NewsArt law
Two veteran lawyers from New York's Herrick Feinstein create new firm, Kaye Spiegler—and save on moving fees
The boutique firm will continue to work from the same offices, but wants to take on riskier contingency cases
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Through animation and home videos, three films in Toronto try to retrieve a lost Jewish past
The features Charlotte, Where Is Anne Frank, and Three Minutes – A Lengthening give an afterlife to some of the victims of the Holocaust
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Hello Kitty, meet Louis Wain: a new film portrays the eccentric life of a cat painter
Benedict Cumberbatch portrays the ill-fated Victorian illustrator who can be thanked—or blamed—for the rise of the feline in popular culture
NewsSeptember 11
'A thunderstorm of ash and cloud': Artists remember 11 September
On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, artists reflect on how the event has impacted their work
NewsObituaries
Chuck Close, artist of monumental pictures and a monumental fall, dies at 81
The debate over the artist's place in post-1970 history, quiet since allegations against him were made in 2017, is sure to gather steam
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Institutionalising 9/11: The Outsider documents Ground Zero museum’s contentious formation in Facebook premiere
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks, a new film follows the challenges behind the making of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Now 62, but still wielding spray paint, Kenny Scharf is filmed by his daughter
The family portrait documentary follows the highs and lows of the street artist’s life and career
ReviewFilms
The Lost Leonardo—a solid sceptical documentary—follows the saga of the Salvator Mundi
The documentary film about the world’s most scrutinised painting, by the Danish director Andreas Koefoed, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday
NewsLaw
French heir renounces title to Nazi-looted Pissarro painting found in Oklahoma
The Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep will return this summer to the University of Oklahoma, which will seek a French partner for future exchanges
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Trevor Paglen warns about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence in new documentary Unseen Skies
“Ways of seeing are never neutral, images have always required a human to interpret them,” the artist says
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Revisiting the Gardner heist: no paintings, no arrests, but mobsters galore in new Netflix series
While the four-part documentary retreads well-worn ground, it reminds viewers why the unsolved crime remains so intriguing
ReviewBill Traylor
Whimsy and memory on cardboard: Bill Traylor documentary assembles the fragments of an extraordinary life
A new film explores the work of the artist born into slavery who gained recognition in his eighties
NewsRestitution
After major Klimt restitution by France, another work still vexes Vienna
Apple Tree II, once confused for Roses Under the Trees, was returned to the wrong family 20 years ago, leaving the heirs of its original owner facing huge obstacles to get it back
ReviewVideo, film & new media
Photographs taken by Nazi camp prisoners remind us of the horrors of the Holocaust in new documentary at Berlin Film Festival
The virtual programme also included features on Tsarist Russian fashion and robot love in the Pergamon Museum
FeatureObituaries
Remembering Richard Feigen, the high-profile dealer with an outsider's straight-talking outlook on the art industry
New York gallerist railed against auction houses, the inflation of prices and reputations, the industrial expansion of the art market, while still doing great business
NewsRembrandt
Family members fall out over Rembrandt stored in a New Jersey basement
An heir of an early owner claims that family members conspired to have it sold without his knowledge
ReviewArt in film
Nuns and refugees feature in this year’s art films at a pared-down Sundance Festival
From Rebel Hearts, a documentary on Los Angeles artist and activist Sister Mary Corita, to Flee, and animated tale of a young gay man’s flight from Afghanistan
ReviewMedia & broadcast
'My Rembrandt' documentary lets you look into the privileged club of Old Master owners
From kissing a portrait of a woman on the lips, to tricking a co-buyer out of a bargain, acquiring a rare work by the Dutch painter does not always bring out the best in people
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Can mediation save a sharing settlement over Nazi-looted Pissarro?
A Paris court has ordered Léone-Noëlle Meyer and the University of Oklahoma to return to the negotiating table
NewsLooted art
Museum of the Bible returns hand-written gospels looted from Greece during the First World War
The Eikosiphoinissa Manuscript 220 was among hundreds of objects taken from the Kosinitza Monastery by Bulgarian separatist troops in 1917
NewsLaw
US museums groups raise concerns as settlement deal over Nazi-looted Pissarro heads back to court
The work, returned to the French heiress Léone-Noëlle Meyer in 2016, was meant to go back on display at Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum next year
ReviewFilms
Letting it all burn: David Wojnarowicz documentary presents the artist through his words and works
A new film on the provocative artist, who died of Aids in 1992 at the age of 37, tells his story through his paintings, photographs, audio and videos
ReviewExhibitions
Sue Coe takes on Donald Trump in final Galerie St Etienne show
The artist’s grotesque and violent images of the US president fit in with her works of political and social protest, made since the 1970s
NewsLaw
US appeals court rules—with regret—that Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation can keep Nazi-looted Pissarro
Judges noted the Spanish government, which signed the Washington Principles in 1998, “can preen as moralistic in its declarations”, yet not be bound by them
ReviewFilms
Helmut Newton, the man whom (some) women loved
A documentary of the photographer, known for his brazen photographs of defiant nude women, is now streaming online
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts axes director Nathalie Bondil after public spat over museum management
Ouster came after the long-serving leader was "sidelined" as a successor took over her duties
NewsLaw
Heirs battle estate over $30m Monet painting from Emden collection sold during Nazi era
Le Palais Ducal is at the centre of an ownership dispute that has kept the work from coming to auction
ReviewBooks
Alexander Calder, master of time and space: erudite biography captures artist's full ambition
Second volume of a wide-ranging biography gives us the fun-loving, sophisticated man, as his work developed from delicate mobiles to firmly grounded ‘stabiles’
InterviewFilms
How a Canadian documentary director got the major players in the Knoedler fakes scandal to speak on camera
Barry Avrich talks to us about his new film Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art, due to be released in theatres this autumn
ReviewMedia & broadcast
An abstract parallel universe: documentary on Hilma af Klint released online
Long overlooked and snubbed because of her spiritualism, the Swedish artist is finally getting the recognition—and style credit—she deserves
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Art films at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival
From a bio-pic on Italian naïve artist Antonio Ligabue to a documentary on the Berlin Wall fragments in the US
NewsMuseums & Heritage
As Nazi objects and fakes enter collectors’ market, should museums show them?
Highly publicised sales and seizures of Nazi memorabilia raise questions about whether such items should be exhibited
NewsArt Basel in Miami Beach 2019
Cuzco paintings meet colonial Cuban culture in Allapattah
Founders of museum of Latin American art believe they may also have a work by Raphael
ReviewArt Basel in Miami Beach 2019
New documentary offers unvarnished view of Clyfford Still
Lifeline/Clyfford Still sheds light on the Abstract Expressionist who despised critics, condemned the work of his contemporaries, and was admired by many
ReviewFilms
In Redoubt, Matthew Barney retells an ancient myth in a survivalist American landscape
The artist’s new film is visually spectacular but with a current of politics underneath
NewsLaw
Who really owns this Schiele watercolour Portrait of the Artist's Wife?
A three-way battle is brewing in New York courts as the heirs of two Holocaust victims take on the work’s current owner
ArchiveAttribution
Met's “Riverbank” row rages over attribution debate
Experts prepare to fight it out at the Metropolitan as the painting bought from artist-collector C.C. Wang goes on display
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Art films worth seeing from the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival
Claes Bang takes the lead in two art dramas, while Cunningham dances through the decades
NewsObituaries
Robert Frank, the foreigner who framed America in photographs, dies aged 94
Swiss-born photographer, best know for his series The Americans, had a wide and enduring impact on photography
NewsRestitution
Trump opens door to restitution claims on art seized by Cuba
While the president is the first to allow Title III of Helms-Burton Act to be used, some whose collections were taken doubt it will have an impact
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Into the cluttered maze of a packrat photographer
“Jay Myself” captures an artist and collector in his overflowing six-storey home
PreviewExhibitions
Rediscovering Ida, the lesser-known O’Keeffe
A show opening at the Clark Art Institute reveals how Georgia O’Keeffe thwarted her sister’s career in art
ArchiveNazi loot
Seattle Art Museum sues New York dealers Knoedler
The heirs of Parisian dealer Paul Rosenberg demand the return of a Matisse stolen during World War II
NewsExhibitions
Photograph using ‘redface’ pulled from Brooklyn show
The work by the Taiwanese artist Ching-Yao Chen features him and three women wearing feathers, buckskin and body paint
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Speaking frankly: Robert Frank on his work and life
A documentary originally made in 2004 about the Swiss-American photographer and film-maker finally opens in US theaters 15 years later
NewsBarnes Foundation
'Selling everything but the wallpaper'—auction reopens old wounds over Barnes legacy
Barnes Foundation’s sale of founder’s items follows nominal payment for lease of valuable land
NewsVenezuela
Venezuelan art market fractured as coup erupts in Caracas
Once the cultural darling of South America, the country's capital is now a shadow of its former glory as artists and dealers struggle in the face of a military uprising
NewsMedia & broadcast
Dueling documentaries take aim at one of the biggest scams in recent art history
Three productions are due to examine the Knoedler forgery scandal
NewsLooting
A 'missed opportunity'? US seeks to return painting looted by Nazis to Ukraine
Questions are being raised about how the work ended up in the US and why such a public seizure is being pursued now
NewsPublic art
Michele Oka Doner finds fertile ground as the New York Botanical Garden’s new artist in residence
The Miami-born, New York-based artist known for her richly botanical works hints at “raves” and a departure from the expected kind of art installation as she digs in to the 250-acre landscape
NewsPolitics
Double Jeopardy? US dealer fights extradition to Poland, for the second time
Alexander Khochinsky’s lawyer calls the country’s actions over a €10,000 looted painting “aggressive and disproportionate” and says his client will not get a fair trial in the “illiberal democracy”
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Ruben Brandt, Collector is an animated art heist film bursting with references
The comedy is clever, playful and inventive—although the car chases are never-ending
NewsForgeries
Fake Marsden Hartley found in medical giant’s collection points to a larger scandal
Abbott Laboratories suspects fakes found their way into its collection during conservation process
ReviewMedia & broadcast
A man-made landscape is writ large on the screen in Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
After its US premier at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the visually stunning documentary heads to Berlin
NewsCatalogues
Cataloguing Egon Schiele: a digital work in progress
Database allows scholars to make rapid connections between works
NewsAustria
Austria returns wrong Klimt to wrong family
Painting of apple trees is pulled from exhibition after admission that its restitution was a mistake
ReviewVideo, film & new media
Gael García Bernal’s new film Museo turns Mexico’s biggest art heist into a madcap caper
The Spanish-launguage movie follows two middle-class flunkies who somehow pulled off one the largest antiquities thefts in modern-day history
InterviewVideo, film & new media
‘I like the liberation of film’: the photographer and experimental film-maker Duane Michals explains why he prefers moving pictures
The 86-year-old artist is showing three new short films at DC Moore Gallery in New York
ReviewBooks
The tortuous story of Gustav Klimt’s Nazi-looted, 100ft-wide Beethoven Frieze uncovered
New book exploring work's provenance is a must-read for those interested in the contentious field of art restitution
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Nico, 1988: the twilight after the spotlight
Susanna Nicchiarelli’s drama depicts the grim final years of the singer-songwriter
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti is a sombre picture of the artist under the sun
There are few surprises in this boilerplate biopic based on the painter’s time in Polynesia
NewsLaw
Claim on Guelph Treasure can go to trial in US federal court
Lawyers for the Prussian Cultural Foundation argued that it was not “genocide” when the objects were sold in 1935
NewsLaw
Art dealer sues Poland over its failed efforts to extradite him from the US
After offering to return a work looted by the Nazis in exchange for his family’s former real estate, Khochinsky was placed under house arrest in New York and faced a 10-year prison sentence in Poland
NewsLaw
New York judge orders two Schiele works sent to Christie’s, where they could be auctioned
But the watercolours are currently at the centre of a closely watched restitution lawsuit
NewsArt market
Sotheby's sues Greece over its claim to ancient bronze horse
A case of man bites dog: auction house turns the tables on Greek government after it was forced to withdraw the figure from New York sale in May
NewsAmedeo Modigliani
Modigliani the maverick? Vienna show to position Italian artist alongside Picasso
Exhibition at the Albertina Museum in 2020 will “reposition” artist as an avant-garde innovator, organiser says
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Mapplethorpe feature film includes plenty of titillation and drama but not enough of the man himself
The film premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, along with several other art-related films
ReviewMedia & broadcast
How Garry Winogrand captured the everyday drama of American life
A new documentary includes many of the artist’s myriad images and his voice, but leaves gaps in his story
NewsRestitution
Holocaust survivor’s family seeks painting in Ukrainian museum
Meanwhile, much of the country’s art is stuck in limbo and its own efforts to recover cultural property have stalled
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Andy Goldsworthy revisits his relationship with nature in new documentary
Leaning Into the Wind follows an earlier popular film on the artist and his works in stone, water, wood and earth
PreviewMedia & broadcast
What to see at Documentary Fortnight at MoMA
From the history of Cuba to a gay beauty pageant to the Kitsch of Prejudice, the museum’s annual film series has plenty to offer
PreviewExhibitions
The emperor strikes back: Montreal show revisits the splendour and romanticism of Napoleon’s court
More than a display of splendour, the exhibition examines how the court functioned as an institution of propaganda, shaping and promoting images of imperial power
PreviewExhibitions
Museums pay tribute to Vienna’s visionary voyeurs, Klimt and Schiele, on 100th anniversary of their deaths
The artists are the subject of exhibitions across the Austrian capital—and beyond
NewsDonald Trump
Trump change: Ukrainian artists unveil presidential portrait made of money
The artists Daria Marchenko and Daniel Green describe the work as “rich and cheap”
ReviewMedia & broadcast
From Koons to Kusama, five art films to catch from the Sundance Film Festival
Documentaries that examine the contemporary art market boom and the life of the world’s most popular artist had their world premieres in Park City, Utah
ReviewExhibitions
Arshile Gorky takes us ‘beyond the tangible’ in Hauser & Wirth show
Émigré’s contributions to Abstract Expressionism make him a seminal figure of 20th-century US art
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Richard Hambleton casts a long shadow in a new documentary film
The street artist behind Shadowman outlived many of his contemporaries, but heroin and untreated skin cancer eventually took their toll
NewsArtists
The grave of Schiele’s muse, Wally Neuzil, found in Croatia
The site is to be restored as a monument to the artist’s young model, whose portrait has been called the Mona Lisa of Austria
NewsOpenings
Washington's new $500m Museum of the Bible claims 'non-sectarian' mission
Private institution is funded by evangelical Hobby Lobby chairman, Steve Green
InterviewMonuments
How the Vietnam Veterans Memorial went from an art battleground to a solemn destination
James Reston, the author of a book on the site’s history, talks to us about the power of monuments
ReviewMedia & broadcast
What to see at DOC NYC, New York’s documentary film festival
The art smuggler Michel van Rijn, the Outsider architect Ron Heist and the celebrity photographer Cecil Beaton are the subjects of films worth watching
NewsResearch
Egon Schiele catalogue raisonné to go digital with updates on newly discovered works and provenance
The online platform will have an emphasis on connoisseurship says the catalogue’s author and art dealer Jane Kallir
ReviewExhibitions
Crowns made of chicken bones: on Eugene Von Bruenchenhein
A show of the artist's work in Sheboygan is sure to spur more interest in his art and life
ReviewExhibitions
Plenty to chew on: on Theatre of the World at the Guggenheim
The show, which was met with protest before it even opened, packs a punch
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Ai Weiwei’s documentary debut Human Flow is more of a journey than a j’accuse
The feature-length film is now open in New York and Los Angeles
InterviewMedia & broadcast
Ruben Östlund, the director of The Square, explains why the art world deserves to be mocked
The Swedish film-maker’s brutal satire set in a contemporary art museum comes to New York next month
News
Ai Weiwei’s refugee film Human Flow picked up by Amazon
The media production arm of the online retailer giant plans to release the documentary theatrically this autumn and stream it online
News
Vito Acconci: the controversial and pioneering US artist who refused all restraint to explore his body
He sat under a floor at a gallery with a microphone for eight hours and masturbated while speaking of his fantasies about people sitting above
NewsMedia & broadcast
Art drama muscles in on documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival
Artists’ lives—including Tom of Finland, Laurie Simmons, Julian Schnabel and Richard Hambleton—get the cinematic treatment
News
Legal battle over Schiele works owned by Jewish entertainer who died in Dachau
His heirs’ attempts to recover them will be framed by President Obama’s Holocaust Act
ReviewMedia & broadcast
Beuys the myth, more than the artist, explained in new documentary
Andres Veiel’s film, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, is the most extensive revisiting of Joseph Beuys art and life for a general public
ReviewExhibitions
Cosmic collectors: how the Guggenheim family came into its art
An exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York looks at how the collection was shaped
News
Montreal’s Max Stern Foundation gets its Bacchus back
The FBI recovered the work when it was offered for sale at the 2015 Spring Masters fair in New York
NewsVideo, film & new media
Art on film at Sundance, from Van Gogh’s landscapes to an orbiting VR vanitas
Drawings come to life and visitors follow the trail of malware code at the annual film festival in Park City, Utah
ReviewExhibitions
What a vivid imagination: on Sergei Eisenstein's erotic work
A group of "sex drawings" by the Soviet filmmaker are on show in New York
News
Cuban collector’s heirs settle over Wifredo Lam painting that resurfaced in Miami
Artist’s son warns of real and fake works flowing out of Cuba
News
Custodians of the Holy Land: the Franciscans to open new museum in Jerusalem
The monastic order, which has had a presence in the city since 1217, is planning a two-venue Terra Sancta Museum
NewsPolitics
Senate to vote on Holocaust restitution bill in a race against the clock
The new law, if passed, would set a national statue of limitations for claims on art looted by the Nazis
NewsExhibitions
The radiant future that never came: on Communist art from the 1930s to today
A show at Galerie St. Etienne in New York looks at how left-wing politics once animated culture—and how they no longer do
News
How Toronto learned to embrace its street art
After the former mayor’s crackdown on graffiti triggered a backlash, city officials decided to stop arresting artists and start hiring them