Displaying items by tag: collector

The Swiss museum designated as the sole heir of German collector Cornelius Gurlitt’s trove of priceless art says it plans to vet the collection first before deciding whether to accept it.

Gurlitt died last month, two years after German authorities seized more than 1,000 artworks from his Munich apartment. Some of the items — including works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall — may have been looted from Jewish owners under Nazi rule.

The Kunstmuseum Bern said in a statement Tuesday it hasn’t yet been able to inspect the works or received an inventory.

Ileana Sonnabend was one of the greatest and most influential discoverers of artistic talent of the late 20^th century, known and appreciated for her intuition, strength of character, ground-breaking vision and for that eclecticism of taste and thinking that enabled her to understand and promote all that was new in American and European art. Created over many years and a material reflection of her commitment to supporting young artists and the avant-garde movements of the 20^th century, her extraordinary collection now finds a “European home” in the splendid monumental rooms on the second floor of the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna at Ca’ Pesaro.

The exhibition marks the first step in a long-term collaboration with the Sonnabend Collection and Sonnabend Collection Foundation, and offers an extraordinary opportunity to enrich the city’s 20^th-century art collections and the permanent displays at Ca’ Pesaro, which thanks to the works from the Ileana Sonnabend collection, will be able to offer its visitors a more comprehensive itinerary with plenty of masterpieces from the history of art of the whole of the 20^th century. The Sonnabend Collection picks up exactly at the point in which Ca’ Pesaro ended its collecting spree and relationship with the Biennale, and will lead the visitor past a series of works of the highest artistic quality forming part of the principal experimental schools of the late 20^th century through over 70 iconic works of the period.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), which stood by Steven A. Cohen last year as his SAC Capital Advisors LP bore the brunt of a massive insider trading probe, has come to the billionaire’s aid again.

The top prime broker to the former hedge-fund firm, Goldman Sachs is making a personal loan to Cohen for the first time, according to a regulatory filing, joining the list of banks that have provided SAC’s founder with credit lines backed by his $1 billion art collection. Like Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., New York-based Goldman Sachs is making the loan through its private bank as part of an effort to expand its business catering to ultra-wealthy individuals.

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, announced that it will use a series of gifts totaling approximately $4 million to expand its photography initiatives. The museum, which is home to the most comprehensive photography program in the American Southeast, began acquiring photography in the early 1970s. The High’s holdings include American works from the 20th and 21st centuries, images made in and of the South, and the most significant grouping of vintage Civil Rights-era prints in the country. 

The most substantial gift has been promised by Donald Keough, the former president and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, and his wife, Marilyn. The couple, who helped fund the museum’s 2005 expansion, will donate $2 million to endow a permanent curatorial position in photography and support ongoing photography programs and acquisitions at the institution. Lucinda W. Bunnen, an Atlanta-based photographer and avid collector, has donated an unspecified amount that will go to the establishment of a photography gallery. Bunnen is a longtime supporter of the High’s photography initiatives and previously donated prints by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Chuck Close, and Cindy Sherman to the museum. Paul Hagedorn, an Atlanta-based artist and supporter of the High since 2005, has donated $500,000 for acquisitions and the Yellowlees Family, also longtime supporters of the museum, have donated $400,000 for the acquisition of Southern photography.

Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. director, said, “These landmark gifts represent a transformational moment for photography at the High. Photography is our fastest growing area of collecting, research and programming, and these gifts will ensure that the High can continue our commitment to new scholarship and commissioning new works by living artists. We hope that these significant gifts inspire others to support our photography programs and the growth of our collection.”

The 27th edition of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) opened to the public on March 14 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The show, which is widely regarded as the world’s leading art fair, brings together 275 of the finest art and antiques dealers from around the globe. Offerings include everything from Old Master paintings and antiquities to 20th century design and contemporary art.

This year’s show began with a V.I.P preview on Thursday, March 13, which saw a number of big-ticket sales. Galerie Odermatt-Vedovi (Paris) sold a mobile by Alexander Calder to a European collector for around $2.6 million and Van de Weghe Fine Art (New York) sold Pablo Picasso’s “Tete couronnee” in black crayon on paper to a Belgian collector for $485,000.

A number of important works are being offered at this year’s fair including Vincent van Gogh’s “Moulin de la Galette,” which will be exhibited by Dickinson (New York/London); a double portrait of Sir George Villiers and Lady Catherine Manners as Adonis and Venus by Sir Anthony van Dyck, which is being shown by David Koetser Gallery (Zurich); and three works by Damien Hirst, which are being offered by Tomasso Brothers Fine Art (London/Leeds).

TEFAF runs through March 23. 

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which was discovered by American art dealer Alexander Parish at an estate sale in the mid-2000s, was sold to an unidentified collector for between $75 million and $80 million in May 2013.The details of the sale, which was organized by Sotheby’s, remained confidential until this week.

“Salvator Mundi,” a half-length portrait of Christ holding a crystal orb in one hand, was created around 1500. Since 1900, the heavily over-painted canvas was attributed to Boltraffio, an artist who worked in da Vinci’s studio. It wasn’t until Parish acquired the work and it underwent extensive cleaning and research that it was deemed an original da Vinci formerly owned by King Charles I of England. Prior to last year’s sale, Parish and two other art dealers shared ownership of the work.

In 2012, after raising tens of millions of dollars, the Dallas Museum of Art attempted to buy “Salvator Mundi.” Museum officials made a formal offer to Parish and the painting’s other owners but were rebuffed after some discussion.

When British collector Martin Lang purchased ‘Nude 1909-10’ in 1992, he thought that he was acquiring an authentic painting attributed to Marc Chagall. However, after recently submitting the work to the Paris-based Chagall Committee for evaluation, Lang learned that the work is a forgery. In addition to the bad news, the Committee stated that the painting should be burned, citing French laws implemented to protect artists’ works. Lang is hoping that the Committee will reconsider their decision to destroy the painting, regardless of its authenticity.

The Chagall Committee is run by the Russian-French artist’s grandchildren with the intent of protecting the modernist master’s legacy. The destruction of counterfeit artworks is routine in France and an artist’s heirs have the right to destroy an object that is officially deemed a forgery under what is known as “the moral law of the artist.”

Lang purchased the watercolor for 100,000 pounds from a London-based art consultant. Although the work was not authenticated, it was said to be a Chagall from around 1909 to 1910.  

Switzerland paid $1.6 million in legal fees despite winning a U.S. lawsuit over a drawing by Vincent van Gogh, which was donated by a businessman accused of exploiting the work’s former owner. The heir of Margaret Mauthner, a Jewish art collector who sold the drawing to Swiss businessman Oskar Reinhart in 1933 before fleeing Nazi Germany, brought the case against Switzerland in 2009.

The heir claimed that Reinhart, who gave the drawing Street in Saintes-Maries to Switzerland, had taken advantage of her grandmother’s unfortunate circumstance and forced her to sell the work for an unfair price. Switzerland maintained that Reinhart had paid a reasonable price for the drawing and ultimately won the case.

The work, which is valued at several million dollars, is currently on view in the Reinhart collection at the Winterthur Museum in northeastern Switzerland.

The 88-year-old Textile Museum will move from its historic DuPont Circle home to the George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood as part of a $33 million project. Construction on the new 35,000-square-foot museum is underway and expected to reach completion in spring 2014. The transfer of 19,000 works, some dating back thousands of years, is expected to take an additional six months. The Textile Museum’s new location is slated to open to the public in late fall 2014.

Founded by American forester, philanthropist and collector George Hewitt Myers, the museum’s mission is to expand public knowledge and appreciation of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. The museum’s collection includes 15^th century rugs from Egypt, Spanish carpets, early Islamic textiles, pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles, Anatolian rugs, and more.

The Textile Museum’s final exhibition, Out of Southeast Asia: Art that Sustains will be on view through October 13 and the museum’s historic buildings will remain open through the holiday season.

The Worcester Art Museum has acquired Paolo Veronese’s Venus Disarming Cupid (circa 1560), one of the last works by the Renaissance master still in private hands. The work was gifted to the museum by the New York-based collector Hester Diamond and will go on view on September 20, 2013 alongside works by Rembrandt, Jacob van Ruisdael and El Greco as part of the exhibition (remastered).

Hester acquired Venus Disarming Cupid at Christie’s in 1990 when its owner consigned it to the auction house as Circle of Francois Boucher. Shortly before the sale, the painting was attributed to Veronese and enthusiastically endorsed by the art historian and Veronese expert Terisio Pignatti. The revered painting has an impressive provenance, once residing in the collection of the German Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechinger and appearing on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006.

Matthias Waschek, the Worcester Art Museum’s director, said, “It is rare that a museum can announce the acquisition of a single Italian Renaissance work, let alone one as spectacular as this Veronese. Venus Disarming Cupid is a game changer for our collection.”