This week's Art Collecting and Investment News

Sunday, 27^th July 2008

They've bought a Bacon. Now for a $300000 settee
GLOBAL - The huge spending power of buyers such as the Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, who think nothing of spending tens of millions on a Freud or a Bacon, has driven the rise of a new art discipline.
                                                                                             Independent - London,England,UK

Scotland prospers with a growing appreciation of modern art
UK -  In particular Edinburgh's complicated relationship with contemporary art. On the one hand, it has enviable and distinguished connections: pioneered in the private sector by Richard Demarco in the Seventies and Graham Murray in the 1980s
                                                                                                                     guardian.co.uk - UK

Just don't sit on the furniture
GLOBAL - Trendy art galleries have taken note and are shifting into design. Haunch of Venison in London shows the designer Stuart Haygarth and the Gagosian flogs Marc Newson. Sotheby's sold Newson's Lockheed Lounge for about £482,000 in 2006, broke the record for an item of furniture by a living designer.
                                                                                                                        Times Online - UK

A Hundred Galleries Bloom
BEIJING, CHINA - Contemporary Chinese art is as hot as Beijing in August, with works by Zeng Fanzhi, Yue Minjun, Cai Guo-Qiang, Zhang Xiaogang and other Chinese artists fetching millions of dollars.
                                                                                                  New York Times - United States

Saturday, 26^th July 2008

Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair Prepares for Second Coming
SHANGHAI, CHINA - After a relatively well-received debut in 2007, the ShContemporary art fair will return to Shanghai from 9-13 September.  ShContemporary 2008 will gather together around 130 exhibiting galleries from 25 countries, ranging from Australia to the United Arab Emirates.
                                                                                              BizChinaUpdate - Shanghai,China

Spectacular Contemporary Works Featured in Stunning Summer Showcase
PHOENIX, US - The first floor of the Katz Wing for Modern Art at Phoenix Art Museum has never looked better thanks to a dynamic new installation of more than 60 works of post-War and contemporary art. 
                                                                                                                          Art Daily - USA
Kay Saatchi on life after Charles
LONDON - There's a certain ironic sting that in order to be her own person again, Kay Hartenstein felt the need to re-adopt the surname of her ex-husband, the art collector and spouse of Nigella Lawson, Charles Saatchi.
                                                                                                                        Times Online - UK

Thursday, 24^th 2008

A 7500-Square-Foot Ad for Chanel, With an Artistic Mission
NEW YORK - Called Mobile Art, the structure itself was designed by the renowned London architect Zaha Hadid and will occupy the Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street. Mobile Art will be open from Oct. 20 to Nov. 9. (It is Ms. Hadid's first New York building, albeit temporary, and has already made stops in Hong Kong and Tokyo and is headed later for London, Moscow and Paris.)
                                                                                                  New York Times - United States

Painter Laureate
SINGAPORE - The artistic journey of Indonesia's great painter, Sindoutomo Sudjojono (1913-1986), was as complex as his favorite subject -- Indonesia's independence and development.
                                                                                                                                 TIME - USA

Impressionism and Scotland on View at National Galleries of Scotland
EDINBURGH.- This summer, the National Galleries of Scotland presents Impressionism & Scotland, an exhibition of over 100 paintings, pastels and watercolours.
                                                                                                                           Art Daily - USA

Up for Bid at Scope Hamptons: Collector Mentorship
NEW YORK - When fairgoers bid at the Scope Hamptons auction, they won't be raising their paddles for a painting by Damien Hirst or Takashi Murakami. They'll be bidding on something potentially far more valuable: wisdom.
                                                                                                     New York Sun - United States

"My dream is to acquire a Nurse painting by Richard Prince"
PARIS - The 75-year-old and his business partner of many years, Giancarlo Giammetti, are familiar faces at Christie's and Sotheby's, as well as at major galleries and art fairs around the world. Valentino recently sold a Hirst spot painting for a record $1.6m.
                                                                                                                     Art Newspaper - UK

Jake and Dinos Chapman to judge the John Moores Contemporary ...
UK - Jake and Dinos Chapman, the enfants terribles of British art who added grinning clowns and Mickey Mouse to the 18th-century master's etchings, are among five judges who have drawn up a shortlist of 40 for the £25,000 John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize.
                                                                                                                        Times Online - UK

What it's like working in fine art
LONDON - "In the broadest terms my job is evaluating risk in the art market. It might be risk related to a private collection or underwriting insurance for major touring exhibitions or for art dealers, auctioneers and art advisers.
                                                                                                                        Times Online - UK

Wednesday, 23^rd July 2008

John Moores painting prize shortlist announced
LONDON- The shortlist for the John Moores contemporary painting prize, which helped launched the career of top artists like Peter Doig, was announced on Thursday.
                                                                                                                              Reuters - USA

Yves Saint Laurent's art collection in 'auction of the century'
PARIS - It is set to be the biggest single-owner art auction in history, and includes paintings by Goya, Ingres, Matisse, Mondrian, Picasso, De Chirico and Andy Warhol. The previous record was set by Christies in 1998 at £104 million for works owned by Victor and Sally Ganz. A considerable portion of the art on sale inspired Mr Saint Laurent's haute couture designs.
                                                                                         Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Yves Saint Laurent's art collection up for auction
PARIS - The auction house declined to estimate how much the collection was likely to fetch until those items had been identified, but experts have put the figure between 300 and 500 million euros, (236 million pounds - 394 million pounds).
                                                                                                                         Reuters UK - UK

Bruce A. Lilly Leaving Minnesota Museum of American Art
MINNESOTA, US - The Minnesota Museum of American Art (MMAA) today announced that Bruce A. Lilly is leaving the museum after 11 years as executive director. An interim executive director has been appointed while the museum searches for Lilly's permanent successor.
                                                                                                                            Art Daily - USA

Landscape Artist Richard Kidd Died While on Holiday in the Philippines
LONDON - Richard Kidd was born and brought up in Newcastle studying painting at Newcastle University 1970-74, winning a prize in the major John Moore's Liverpool Exhibition and in that same year winning an Abbey Major Scholarship to Rome. His work can be found in numerous public collections.
                                                                                                                             Art Daily - USA

Banksy: An Artist Unmasked
UK - Banksy is a 34-year-old native of Bristol, England, named Robin Gunningham, Britain's the Mail on Sunday reported on July 13. The thread that may have unraveled the mystery was a 2004 photograph taken in Jamaica, which many -- including photographer Peter Dean Rickards -- say is the only known picture of Banksy.
                                                                                                                                  TIME - USA

Tuesday, 22^nd July 2008

Borrowing With Fine Art as Collateral
US - With the stock market volatile and housing in a slump, many wealthy individuals are looking to tap another kind of equity -- the kind hanging on their walls. Specialists at banks and auction houses say that more of their clients recently are interested in borrowing against their art collections.
                                                                                                     New York Sun - United States

A Portrait of Art As a Tax Deduction
US - Now lawmakers, under pressure from museums, are mulling easing some of the restrictions. Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) are working on a plan to once again allow partial-gift donors to take ever-larger deductions as their artwork appreciates, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
                                                                                                            Wall Street Journal - USA

Market news
LONDON - Some worrying figures for the art market at the close of the record-breaking summer sales in London last week. At a Victorian picture sale at Sotheby's last Tuesday, nearly half the lots were unsold. Yet, the best quality pictures at the high end of the market are still doing well.
                                                                                            Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Art sales: sales bloom in Edinburgh
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - It is sometimes forgotten that Edinburgh has more galleries than any UK city, other than London. It is more conservative than Glasgow. However, it is currently riding high on the news that it will be sharing the £125 million Anthony d'Offay collection of contemporary art with Tate that will place it more firmly on the international art map.
                                                                                              Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Monday, 21^st July 2008