Looted Strozzi Refused Export Licence

February 25 2011

Image of Looted Strozzi Refused Export Licence

Picture: Philippa Calnan. 'Saint Catherine of Alexandria' by Bernardo Strozzi.

Title to a fine Strozzi seized in 1942 under Mussolini's anti-Jewish laws has been returned to its original owner's American heirs. But the picture itself cannot leave Italy after it was refused an export licence. It has been valued at $700,000. More here

Epic Guardi to be sold at Sotheby's - Aristo sell-off continues

February 24 2011

Image of Epic Guardi to be sold at Sotheby's - Aristo sell-off continues

Picture: New York Times

Sotheby’s have announced a highlight of their next Old Master sale in London in July; Francesco Guardi’s ‘Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge from the Fondamenta del Carbon’. The nearly 4ft by 6ft 'about $30m' canvas belongs to the family of the 1st Earl of Iveagh.

The sale demonstrates what I have suspected for a while – that we are witnessing the last hurrah of aristocratic art disposals. The following families have recently put a number of masterpieces up for sale; the Earls of Clarendon (Van Dyck), Jersey (Van Dyck), Rosebery (Turner), Wemyss (Poussin), Spencer (Rubens), and the Dukes of Portland (Van Dyck), Rutland (Poussin) and Sutherland (Titian). Even the Duke of Westminster is selling (Claude), though why is a mystery - he hardly needs the cash… [more below]

The consequence is that the UK's museum acquisition funds are being exposed as inadequate. Many significant works, like the Getty's new Turner, may now be lost overseas. We are facing a national heritage crisis.

There is one simple solution. For reasons I have never understood, the Heritage Lottery Fund resists funding acquisitions. As a result, museums rely on the dwindling National Heritage Memorial Fund of just £5m a year. But now that the government has increased the HLF’s share of Lottery cash (already £205m last year, with an extra £40m after the Olympics), surely the time has come for the HLF to step in, and help secure our national collection? 

 

In Minneapolis...

February 24 2011

Image of In Minneapolis...

...they censor Titian.

A poster for 'Titian and the Golden Age of Painting' at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts has been covered up with graffiti. Apparently, some locals 'weren't comfortable seeing nudity outside of the museum.'

Rembrandt Research Project to close

February 24 2011

Image of Rembrandt Research Project to close

Picture: Otto Naumann Ltd. Detail from Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, 1658.

The Rembrandt Research Project, which has been cataloguing the works of the great master since 1968, is to be closed down. This means that the final planned volume will be published in a reduced format. 

When the project started it set about drastically reducing the number of accepted works. The tally went down to less than 250, but has now gone back up to around 320 under the famous connoisseurship of Ernst Van de Wetering. Pictures once excluded but now back in favour include the Frick Collection's Polish Rider, and the Royal Collection's Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap.

This story was in the Art Newspaper print edition last month, but has just been put online today. 

The portraits always go first...

February 24 2011

 

Footage apparently from Fashloum, in Tripoli.

Going, going... Gone.

February 23 2011

Image of Going, going... Gone.

Picture: Sotheby's

Excitement is building in LA, as the Getty prepares for the arrival on 7th March of J M W Turner's masterpiece, 'Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino'.

The picture is a great loss. It belonged to the family of the Earls of Rosebery, and was sold at Sotheby's last year for £29.7m. No UK museum could hope to match the price, and none tried.

Isn't it time to look again at the whole question of acquisitions and export rules?

How those Titians came onto the market

February 23 2011

Image of How those Titians came onto the market

NPR (National Public Radio, in the US) has a good five minute story on how the Duke of Sutherland's two Titians came to be in Scotland, and why they were put up for sale.

It includes an interview with John Leighton, the Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland. He recalls how the Sutherland collection came to be on loan in his gallery in the first place;

"There's a very nice letter in our archives where the Duke of Sutherland writes to the gallery saying that he finds himself in the embarrassing position of not having enough room," says Leighton. "Would we be prepared to take some pictures by Rembrandt, Poussin, Titian, Raphael on loan?" the duke had asked.

Leighton goes on to say that at £50m apiece the pictures are 'a bargain', and probably half price. He's right. In many ways, the present Duke of Sutherland's handling of the sale is one of the great acts of modern arts philanthropy.  

'Now, for the Rubens estimated at £4-6m... do I hear £1m?'

February 23 2011

Image of 'Now, for the Rubens estimated at £4-6m... do I hear £1m?'

Picture: Sotheby's

Martin Bailey of the Art Newspaper has flagged up some astonishing developments in the case of the Rubens/notRubens portrait that was stopped for export in January.

I discussed earlier the difficulties the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art must have had when deciding whether to stop the painting being exported, given the uncertainty over the attribution. Now, however, the story has taken a bizarre twist. It reveals the immense power of the single acknowledged expert, and the potential pitfalls of submitting a painting to the Reviewing Committee.

The basic facts are; [more below]

  • The portrait was previously unknown, and was offered at Sotheby's in December 2009 with an estimate of £4-6m. 
  • It failed to sell. Most scholars accepted it, but some did not, most notably Hans Vlieghe, who is as emminent as they come.
  • The vendors then decided they wanted to have the picture in the USA, where they also have interests. 
  • The picture was submitted to the Reviewing Committee at a valuation of £3.8m. 
  • An expert adviser, David Jaffe of the National Gallery, recommended the painting be stopped for export, as being of outstanding aesthetic significance.
  • The Committee could not agree on the valuation for any interested museum to buy it, and so two independent valuations were sought. The owner's valuer proposed £2.8m, the government's £1m.

Now, here is where it gets interesting. Since nobody could agree between the £2.8m valuation and the £1m valuation, an arbitrator was appointed to establish a final valuation. When a work of art is submitted to the Committee, the owner has to indicate that they will accept an offer to purchase from a museum, at whatever valuation the Committee decides on. If they withdraw, then the picture remains theirs, but cannot be exported for ten years. It can place owners in a very difficult position.

But the arbitrator appointed was - Hans Vlieghe!

I cannot quite believe this. Of course, Hans Vlieghe, believing that the picture was not by Rubens, had no choice but to decide on the lowest possible valuation, which was £1m (indeed, as merely 'Flemish School', it is worth less than half that). 

Was it really a fair decision to appoint Hans Vlieghe as arbitrator, either to him or the picture's owner? The owners may now feel compelled to sell the picture at one quarter of the low estimate that Sotheby's originally valued the painting at. 

If you had a million quid, and you believed the picture was 'right' (as we say in the trade) you could buy it under the 'Ridley Rules'. These allow for a private buyer to step in and purchase the painting at the set valuation, as long as it is displayed on loan for 100 days of the year in a museum. You would then hold it for a number of years, and hope that scholastic opinion accepts the painting as by Rubens. In which case, could you not then sell it at something close to Sotheby's original valuation? You have until March 17th to signal your interest...

Full details of the case here.

 

LACMA launches App

February 22 2011

Image of LACMA launches App

LACMA has launched its first App, which is free and impressive. It joins, amongst others, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Louvre

$150m Jackson Pollock will not be sold

February 22 2011

The Iowa legislature has withdrawn a bill that would have forced the University of Iowa to sell its prized painting by Jackson Pollock.

Representative Scott Raecker (a Republican) wanted to sell 'Mural' to fund scholarships. 

Have you seen this woman?

February 22 2011

Image of Have you seen this woman?

The new edition of the British Art Journal is out (Vol. XI, No.2), and it contains an appeal for information on the above painting. Yasmin Arshad is writing an article for a forthcoming BAJ on the possible identity of the portrait, and she is heading in the direction of Lady Anne Clifford. 

Also in the BAJ is;

  • A splendidly thorough article by David Wilson on Michael Rysbrack's bust of the Earl of Orkney (which is now on loan at the V&A).
  • An article by Stephanie Roberts and Robert Tittle on the elusive Stuart provincial portraitist 'T.Leigh'. This contains a checklist of up to 20 possible Leigh portraits, a commendable task in these days of unfashionable connoisseurship. 
  • A reconstruction of William and Catherine Blake's residence in South Molton Street, by Angus Whitehead.
  • An overview of the British paintings in the Doha Orientalist Museum, by Howard J M Hanley.

Well worth a read; you can order one here.

The Return of the Double Hang

February 21 2011

Image of The Return of the Double Hang

As an art dealer I'm always extolling the virtues of a double hang - more space to fill.

But I'm delighted to see that the National Gallery is increasingly double hanging in some of their larger rooms. The pictures on the top row are not of the first rank, but the overall effect is so much more exciting than the sparsely hung rooms of old. More please, and congratulations to whoever decided on the new approach. 

Lost Sickert to be Sold

February 21 2011

Image of Lost Sickert to be Sold

A previously unknown work by Walter Sickert will be auctioned in London on 9th March. Blind Beggar was found in Scotland. Bonham's estimate is £40-60,000. 

More on Caravaggio

February 21 2011

 

Here's a short video of the new Caravaggio exhibition, in which you can see the freshly restored portrait of Pope Paul V.

Some of the new facts on Caravaggio are:

  • He was born 29th September 1571 in Milan (not the nearby town of Caravaggio).
  • He arrived in Rome at the age of 25 (not 20, as previously thought).
  • The fight in which Caravaggio famously killed a man seems to have been planed in advance, and was probably over a gambling debt.
  • He died in a hospital at Porto Ercole in July 1610 (not on a beach).

You can download the full documentation at the bottom of this page (in Italian).

The Mona Lisa 'was not a man with implants'

February 21 2011

Germaine Greer has written a pacey article on the identity of the Mona Lisa in The Guardian

Mona Lisa has been securely identified by Vasari as Lisa Gherardini, wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, and the portrait as the one in the possession of François I now in the Louvre. It was assumed that the picture was painted in Florence after Leonardo returned from his travels with Cesare Borgia in 1503 and before he went back to Milan in 1506. The assumption was verified in 2005 when a librarian at the University of Heidelberg, preparing a copy of the 1477 edition of Cicero's Epistoles ad Familiares for an exhibition, came upon a marginal note by Agostino Vespucci comparing Leonardo with Apelles, in which he notes that Leonardo was then working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. The note is dated 1503.

There is therefore no call for further speculation about who the original of the Mona Lisa might be, and yet it goes on...

"Watercolour" at Tate

February 19 2011

Image of "Watercolour" at Tate

Picture: Barber Institute (detail of A Coastal Landscape by Van Dyck)

I loved this exhibition. Any show that begins with a watercolour by Van Dyck is a Good Thing. It's well worth a visit. Congratulations to Alison Smith and her colleagues.

I can't think why Richard Dorment disliked it so much. He said it was 'close' to being a 'disaster', and gave it two stars. He didn't like the inclusion of many of the artists or the subjects (such as the series of war scenes), and especially disliked the end rooms, which feature modern art's take on watercolour.

[More below]

But I wonder if he misunderstood the point of the exhibition. The star of the show was the medium - not the artists or the subjects. Instead, the exhibits reflect the immense variety that watercolour allows, from studied details of flowers to on-the-spot views of the trenches.

As a result, the exhibition is never going to be like the more focused exhibitions we have become used to. Which is good. The delicacy of watercolours means that the great majority of the exhibits are rarely on display. So this is a rare chance to see so many varied treats at once.

A highlight for me was John Singer Sargent's gripping A Crashed Airplane (above, Imperial War Museum), painted in France in the summer of 1918. Only watercolour could allow an artist to blend an apparently idyllic French rural scene and a crashed fighter plane with such authoritative immediacy. A drawing or an oil would not have had the same effect. Consequently, the curators are to be applauded for having a room devoted to war. 

However, I certainly sympathised with Dorment when I came across a plastic spoon (above; Hayley Tompkins, from Day Series, 2007, 'Gouache on wood and found object') stuck to the wall in the last room. And yet, some of the very poor works in the last room merely reveal that few can paint well with watercolour any more. And in many ways, that is the most revealing room of the show. Watercolour, RIP.

'Watercolour' runs until 21st August. Videos and more on the Tate site here.

The most valuable work of art ever?

February 18 2011

Image of The most valuable work of art ever?

Ai Wei Wei's 10kg pile of Sunflower Seeds sold at auction this week for £349,250. Sotheby's say that works out at about £3.50 per seed. 

Now, Wei Wei's epically delightful installation at Tate Modern was said to be made up of 100 million seeds. Is it therefore worth £350 million? No wonder they stopped people walking on it.

The Sotheby's seeds "can be installed either in a corner, as a carpet or as a mound".

Baffling Price of the Week

February 18 2011

Image of Baffling Price of the Week

Picture: Sotheby's

This self-portrait by Thomas Struth was offered at Sotheby's earlier this week. It shows Struth looking at Durer's self-portrait in the Alte Pinakothek. The photo being sold was one of a run of ten.

There was some great blurb in the catalogue:

There are many ways to interpret these museum pictures—as an exploration of the relationship between painting and photography, as critical commentary on the invasion of cultural institutions by mass tourism, or even as a twist on appropriation art. But above all, they are a meditation on the function of centuries-old art in a secular world and how contemporary audiences engage with these masterpieces as a means of interacing [sic (I think)] with history. 

It made £421,250.

And because I can't resist being a berk, here is my own, which you can have for free.

Caravaggio didn't like cooked artichokes

February 18 2011

Image of Caravaggio didn't like cooked artichokes

A new exhibition in Rome has uncovered some fascinating archival evidence about Caravaggio. We now know for sure where and when he was born (Milan, not Caravaggio) and died (in a hospital bed).

One document reports a fight over a plate of artichokes;

Statement to police by Pietro Antonio de Fosaccia, waiter, 26 April 1604:

About 17 o'clock [lunchtime] the accused, together with two other people, was eating in the Moor's restaurant at La Maddalena, where I work as a waiter. I brought them eight cooked artichokes, four cooked in butter and four fried in oil. The accused asked me which were cooked in butter and which fried in oil, and I told him to smell them, which would easily enable him to tell the difference.

He got angry and without saying anything more, grabbed an earthenware dish and hit me on the cheek at the level of my moustache, injuring me slightly... and then he got up and grabbed his friend's sword which was lying on the table, intending perhaps to strike me with it, but I got up and came here to the police station to make a formal complaint...

Full story in English here. Exhibition website, in Italian, here.

Hungary Resists Restitution Case

February 18 2011

Image of Hungary Resists Restitution Case

Picture: El Greco's Holy Family with Sainte Anne. 

The Hungarian government has resisted an attempt by the heirs of Baron Herzog, owner of one of Hungary's finest private art collections, to seek the return of their paintings. The paintings, which include works by El Greco, Zurburan and Cranach, were seized during the holocaust, when Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany. 

[More below]

Most of the Herzog collection is now in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. The Herzogs have already won back one important painting, the majestic portrait by George Pencz of Sigismund Baldinger. This picture was taken for Hitler's planned personal gallery in Linz. It was returned by the German government in 2010, and sold at Christie's. 

The Hungarian government claims that the Herzog heirs' case is invalid because a 1973 agreement between communist Hungary and the USA settled all outstanding restitution cases. Under that deal, Hungary paid $18million, from which any US citizen affected by looted art could then seek payment. 

It's worth nothing that the works covered by the Herzog claim dwarf that figure in value - and might have done even in 1973.

More on the Herzog collection and case here.

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