Art market

Trio of Basquiat paintings could bring more than $86m at Phillips in May

The largest painting in the group, "Untitled (ELMAR)" (1982), will be offered during the marquee spring sales in New York with a $40m to $60m estimate

French authorities seize Russian avant-garde paintings believed stolen

The haul includes works purportedly by Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Natalia Goncharova

Dallas Art Fair expansion reflects the city's growing art market

The fair, along with its satellite event the Dallas Invitational, testify to the importance of the local collector base, dealers say

Art marketanalysis

The Gray Market | Why contemporary dealers and collectors are monitoring an antitrust lawsuit over Birkin bags

Hermès's alleged sale strategy for the in-demand bags parallels dealers' waiting list policies, but legal experts are sceptical of the lawsuit's merits

Monet painting jointly owned by Nelson-Atkins Museum and donor’s descendents will be sold at auction

The museum's share of proceeds—estimated at up to $25m by Christie's—will go toward establishing an endowment fund for new acquisitions

Asia Week New York brings in more than $100m in sales, a 24% drop from 2023

The 15th edition of the event, which spans auction sales and gallery exhibitions, was impacted by slowdown in China’s economy

Carlie Porterfield. With additional reporting by Kabir Jhala

Robert Alice breaks new ground with auction of generative art NFTs on Christie's 3.0

Auction house sees maturing of market since the heady days of 2021 as works by the digital art pioneer are sold in combination with launch of their catalogue raisonné-like historical survey "On NFTs"

Painting from Warhol and Basquiat’s notorious collaboration could fetch $18m at Sotheby’s this May

The monumental canvas is expected to reset the record price at auction for any work from the series

Brazilian galleries Jaqueline Martins and Sé merge to form Martins&Montero

The new joint venture will operate in São Paulo and Brussels, opening with solo shows of 2024 Venice Biennale artist Jota Mombaça

Crime news

Inigo Philbrick, art dealer who went to prison for fraud, is free

In 2022, Philbrick was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to an $86m fraud

'Queer people may soon be forgotten if their estates are not properly cared for': Patrick Sun on his philosophy for collecting

The pioneering patron of LGBTQ+ art in Asia discusses the importance of preserving community legacies and shares his favourite Hong Kong eateries

New Hong Kong: how the city aims to stay a global art hub

The SAR is riding out economic and political challenges with more buyers, bigger galleries and serious art

Art marketanalysis

James Fuentes staying true to downtown roots at new Tribeca headquarters

After 17 years on the Lower East Side, the New York gallerist holds forth on his move to “the middle of the conversation”

Will Rybolovlev’s courtroom loss be the art market’s gain?

Experts predict few operational changes after Sotheby’s wins fraud trial

From museum to market in two years: Francis Bacon lover portrait to be auctioned in New York for $30m to $50m

A highlight of Sotheby's May evening sales, Bacon's first full-scale painting of George Dyer was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2022

Executive director Nicole Berry leaving The Armory Show for senior development role at Los Angeles's Hammer Museum

Frieze's search to replace Berry, who has led The Armory Show since 2017, is already underway

UK government pledges to cut red tape around art imports

Customs processes to be streamlined to boost the domestic art market and simplify the importing of art and antiques in the wake of Brexit

Art marketanalysis

Is the art trade choosing to ignore a wider world in crisis?

Amid threats to freedom, career moves and censorship become hard to tell apart

Booksreview

New book reveals how art dealer Léonce Rosenberg trod the line between salesman and Modern art's great champion

He declared the auction to be art’s true benchmark, but Rosenberg was also a committed promoter of the avant-garde

Art trade figures voice major concerns over new EU import licensing regulations

The restrictions will focus on imports of non-European cultural property

Keith Piper on tackling Tate Britain’s racist Whistler mural

Plus, the top takeaways from the new Art Basel/UBS report and a weaving by Anni Albers

Art marketcomment

It’s time to end the predatory practices of 'sleeper hunters'

Sleeper hunter dealers must recognise they have an asymmetrical relationship to vulnerable people pressured by circumstance to sell off their treasured heirlooms

Art marketanalysis

Global art market value fell by 4% in 2023 amid ‘inflation and wars’, Art Basel/UBS report finds

Last year saw a drop in sales of ultra high-value works but an increase in trading volume

Art marketanalysis

Focus, not faff: considered adjustments prove welcome at TEFAF Maastricht

A shorter runtime, a new Focus section and outreach to young buyers show promise as a way forward for the venerable Dutch fair

Art marketanalysis

The Gray Market: Anyone wrestling with money's influence on art has 800 years of company

A show at the Morgan Library & Museum traces the modern economy's emergence in the Middle Ages—and how it influenced art from the start

Booksreview

An explosive cocktail of desire and betrayal in a novel set in the 1990s London art world

This entertaining satire combines liberal quantities of sex, violence, money and drugs with the Britart scene

After two years of tremendous growth, France's art auction market is in decline

Overall auction results are strong—largely thanks to rise of second hand car purchases—but sales of fine art and antiques have fallen significantly from last year

Auctionsanalysis

Christie’s marathon evening sales in London make a within-estimate £163m

The 20th/21st century and Art of the Surreal auctions were up 18.5% by value on their March 2023 versions