This week's Art Collecting and Investment news...

Art Moscow 2008
MOSCOW- 14 - 18^th May, Art Moscow represents the largest and most important fair for contemporary art from the 20th to 21st century in Eastern Europe and in the last years the number of participants has risen significantly, in 2007 more than seventy galleries.            

                                                                                                                              Artfacts.Net - London,England,UK

An-My Lê in conversation with Michael Almereyda
NEW YORK- at New York Public Library Art21 and the Mid-Manhattan Library present a video screening and conversation Art:21-Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4: Protest
Monday, May 5, 2008 6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor tel. 212-340-0871

 
4^th May 08

Preview by Lindsay Pollock
``The estimates are very aggressive,'' said art adviser Cristin Tierney and ``It's not that the auction houses are responding to the market. It's as if they are trying to push the market.''

                                                                                                                    Bloomberg - USA

Indian modern art fetches £4.28 mn in London auction
A painting by Francis Newton Souza fetched the top price of £580,500, thus outperforming old masters Tagore and Jamini Roy, at an auction of Indian modern and contemporary art at Sotheby's on Friday.

                                                                                                Economic Times - Gurgaon,Haryana,India

Iranian Artist Fights to Have Muhammad Art Displayed in Dutch Museums
Controversial work of an Iranian artist has been yanked from a Dutch museum exhibition.The artist, alias Sooreh Hera living in exile in the Netherlands, has said she received death threats after attempting to show her series of photographs entitled "Adam & Ewald, Seventh-Day Lovers."

                                                                                                                          FOXNews - USA

A Life in the Day: Pearl Lam
SHANGHAI - Pearl Lam, a powerful player on China's fashionable art scene and is the daughter of the late Hong Kong business tycoon Lim Por-yen. Single, she runs her art export business from her penthouse in Shanghai and has homes in Hong Kong and London.
                                                                                                                            Times Online - UK

The Art Market Goes Global
RADIO INTERVIEW: Kurt Andersen talks with András Szántó, who is senior lecturer at the Sotheby's Institute of Art and a co-founder of Artworldsalon.com, about the global art market.
                                                                                                              KUAR - Little Rock,AR,USA

3^rd May 08

Condo Bob goes public with his private passion
VANCOUVER- Real estate is his bread and butter and contemporary art is his true love. To house his mammoth collection, Bob Rennie is opening a private gallery in Vancouver's Chinatown and admission will be by invitation only.

                                                                                                                                               Globe and Mail - Canada

An artful legacy
CANADA- Corporate collectors Scotia's approach is about collecting the works of mid-career artists whilst the Royal Bank of Canada is scouting emerging artists. This year marks the 10th annual RBC Painting Competition, prize of $25,000.

                                                                                                 Financial Post - Toronto,Ontario,Canada

 Asia's new art collectors seek status, style and smart investments
HONG KONG- A pioneering art fair opens May 14 in Hong Kong and is expected to attract 15,000 potential buyers and will assemble 100 international galleries. How contemporary and modern art is becoming desirable for many Asian consumers as the latest luxury-brand watch.
                                                                                                                                                                                 AFP

2^nd May 08

Culture and art Beijing style
BEIJING - Evidence of China's astonishing growth greets the visitor at every turn. From the ultra-modern Bird's Nest Olympic stadium to the Egg. What does this mean for the Chinese people - and for the rest of the world?
                                                                               Emirates Business 24/7 - Dubai,Dubai,United Arab Emirates

Magnum Opus Shows from Newcastle to London
UK -'Out of India' reflects the movement that is reframing the Indian contemporary art market for the 21st century, and collectors such as Charles Saatchi ...
                                                                                                 Press Dispensary (press release) - Brighton,England,UK

 Christie's Sale of International and Contemporary Art in Dubai ...
DUBAI- Fourth auction of International Modern and Contemporary Art held 30 April 2008 sold for a total of $20,062,850. With a collective total this week of $40,142,150. The strength and vibrancy of Middle East art market and Christie's dominant position.
                                                                                                                              Art Daily - USA

Success of Indian art auctions lifts retail spirits
INDIA - Newer buyers are generally preferring to go for contemporary works and seasoned collectors are mixing their acquisitions with established and new-age names. There is a change in buying pattern being triggered by perceived investment outlook of artworks.

                                                                                              Economic Times - Gurgaon,Haryana,India

The recipe for a record price: auction house hype, media frenzy ...
NEW YORK - Sheikhs now major players in the modern and contemporary market acquiring. "Rockefeller Rothko" sold at Sotheby's in May 2007 world-wide record price of $72.8m. Hirst's Lullaby Spring. .A complete absence of nudity, crucifixions and day-sale bargain lots.
                                                                                                                         Art Newspaper - UK

Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary Art
NEW YORK- Collectors, spending in pounds and euros, seeing fine art as a relatively safe haven. Highlights at Christie's May 6 auction are Joan Miró, est. $12-16 million, Sothebys May 7^th Fernand Léger, est. in excess of $35 million and Christie's May 13 Abstract Expressionist including Mark Rothko's...
                                                                                                                                        ARTINFO - New York,NY,USA

Bacon owner happy as a pig in a poke
NEW YORK- Sotheby's 14^th May auction Francis Bacon, Triptych, 1976 is estimated to fetch at least $US70 million ($74.5 million)
                                                                      Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia

Marjorie Talalay, co-founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art ...
Marjorie Talalay, co-founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, dies at 87. Her pioneering work bringing contemporary art to Cleveland audiences and led to what is now the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.
                                                                         The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA

A vintage investment?
UK-There is definitely a trend of people buying back their cultural heritage. The areas of Russian, Chinese, Indian, Greek and South African art are all affected by this. One example of an artist whose works have benefited is Francis Souza, (1924-2002), the Indian artist who lived for part of his life in Hampstead, north London.
                                                                                                                          Times Online - UK

1^st May 08

Christie's International Modern and Contemporary Art Dubai ...
DUBAI- Results Christie's International Modern and Contemporary Art Dubai - Wednesday 30 April 2008 the Sale no: 7665 - Top Ten Sold: $20062850 AED 73630660 €12952576
                                                                                                                               By Christies                                                                                                                                    

30^th April 08

Billionaire Prokhorov Gives $2 Million to Back Kabakov Art Show
MOSCOW- Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is to give $2 million to finance Russia's first retrospective of artworks by its leading postwar artist Ilya Kabakov, the metal tycoon's foundation said today.
                                                                                                                                                        Bloomberg - USA

 Zhou Peaches Vie With Indonesian Art in Beijing Fair (Update1)
BEIJING- An estimated 40,000 collectors came to see 5,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs and installations. Soka sold $800,000 of art, contributing to the fair's tally of $40 million, 40 percent higher than 2007.
                                                                                                                                                      Bloomberg - USA
The Deluxe Chains Want to Be Chic, Too
Flush with cash since 2005 from its new American owners, the Starwood Hotels and Resorts group and Le Méridien are moving from stodgy to sexy. Mr Sans is involved with Contemporary Art in Shanghai through to art in San Francisco.
                                                                                                                                        New York Times - United States

Art sales: nerves still holding
NEW YORK - Simon Shaw, Sotheby's head of Impressionist and modern art in New York explains, "We wanted to be strong on modern art because it has a broader marketplace. We were not looking so aggressively for Impressionists."
                                                                                                 Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

Market news: private art sales
Sotheby's and Christie's sold about $9 billion of art last year. However, according to Arne Glimcher, chairman of Pace Wildenstein in New York, private sales by art dealers amount to "two or three times the auction market". This success is contrasted with news of sluggish Art Cologne...

                                                                                                     Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

29th April 08

Prices Expand, Auctions Contract
NEW YORK- This season's sales are significantly smaller than the stem-winders of 2007. Sotheby's has 10% fewer lots, Christie's has 24% fewer lots in the main event evening sales and if you think that smaller sales mean lower estimates, you are sorely mistaken.
                                                                                                                                       New York Sun - United States

 
National awards enhance brand value of artists
INDIA - The source went on to add that if one studies the national award winners over the last 50 years, the direction and development of Indian art will become quite clear.
                                                                                                                   Economic Times - Gurgaon,Haryana,India

PaceWildenstein announce the opening of Pace Beijing

BEIJING - A 22,000 square foot gallery space located in the contemporary art district of Beijing known as Factory 798. The new gallery will open on August 8, 2008 during the XXIX Olympic Games. Leng Lin has been appointed President of Pace Beijing.

                                                                                                                                        PaceWildenstein.com

Letter from Berlin
BERLIN - An unusual request last winter signalled a potent new standing that contemporary art has acquired in the city's political realm.
                                                                                                                        ArtInfo-USA
28^th April 08

 Calcutta-born 'upstart' set for Sotheby's rebirth
LONDON- April 26: A painting by Raqib Shaw, a former Calcutta boy, has been included in a forthcoming two-day auction of contemporary art at Sotheby's.
                                                                                                        Calcutta Telegraph, India

Bourgeois Spider May Make $2.8 Million; Creepy-Crawlies on Show
PARIS - May, the fabric and metal arachnid, dating from 2003, will be auctioned with a top estimate of 2.5 million euros and other Bourgeois creepy-crawlies are on show in New York 9-12^th May.
                                                                                                          Bloomberg-USA

Going, Going, Not Gone
The spectre of 1990 still haunts the market, there are some good reasons to believe the art world has changed since then. First of all, art did have a correction in 2001-02 and this fall was a moderate one.
                                                                                                                Slate USA                   
                                                                                                                                      
Big Buzz but Sluggish Sales at Art Chicago
CHICAGO - There where probably two questions on everyone's mind at Art Chicago this weekend: "What's the future of Art Chicago?" and "Will the slumping economy affect art sales?"
                                                                                           ARTINFO - New York,NY,USA

27^th April 08

McCormick Place West Unveils 50 Works of Public Art by Local Artists
CHICAGO- MPEA today as they unveiled 50 works of public art in the new, award-winning McCormick Place West Building. This collection showcases the talents of 30 home grown artists.
                                                                                     Earthtimes (press release) - London,UK

ART CHICAGOTM 2008 Attracts World's Leading Contemporary and ...
A carefully vetted compilation of 181 of the world's foremost contemporary and modern art galleries will be exhibiting at Art Chicago 2008, running April 25 - 28, at The Merchandise Mart. There has been a  17% increase in applications.
                                                                                                                   Art Daily - USA

Blanco Nude Leads Indonesian Art Auction as Most Prices Hold Up
Antonio Blanco's painting of a female nude sold for 430 million rupiah ($46,562) at an auction in Jakarta yesterday for more than triple its top estimate, as demand remained strong for Southeast Asia's best-known artists.
                                                                                                                         Bloomberg - USA

 Affordable Art fair held in Beijing
With a price cap of 10,000 yuan, it's a good chance for art lovers with a budget to purchase a piece of contemporary art. Within an hour of it's opening, organizers say more than 200 people visited the exhibition, and about 300,000 yuan changed hands.                                                                                                                          CCTV - Beijing,China

With young artists priced high, masters sell better
In an interesting trend in the Indian art market this summer, parity in prices between works by contemporary artists and modern masters is prompting buyers to settle for the latter.