Art market

Art marketanalysis

Lockdown home decorators boost New York's Americana week auctions

Chippendale-style furniture, elephant tureens and a broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence were in demand at the sales series last week

Can Biden's inauguration galvanise the US art world into finally taking action against climate change?

As new US president plans to tackle global warming on "an epic scale", green initiatives such as Galleries Commit are gaining steam

Galleria Continua opens new Paris space with JR-curated show

Amid Covid-19 pandemic, Italian gallery hopes to "generate smiles" with second outpost in France

Déjà vu: Art Basel postponed from June to September—again

Swiss fair was also delayed from June to September in 2020, before being cancelled altogether due to coronavirus

Why Sotheby's $80m Botticelli continues to mystify experts

Star lot of upcoming New York Master Week sales is set to smash previous auction record for the Early Renaissance painter

Social media replaces fairs as the third most successful sales channel for galleries in 2020, study reveals

Websites have replaced walk-ins as the second best way to sell art, but staying in top position is outreach to existing clients, according to Artsy Gallery Insights 2021 Report

UK Supreme Court judgment on pandemic insurance payouts 'not a blank cheque' for art organisations

Some insurers using "aggressive tactics" to reduce barrage of claims following rejection of appeal on clarification of business interruption cover

Art marketgallery

Illustrator Pierre Le Tan's enormous collection to be sold by Sotheby's

Auction includes 40 drawings by Le Tan and over 500 eclectic lots from his Parisian apartment

Rejected Tintin cover design sets record for comic book art with €3.2m auction price

Sale of controversial 1936 painting criticised by organisation behind artist Hergé’s estate

Podcastspodcast

The white supremacist art at the heart of the US Capitol

Plus, a $2.2m Batman comic and the artists inspired by political theorist Hannah Arendt

Holy hammer! Near mint copy of Batman #1 sells for record $2.2m at Heritage Auctions

The rare 1940 issue, which marks the first appearance of the Joker and Catwoman, is the second most expensive comic book ever sold

Lawnews

Art lawyer Frank Lord opens private practice in New York

As well as working on high profile restitution cases, the former Herrick Feinstein partner has a PhD in art history

Expo Chicago art fair is postponed again, until at least July

Online edition will open in April, however, as planners prepare for an in-person version, perhaps even later in September or next year

Art shippers face ‘teething problems’ transporting works to Europe after Brexit

Some air freight crates are being broken open by customs officials in EU, but UK lockdown is posing greater problems, members of the trade say

Art marketanalysis

Blue-chip artists move over, here come the red chips

Art as a blue-chip investment has had its day, as buyers chase the latest "red-chip" names

French High Court orders retrial of Wildenstein art dynasty tax fraud case

Guy Wildenstein and his nephew were accused of hiding assets worth hundreds of millions but were acquitted in 2017 and 2018—now they are wanted back in court for a third trial

Lawsuit claims $100m damages in tangled case of hidden Russian art worth $60m

Shchukin Gallery and its lawyers file new lawsuit against Russian financier Rustam Iseev, his lawyer and a New York Supreme Court judge in bid to uncover location of paintings

Art marketcomment

How will US money laundering crackdown actually impact the art market? A lawyer explains

Congress is increasing its regulation of antiquities trade and while its powers are limited for now, change will come so the art industry must prepare

In a swift post-Brexit move, UK rejects EU’s strict import rules on cultural property

The rules, aimed at preventing trafficking, have been opposed by the trade and UK government's decision not to continue may put EU art market at a disadvantage

Art marketcomment

A Covid-19 silver lining? Let’s not return to family-unfriendly art business as usual

The industry could work better for mothers and fathers if it doesn’t go back to the out-of-hours, out-of-town way things were

In the battle against antiquities trafficking, Germany develops app to identify looted cultural heritage

Government-funded image-recognition software will enable law enforcers to work with international organisations

Auction houses have finally entered the Amazon age—and I’m addicted

I thought I’d kicked my online art and antiques buying habit but too much lockdown screen time has been my undoing

Art fairs in 2021—expect spring jitters, a summer crush and maybe even a return to some normality

After a year marked by cancellations, international fairs such as Art Basel, Frieze and Tefaf are vying for attention in an already crowded year

‘The well is drying up’—rare Rembrandt biblical work could fetch $30m at Sotheby's next month

‘Abraham and the Angels’ is one of only two Old Testament paintings to remain in private hands

Brexitnews

Art specialists pore over the Brexit trade deal—and deliver their verdict

Artist’s resale right, import VAT, red tape, and smuggling directives are addressed by our experts

UK 'tourist tax' will hit dealers of jewellery, silver and small pictures hard, trade body says

Lobby groups fear abolishing tax-free shopping will deter buyers from China, the Middle East and Russia at a cost of £6bn

Art marketinterview

A crisis hits the art market once a decade. What is different this time? Christie's president Dirk Boll assesses the impact of the pandemic

As his new book is published, the auction house chief compares coronavirus fallout to previous economic disasters

Gallery asks collectors to give their discounts back to the artists

Los Angeles-based Commonwealth & Council has launched the Council Fund to help support artists' financial needs with the help of its clients

European auction houses weather crisis as customers spend millions on art online

Expecting the worst, French, German and Austrian auction houses have been surprised by how well sales have held up through the pandemic