2 Apr-24 May