Displaying items by tag: bronze

On Tuesday, March 4, agents from Homeland Security Investigations raided a Long Island City storage locker belonging to a family member of Subhash Kapoor, a former New York gallery owner accused of smuggling Indian antiquities into the United States. Authorities seized hundreds of Southeast Asian and Indian objects that they valued at $8 million.

Kapoor, a once-established antiquities dealer, ran the Art of the Past Gallery on Madison Avenue from 1974 until his arrest overseas in 2011. In October, Kapoor’s sister was charged with hiding four bronze statues of Hindu deities valued at $14.5 million and in December, Kapoor’s office manager pleaded guilty to six counts of criminal possession of stolen property valued at $35 million.

Kapoor is accused of hiring looters to steal rare bronze and stone sculptures of Hindu deities. U.S. officials claim that he would then illegally import the objects, create false provenances for them, and sell them to collectors and museums. Kapoor is currently awaiting trial in India.    

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is currently presenting the exhibition ‘The American West in Bronze: 1850-1925.’ The show explores the aesthetic tastes, technical achievements and cultural attitudes that led American artists to create bronze statuettes depicting scenes of the new frontier.

The works on view cover a variety of themes including nostalgia and the struggles faced by Native Americans, the region’s wildlife and settlers during the transformative time. The exhibition’s 65 sculptures and three paintings are divided into four sections -- American Indians, Wildlife, Cowboys and Settlers. Highlights include James Earle Fraser’s ‘End of the Trail,’ Alexander Phimister Proctor’s ‘Stalking Panther,’ and Frederic Remington’s ‘The Mountain Man.”

‘The American West in Bronze: 1850-1925’ will be on view at the Met through April 13, 2014.

A collection of bronze sculptures made from plaster models of wax originals by Edgar Degas were at the center of a legal battle in New York. American art dealer Walter Maibaum sued the Canadian businessman Yank Barry and the Global Village Champions Foundation, a charity he spearheaded, for breaching a number of sales contracts. Maibaum also claimed that Barry failed to pay him for a number of bronzes.

In 2004, Maibaum, the executive director of the Degas Sculpture Project in Newark, NJ, discovered 74 plaster sculptures made from wax originals by Degas at a foundry near Paris. In 2005, the French Valsuani foundry began producing 29 sets of bronzes from 73 of the newly discovered plaster figures. Maibaum claimed that because Valsuani owned the plasters, it did not need to get permission from Degas’ heirs to cast the bronzes. In 2007, Succession Degas authenticated the plasters and the resulting bronze editions.

In 2008, Barry agreed to buy at least two sets of 73 bronzes from Maibaum, with the option to buy eight more sets. Ultimately, Barry failed to pay for the sculptures and never received any works from Maibaum. The contract was amended in 2009 but again, Barry failed to pay and no works were received. Finally, in 2010, Barry proposed that his charity buy a set of 74 bronzes, estimated to be worth $30 million, with the intent to raffle them to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. After receiving $400,000 from Barry, Maibaum shipped the sculptures. He never received another payment and the Haiti raffle was abandoned.

Ultimately, the Degas Sculpture Project amicably resolved its dispute with Barry, Global Village Champions Foundation, and all others named in the filings. A statement was issued that said, "Global Village Champions Foundation, Inc. is not an instrumentality of fraud, but rather a very worthy charitable organization that works to eradicate hunger around the world. The Dega Sculpture Project Ltd has the utmost respect for Mr. Barry, a two time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, in that goal and we fully commend Global Village Champions Foundation, Inc. for its international humanitarian efforts."

Over two dozen sculptures by Fernando Botero are being restored in the artist’s hometown of Medellin, Colombia. The 27 works, which are situated in public places such as parks and streets, are beginning to show signs of weather damage and vandalism. Chewing gum, graffiti, dents and scratches mar the bronze figurative works’ once-radiant patina.

Maria Adelaida Bohorquez, a restorer at the Museum de Antioquia, the institution that owns most of the sculptures, believes that many of the unsightly damages can be fixed thanks to a labor-intensive restoration effort that is schedule to reach completion by the end of the year. Bohorquez added, “The sculptures will have the tone they did originally.”

Botero, who gave the project his blessing, has donated approximately 200 paintings and sculptures to Medellin as well as many others to the Botero Museum in Bogota.

Steven A. Cohen, a hedge-fund manager and founder of SAC Capital Advisors, will sell works from him impressive art collection in New York later this month. The majority of the sales will be part of Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale on November 13, but Christie’s will also sell a small portion, estimated to be worth less than $5 million.

The trove headed to Sotheby’s includes works by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Cy Twombly and is estimated to be worth around $85 million. Highlights include Andy Warhol’s portrait of Elizabeth Taylor titled Liz #1 (Early Colored Liz); a 10-by-8-foot canvas by German artist Gerhardt Richter, which was shown by the Pace Gallery at Art Basel in 2012; and a bronze sculpture by Cy Twombly.

Cohen, an avid collector who is active in the market, is bringing this collection to auction after SAC was accused in a grand-jury indictment of encouraging insider trading. The company was told it would have to pay $1.8 billion and admit wrongdoing to resolve securities-fraud charges, including a previous penalty of approximately $600 million.

On November 3, 2013 the High Museum of Art in Atlanta will present the exhibition Go West! Art of the American Frontier from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Through more than 250 paintings, sculptures, photographs and Native American artifacts, the show will explore the changing notion of the American West, which evolved considerably between 1830 and 1930. The exhibition also addresses the varied and oftentimes conflicting representations of Native Americans, which ranged from portrayals of fierce warriors to menacing enemies.

The works included in Go West! Are on loan from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a museum and cultural center in Cody, Wyoming. Highlights include a bronze sculpture by Frederic Remington, illustrations by N.C. Wyeth created during his time as a ranch-hand, and Annie Oakley’s rifle.

Go West! will be on view at the High Museum through April 3, 2014.

A bronze sculpture by the British artist Henry Moore was stolen from a park in Scotland last week. Standing Figure (1950), which measures over 7 feet tall, was one of four Moore pieces in the Glenkiln Sculpture Park, which includes works by Auguste Rodin and Jacob Epstein.

This not the first time that a large, sculptural work by Moore has been targeted by thieves. Last year, two men were arrested for stealing a sculpture from the estate of the Henry Moore Foundation in England and in 2005 Moore’s monumental Reclining Figure was stolen from the grounds. Police believe that the sculpture, which weighed over two tons, could have been melted down and sold for scrap metal.

Moore amassed considerable wealth after gaining recognition for his large-scale, semi-abstract works and fulfilled numerous significant commissions. Despite his affluence, Moore lived frugally and put most of his fortune towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.

A monumental sculpture by the British artist Henry Moore will be offered at Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on November 5, 2013 in New York. Reclining Figure, a bronze sculpture measuring over 11 feet, is estimated to sell for $6 million-$8 million. The work is being sold by a “Distinguished Collection,” where it has resided for 35 years.

Reclining Figure is one of the massive sculptures that dominated Moore’s later works and boasts the natural undulating silhouette that he is well-known for. Moore has fared increasingly well at auction in recent years and a world record for the artist was set at Christie’s London in 2012 when Reclining Figure: Festival, achieved over $30 million.

Brooke Lampley, Head of Department, Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie’s, said, “In this work, Moore expertly balanced the figurative and the abstract to captivating effect – the mere silhouette of a body is visible, overshadowed by its resplendent curves. Reclining Figure is an icon by one of the greatest of all Modern sculptors.”

The work will go on view outside at Christie’s plaza in Rockefeller Center a few weeks prior to the sale.

A cast of Alberto Giacometti’s seminal Grande tête de Diego is expected to garner between $30 million and $50 million at Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on November 6, 2013. The work is part of a series of groundbreaking sculptures by Giacometti that personified the Existentialist movement during the Cold War. Grande tête de Diego, which was conceived in 1954 and cast in bronze a year later, will go on view in New York on November 1, 2013.

Simon Shaw, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department in New York, said, “Of all his representations of the human figure, Grande tête de Diego is perhaps Giacometti’s most radical, visually engaging and emotionally impactful.” While Giacometti’s record at auction is $103.9 million, the world record for any piece of sculpture at auction, the most recent cast of Grande tête de Diego sold for $53.3 million at Christie’s in 2010.

Giacometti’s younger brother served as the model for Grande tête de Diego, which was made following the period that saw the creation of the artist’s recognizable, elongated figures. Giacometti’s works from the 1950s tend to be more solid, often executed with the matiére pétrie, or kneading method, which lent a more expressive quality to the figures.

Germany’s Hildesheim Cathedral, which was designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage site in 1985, houses one of the most comprehensive surviving collections of ecclesiastical furnishings and medieval masterpieces in Europe. Built between 1010 and 1020, the church is undergoing major renovations, which has allowed for the exhibition Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim to go on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The show presents 50 medieval treasures – many of which have never been viewed outside Europe – and explores the Hildesheim’s legacy. The first portion of the exhibition focuses on Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim (960-1022), one of leading patrons of the arts during the Middle Ages. The Bishop commissioned many treasures during his time including monumental bronze works, the Golden Madonna, elaborate silver candlesticks and illuminated manuscripts. The life-size woodcarving known as the Ringelheim crucifix, which he commissioned, is one of the earliest surviving three-dimensional sculptures of the Middle Age.

Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim goes on to explore the continuing artistic production of Hildesheim in the high Middle Ages. Works from this period that will be on view at the Met include jeweled crosses, altars adorned with enamel and ivory and gilt-bronze liturgical fans. In the early 13^th century Hildesheim became a major center for bronze casting. A monumental bronze baptismal font from this period will be display at the Met; it is one of the most important works to survive from the Middle Ages.  

Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim will be on view at the Met through January 5, 2014.