Art market

Crime news

Jailed diamond dealer and art collector Nirav Modi fights extradition to India on mental health grounds

Modi, who is currently held in Wandsworth Prison in London, is wanted for allegedly defrauding a state bank of £729m

How do you spot a looted antique? Germany brings in team of experts to help

Government has established €600,000 three-year pilot project called NEXUD to combat illegal trade in antiquities

Art marketanalysis

Neurodiverse and disabled artists are joining the mainstream—yet discrimination persists

With Project Art Works nominated for the Turner Prize and growing institutional interest, the art world is waking up to "outsiders" but advocates fear their exploitation

Exuberant Van Gogh landscape—featuring his beloved olive and cypress trees—could well make $40m at Christie's New York

Always hidden away in private collections, the painting will probably sell to a someone in the Far East

a blog by Martin Bailey
Art marketanalysis

Connoisseurship: is it time for a comeback?

When prices and cultural value are so easily confused, there is a case for the return of critical evaluation—in updated form

Safani Gallery's lawsuit against Italy over disputed antiquity dismissed in court

The New York-based gallery sued after US authorities seized a bust of Alexander the Great in 2018. The sculpture's ownership and future remains unresolved

Young British artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones paired with Duncan Grant for the Bloomsbury set artist’s first solo show since he died in 1978

Exhibition at Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex comes as White Cube gallery announces representation of the 28-year-old Brooklyn-based painter

Art marketinterview

‘I don’t touch contemporary art—it’s a gamble’: 102-year-old appraiser Alex Rosenberg on how deducing value is both a science and an art

Rosenberg, who has been an expert witness in court cases including the Knoedler trial, retrained as an appraiser when he retired as an art dealer in 1985

Former dealer Angela Gulbenkian is sentenced to three and a half years for defrauding art clients

Charges involved sale of a £1.1m Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture that was never delivered and the theft of £50,000 that a friend had given her to invest

Felix brings the in-person art fair back to Los Angeles

The fair, hosted at the glitzy Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, features 29 L.A. based galleries and is bolstered by the city's own gallery weekend and the Frieze online viewing room

'I am honoured to be one of the first Black men to have my work sent to space': Amoako Boafo to paint triptych on rocket

The Ghanaian painter speaks about his plans for the work, which will be attached to the head of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket when it blasts into space this autumn

Douglas Chrismas arrested for allegedly embezzling over $260,000 from Ace Gallery’s bankruptcy estate

Chrismas, who founded the Los Angeles gallery in 1967, is accused of embezzling the funds while acting as the estate’s trustee and custodian

Christie's to sell Texan oil tycoon Edward L. Cox's collection of Impressionist art

The collection is expected to make over $200m in New York in November

Damien Hirst laid off 63 people last autumn while claiming £15m in government Covid-19 loans

Job cuts came after major retrospective in Beijing was cancelled due to the pandemic

Anny Shaw. with additional reporting by José da Silva
Art marketpreview

'If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough': vintage prints by war photographer Robert Capa to headline Photo London

Some of the earliest known prints by the mythological founder of Magnum to be shown from an unseen private collection

UK art fairs breathe sigh of relief as government waives quarantine for vaccinated overseas exhibitors

Some US and European galleries at events such as Photo London in September had threatened to drop out due to added cost of isolating in hotels

Follow the money: Christie's bets on Hong Kong with vast new headquarters as clients in Asia spend over $1bn so far this year

Auction house will move into Zaha Hadid-designed luxury tower The Henderson in 2024, where it will hold year-round sales and exhibitions

Why the art market must stop trying to predict the unpredictable and enjoy a well deserved #hotgirlsummer

Life is still uncertain but we know the industry can keep functioning against all odds through the pandemic, so enjoy the sun and save the questions for the autumn

What the US government sanctions of prominent Bulgarian art collector Vassil Bojkov mean for the art market

Oligarch is blacklisted as countries ramp up regulation and authorities move yet another step closer to the art world

Under the Biden administration, can US cultural policy better reflect American values?

Building relationships with all stakeholders—from dealers and collectors to museums and archaeologists—is vital

US galleries survive: despite a stark decline in revenue in 2020, many galleries have a positive post-pandemic outlook, report says

The Art Dealers Association of America 2021 survey shows many galleries intend to increase their artist roster in 2021 and slowly hire back employees

Almost all galleries are back for Art Basel’s 2021 edition as Switzerland eases travel restrictions (for now)

Basel edition will continue hybrid model and satellite booths introduced in Hong Kong

Autumn fair calendar is fit to burst as Fiac relaunches in new temporary Paris venue near Eiffel Tower

Dealers must decide which fairs to prioritise as Art Basel in Switzerland and Frieze in London are scheduled just weeks apart

Art marketinterview

Abuja, Miami, Seoul: gallery director Dolly Kola-Balogun maps out her path to African art’s world domination

The 27-year-old founder of Retro Africa talks about her expansion plans and how she is helping to build a contemporary art scene in Nigeria

Let's bid: David Bowie album artwork for sale, direct from the artist who created it

A 120-lot online auction of Edward Bell's collection of designs, photographs and proofs starts today

Artmonte-carlo takes advantage of an open fair calendar to entice blue-chip galleries to Monaco

In addition to the fledging fair, the tax haven on the Côte d'Azur is hosting a week of exhibitions and auction house offerings

Christie’s results for first half of 2021 show marked shift towards Asia, online and private sales—and female auctioneers

Auction sales, according to the analysts ArtTactic, are up 230% to a total of $5.9bn so far this year at the three major auction houses, Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips

Can you build a national collection without actually buying any art? The Dubai Collection says you can

The state-backed online "museum" plans a physical exhibition later this year at the Ethihad Museum

How did this gem—an ‘archaic Greek masterpiece’—end up for sale at Christie’s in New York after being banned from leaving the UK?

The Ionides Scarab sold for $250,000 in April—but it may not have been the auction house’s, nor the consigner’s, right to sell the object in the US

Bellotto's view of Verona sells for record £10.5m at Christie's Old Master sale in London

Seven new artist records were set in tonight's auction, including for Georges de La Tour, while a second highest prices were set for female painters Angelica Kauffman and Artemisia Gentileschi