Courtesy Sotheby's.
Courtesy Sotheby's.
VIEWERS CHOICE
Ben Davis shed some light on Ai Weiwei‘s land art collaboration with Navajo artist Bert Benally deep in the New Mexico desert as part of the ninth annual Navajo TIME exhibition.
AUCTION MARATHON
Coline Milliard was all over the contemporary art auctions in London this week, beginning with Sotheby’s £93 million sale on Monday—which featured major lots from Francis Bacon, Peter Doig, and Adrian Ghenie—followed by Christie’s £99 million sale on Tuesday—where the top lots included Bacon, Doig (notice a pattern?), and Tracey Emin—and wrapping up at Phillips’ sleepy £9.9 million sale on Wednesday night, when the breakout star was German painter David Ostrowski.
LAWSUIT
Art and gem investor Olyvia Kwok, who splits her time between London and Hong Kong, found herself on the receiving end of a £3 million lawsuit from Sotheby’s over her non-payment for a pair of paintings she bought at an auction in February—a £2,490,500 Jean-Michel Basquiat and a £386,500 Cy Twombly.
CLASSY
Saatchi Art, the online art mall associated with collector Charles Saatchi’s London-based gallery, is offering more than a half-dozen artists’ representations of the infamous incident that led to his divorce from ex-wife Nigella Lawson, when he was photographed choking her on a restaurant terrace.
FAKES
Hamptons-based ex-con John D. Re was busted by the FBI for selling fake Jackson Pollock paintings on eBay. As Sarah Cascone wrote, Re managed to make $1.9 million over nine years from passing off more than 60 forgeries as authentic Pollock works to hapless online buyers.
NEWS TO KNOW
Here It Is, the Kara Walker Selfie Generator
Monaco Selling Off Napoleon Museum Collection
String of Berlin Museum Closures Begin
Inept Art Thieves Botch Houston Heist
Vladimir Putin Bans Cursing in Art
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