News
Court rules against development plan
Multiple claims for antiquities at New York’s Met, major exhibitions hit at London’s British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum
Artist Nico Widerberg’s sculptures welcomed by many, but the way an anonymous donor is funding them upsets others
Nahmads say the contested painting, Seated Man with a Cane, 1918, belongs to another organisation
Persepolis tablets on loan to Chicago since the 1930s under threat
Academicians make high-table request
Why a British judge decided that an image of a bus on Westminster Bridge infringed copyright
Six more works by Rotella sought by public prosecutor, as well as pieces owned by former F1 boss
Madre is €8m in debt, embroiled in politics and might shut
Director censured, art in storage
Critics divided over the importance of photographic record of destroyed paintings
It’s a sore point in Bavaria that a Munich museum refused to lend artist’s self-portrait to Nuremberg, his home city
Catalogue launched of more than 400 missing works, some stolen, many looted
Activists use art to outwit the authorities
Pinchuk supports young artists (again)
Sir Bani Yas Island had a Nestorian Christian monastery into Islamic times
Builders of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, TDIC, now join forces with ADACH, the cultural authority
Market
Three dealers say initial complaints were dismissed by Artcurial specialists
A legal case brought against Sotheby’s by a major Greek collector could be the tip of the iceberg
Time limit due for ownership rights
Banking on collectors from China, Brazil, Russia and the Gulf to show an interest in pre-20th-century European works
Peaks for best modern and contemporary artists High prices for works by Miró, Bacon, Moore and Richter are reminiscent of the boom
Brand expands its business model and improves technology, but big-name dealers are unconvinced
Cool emerging art in chilly Rotterdam
New attributions lift Old Master sales Sotheby’s puts together the stronger catalogue, with renaissance and French successes
A fair with international artists But exhibitors still play to taste of Belgian clientele
Argentina, Mexico and Brazil could be the future for a field struggling with limited supply, says Santo Micali
A short history of the world’s most admired art and antiques fair
Veteran dealers reminisce about the past and weigh-in on why Tefaf Maastricht still matters
The up-and-coming dealers at Tefaf discuss why they joined the fair
The Art Newspaper spoke to scholars, dealers and auction experts to produce a brief guide to some of the key objects and fields at the fair
Books
This catalogue raisonné of Caspar David Friedrich’s drawings enlarges our knowledge, but leaves some questions unanswered
A 500-year survey of the artists’ paint trade
The National Gallery’s latest Technical Bulletin makes some great discoveries
Essays on Paul Pfeiffer don’t tell us if his work really matters
How the Flemish artist combined his knowledge of ancient mythology with a deep religious faith
A scholarly, facsimile edition of Albertini’s 1510 guide to Florence
Comment
The connoisseurship of renaissance drawings is complex, inexact and as important as ever
The popular assumption is that anything recovered from the sea is ‘finders keepers’
The boundary between the expression of an idea which copyright protects and the underlying idea which cannot be protected is a fluid one
Conservation
Florida company denied appeal over $500m treasure salvaged from ship holed by British in 1804
Family plans to sell site created by late ceramicist Jean Linard
Restoration firm under investigation
Japanese tour raised the funds needed to restore the work’s cool tones
Dulwich Picture Gallery X-rays a work and finds some 17th-century defiance
Exhibitions
As Frieze gears up for its inaugural New York edition in May, the Armory takes on the battle for the top spot
More Japanese, southeast Asian and contemporary art on show
London tube station to become art-house theatre
Art Dubai becomes more international
New Museum Triennial takes its cue from the militant students of South Africa
Political art takes centre stage at the Whitney Biennial
Houston biennial focuses on Russian photography
The first ever monographic show of the sumptuous still-lifes of Willem van Aelst
Turner’s admiration for Claude
Putting the great into post-war British design
The West’s changing view of the Ottomans
How the French modernist reworked his own masterpieces
Ancient Arles reveals its secrets
The American artists who flocked to Italy
Museo Picasso, Málaga 5 March-10 June
Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation 21 March-15 July
Features
Intellectual property and inheritance disputes in France are more likely to lead to court than to the bank or the gallery
One of Europe’s largest arts centres, built on the wartime ruins of the City of London, is an artistic success but remains trapped in a 20th-century financial model
From mock guided tours to a sexual encounter with a collector, Andrea Fraser’s art is a unique form of institutional critique
A major new film, based on a Bruegel the Elder painting, is due to open the international festival in Montreal
A tender portrait of New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham
Film’s snobby appraisal of Starck’s take on a Louis XV armchair
Museums
Perm’s “Hermitage” to get purpose-built home, allowing Orthodox Church to regain its cathedral
Stop/start expansion project clears final hurdle
It’s too early to plan a sequel, says the Getty, but early talks have started
Despite the recession, the British Museum, Tate and V&A attract major donations
Where the money is coming from to convert the Commonwealth Institute
Museums collaborate in case terrorists strike or protesters run amok
Constable and Turner experts may go
The Fondazione Cini with the Pentagram Stiftung to create exhibition galleries and a study centre on the island of San Giorgio
Paris space aims to celebrate cultural diversity in the Middle East
At least 17 Dutch institutions at risk, national survey shows
…showing that tall poppies can grow in a Nordic climate
Museums criticised for lack of ramps, lifts and action
Collector calls lack of progress on Russian national portrait gallery “shameful”
US institution’s $50m centre opens
Palace of art and nation’s first state-run contemporary space planned
Big vision, bigger spaces and fine harbour views
Tefaf is the main sponsor of the newly renovated city museum, which is hosting the anniversary show
TEFAF supplement
|