Conquering armies have returned with booty from time immemorial, but in the 20th century, the Nazis organized what was probably the largest campaign of art theft in history. To call it organized, however, overlooks a rivalry among Nazi leaders that resembled gangsters fighting over their share of the loot.
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Dudley Browne, head of James D. Julia’s glass and lamp department, had a sneaking suspicion the firm’s Dec. 1-2 sale would break new ground. He noted a number of pre-auction cues, such as inquiries from new blood collectors and dealers as well as from veterans who perhaps hadn’t been as active in recent years. His suspicions were confirmed when the auction closed at a very strong $1.9 million in gross sales. The top lot is a spectacular Tiffany peony border floor lamp on a decorated senior base, which sold for $172,500.
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German artist Heinrich Vogeler (1872-1942) believed art should be inseparable from daily life. Fine art expert Mary Manion show us in her Art Markets column why his life of is worthy of a great novel.
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Canada might have seemed hundreds if not thousands of miles distant from the centers of modern art in the early decades of the 20th century, but the artists of the dominion transformed their isolation into an asset. Read More +
It was a snowy New Year’s Eve day, and the appraisers were making a house call. The client was a woman with a family heirloom, a piece of cut and painted paper silhouette art from a genre known by its German name, scherenschnitte. Read More +
An art critic puzzled at the sight of Claude Monet’s Impression, “Sunrise” (Impression, soleil levant), coined the name “Impressionism” as a jeering insult. But the artists in the exhibition who so irked the critic eagerly embraced the term to describe their new approach to painting. Read More +
Very few artists have had a color named for them. One of them, Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), was an American illustrator and painter known for his luminous hues, including the shade called Parrish blue. Read More +
It didn’t take long for Leo Castelli to establish himself as one of America’s premiere art dealers. In 1957, he opened the Leo Castelli Gallery on East 77th Street in Manhattan, and less than a year later, in January 1958, he took center stage with an exhibition of Jasper Johns. Read More +
When Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) switched his focus from paintbrush to camera, the essence of photography was still the subject of fierce debate. Should photographers aspire to art or remain as mere documenters of reality? Read More +
There are numerous tax issues related to the ownership and transfer of art that, with proper tax planning, collectors can enhance the financial benefits of their collection. Read More +