Art market

Revealed: Van Gogh landscape once owned by Yves Saint Laurent coming up for sale, valued at $45m

Christie’s is to offer the never-exhibited painting in a New York auction in May

a blog by Martin Bailey

'How canny auction houses and advisory firms are turning a generation of Amazon shoppers into art collectors'

The middle market, traditionally the art world’s unloved child, offers treats galore

Art fairsanalysis

Arco Madrid opens to decent sales, few Latin American collectors and a Peruvian artist getting her vagina sewn shut

The first full edition of Spain's leading art fair since the start of the pandemic saw a near-return to form with strong institutional presence

The government-backed platform that aims to bring Portuguese contemporary art to the rest of the world

Artverbium, founded by former Christie's staffer Lorena Duran, will show established and emerging artists in a series of exhibitions

Cape Town Art Fair feels the absence of European collectors

Visitor numbers were good, but sales of higher priced works were slow at the South African event

Los Angeles is open for business again

With mega-galleries heading west and a dynamic local scene, the city is realising its market potential

Sotheby's unveils second $200m tranche of works from the Macklowe collection

The works, by artists such as Warhol, Richter and Giacometti, will be sold in New York in May

Rubens could become most expensive work of art ever sold in Poland

Portrait of a Lady by the artist and his workshop is expected to sell for up to £4m at DesaUnicum in Warsaw next month

National Australia Bank to sell off its $7.2m contemporary art collection next week

Proceeds from the auctions, at Deutscher and Hackett and Leonard Joel, have been earmarked for climate change programme, but questions arise over bank's motivations

'We hold NFTs with no value and no future perspective': aggrieved Art Wars NFT investors speak out over dispute

The 1,138 NFTs have been de-listed from OpenSea, after artists complained that permission had not been sought for the creation of NFTs of their work

NFTnews

New NFT platform with art world bona fides launches marketplace with Fang Lijun digital editions

The renowned Chinese painter’s first NFTs, commissioned by Outland, will be followed by US artist Rachel Rose’s latest works in the format

Berlin gallery fights eviction by property company majority-owned by billionaire art patron Nicolas Berggruen

Semjon H.N. Semjon has occupied the property in the city's Mitte district for 21 years and has launched a legal challenge against his landlord

Art marketinterview

From Taiwanese white goods entrepreneurs to the Nanking shipwreck cargo: Colin Sheaf on the meteoric growth of the Asian auction world

As the Chinese art specialist steps back at Bonhams, he reflects on 50 years in the auction world as it went from provincial to global

New York gallery The Hole opening Los Angeles location just in time for Frieze

It joins a half-dozen galleries with designs on opening West Coast outposts, from megas like Pace and Sean Kelly to smaller spaces like Sargent's Daughters

The rocky authority of the artist in authentication disputes: who gets the final say?

The authentication of a nude by Lucian Freud—despite his protestations that he did not paint it—highlights how creators are not always listened to

First Frieze Los Angeles since pandemic began opens this week in new Beverly Hills venue—minus a sculpture park

Organisers and galleries are banking on “pent-up desire” to make this year’s edition a success

Van Gogh’s depiction of two lovers—sliced out of a landscape painting—comes up for sale

Sotheby’s will auction the surviving picture of the strolling couple on 2 March, estimated at £7m-£10m

a blog by Martin Bailey
NFTnews

Eternal return: Italian museums to sell digital copies of masterpieces by Leonardo, Caravaggio and Modigliani

Replicas of works from four institutions, including the Uffizi, will be sold as NFTs by Unit London gallery

Art marketcomment

Insurance in the age of global warning: how to protect your art against flooding and extreme weather events

As sea levels rise, so do insurance premiums. Here, an insurance lawyer advises on how collectors can best look after their works as natural disasters and wildfires become more common

Paris fairs musical chairs: Fine Arts Paris and La Biennale to merge into one event

The new combined art and antiques fair will run for the first time this November

Music festivals, mezcal bars and moderate price points: Zona Maco spearheads lively marquee art week in Mexico City

The week’s calendar of events is chock-full of parties and openings, and features a new local mini-fair

With pop-up rents on the rise, formerly nomadic Guts Gallery opens permanent space in Hackney

The London gallery has made a name for championing underserved voices in the art world and will open its new space with Morris dancers and the "smell of Yorkshire"

Pensioners revolt: Patrick Drahi winds up Sotheby’s ‘defined benefit’ pension plan, and former employees are not happy

Ex-staff are now considering legal action, claiming they were not kept informed of changes to the scheme

NFT market is vulnerable to money laundering, according to US Treasury study of the art trade

While the study concedes there are some nefarious financial dealings in the art market, there are more immediate concerns and regulatory manoeuvres to take

Banksynews

Fate of Banksy in Welsh town Port Talbot hangs in the balance

Mural of child playing in ash removed from view after three years, just days after the actor Michael Sheen described the display as “uninspiring”

Journalism or doxxing? News report reveals secret identities of Bored Ape NFT founders—and the crypto community is not happy about it

The Buzzfeed News journalist Katie Notopoulos has named Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow as the men behind the online pseudonyms "Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel”

How auction houses became the big winners of the pandemic

With the forced shift to online sales due to Covid-19 restrictions, global sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips boomed in 2021, with an increased focus on luxury goods as the rich get richer

Sotheby’s and artist Kevin McCoy sued over sale of early NFT

The dispute revolves around the movement of a 2014 work, ‘Quantum’, from one blockchain to another and how that affects its ownership and fungibility