Old Masters

Six paintings stolen from a Dutch town hall left on art detective's doorstep

Arthur Brand, who helped to recover a Van Gogh painting last month, says he was watching a "boring football game" when the surprising delivery was made

Dutch dealer returns Weenix landscape stolen in the Second World War to Dresden museum

The painting, acquired by Augustus III, hung in a Soviet general’s home after the war

Five generations of Brueghels are brought together for the first time

New show will examine the political and economic conditions that shaped the family’s fortunes

Technologyanalysis

A question of attribution: just how useful can AI tools be?

Connoisseurs and app makers agree on one thing: artificial intelligence-driven apps may supplement but do not replace the human eye and expertise in assessing a picture’s authorship

Baroque sensation Elisabetta Sirani finally has her first solo show outside Italy

The 17th-century Bologna-based painter is the subject of a concentrated presentation at Robert Simon Gallery in New York

Drunkard or genius? London's National Gallery gets up close and personal with Frans Hals

First major survey of Dutch painter in three decades will include reunited panels and monumental paintings

‘Clearly a copy from the 19th century’—Old Masters scholars reject AI-attributed Raphael

The so-called de Brécy Tondo has in the past been assumed to be a Victorian copy

Auctionsanalysis

Long-lost canvas by Flemish painter Michael Sweerts propels Christie's Old Master sale in London to its best result in seven years

The auction house made £53.9m (with fees) from 38 lots, and saw a new record established for Fra Angelico

Auctionsanalysis

Selective buying leaves 35% of lots unsold at Sotheby's Old Master sale in London

The £39.4m auction was led by a 15th-century painting by the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits at £7.9m, while a new record was set for a work by William Hogarth—albeit sold to a single bid

From the 'Bloomsbury stud' to unseen works by Winifred Nicholson—our pick of London Art Week

The annual eclectic gallery trail finishes on Friday, with 51 participants to see around central London

Italian painter arrested as investigations continue in Old Master forgery scandal

Lino Frongia is suspected of producing the fakes that sold for millions of euros

The Big Review: Georg Baselitz: Naked Masters at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna ★★★★★

Bold pairings of paintings by the contemporary German artist with those of the Old Masters are both provocative and elegiac

Vermeer blockbuster officially breaks record at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum

The recently-closed exhibition drew 650,000 visitors in its four month run

For just the third time this century, a Fra Angelico work heads to auction

Rediscovered panel painting comes to Christie’s evening sale in London next month with an estimate of £4m-£6m

Propelled by Marie Antoinette's poodle, mid-season Old Masters auctions in New York fetch nearly $13m

Specialists at Christie’s and Sotheby’s dismissed concerns about a decline in the Old Masters market

'Girl with a Pearl Earring' reexamined in 100 billion pixels: discoveries from the Vermeer symposium in Amsterdam

Experts from around the world have revealed fascinating new information about the Dutch Old Master and his works

How Lavinia Fontana went from ‘prospect’ to first professional woman artist

An exhibition of the 16th-century Italian painter at the National Gallery of Ireland tells the story of her unique circumstances and reveals the results of a recently restored work

Diaryblog

President Macron gets a private tour of the Rijksmuseum's blockbuster Vermeer show

The French head of state and First Lady pondered over masterpieces such as The Milkmaid and The Lacemaker

'Are Old Masters having a renaissance? Leaner times breathe new life into a tired market'

Collectors tend towards safety in times of trouble—and current uncertainty is causing a shift in buying habits

Just what the doctor ordered: masterpieces from Milan museum brighten up hospital

Works from the Pinacoteca di Brera have been blown up and pasted in high definition on the walls of the Humanitas hospital in Ronzano to improve patients' well-being

Are young collectors buying Old Masters? Dealers at Tefaf Maastricht bank on changing tastes

The sector could benefit from cross-over buyers influenced by fashion designers and institutions looking to diversify collections

Acquisitions round up: the Met acquires 16th-century portrait of pope's banker

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter institutional collections worldwide

Art history sleuths reunite mother with husband and son in 17th-century Flemish portrait

Scholars have pieced together separate parts of painting after 200 years

Old Masters in Maastricht: What does Tefaf tell us about the market for historic art?

Plus, the Institut du Monde Arabe's major gift and expansion plans and an unflinching self-portrait by a Rococo woman artist

Hosted by Ben Luke. With guest speaker Anny Shaw. Produced by David Clack and Aimee Dawson
Sponsored byChristie's

The hunt for as many as nine elusive Vermeer paintings continues

As the Rijksmuseum's once-in-a-lifetime blockbuster brings together an unprecedented number of works by the Old Master, paintings including a self-portrait are still missing

The Big Review: Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum ★★★★★

A less-is-more approach to the biggest ever exhibition of the Dutch Old Master’s paintings makes this blockbuster a triumph

Diaryblog

The curious case of Madonna and the missing Old Master

Mayor of Amiens in France asks pop star to loan work believed to be by Jérôme-Martin Langlois, spotted in a photograph of her home

Restituted, record-setting Bronzino and gruesome Rubens lead Sotheby’s Old Masters sales in New York

The auction house’s four-part auction extravaganza was a decidedly mixed bag, bringing a total of $74.5m across 124 lots

Record-breaking Goya portraits lead the way at Christie’s muted $62.7m Old Masters auctions in New York

Despite works the collection of film producer Jacqui Eli Safra that were enticingly offered with no reserves, the auction house’s two marquee sales fell short of expectations