All posts tagged: Picasso

Reina Sofía Faces Audit and Political Pressure Over Missing Artworks

Reina Sofía Faces Audit and Political Pressure Over Missing Artworks

Published by Jenni Sidey

Spain’s government is turning up the pressure on the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía over longstanding problems tied to its collection inventory, with lawmakers threatening consequences that could ultimately cost museum director Manuel Segade his job. A parliamentary oversight committee in Spain recently passed a resolution demanding that the museum complete a full and updated inventory of its holdings by December 31, 2026, according to Le Journal des Arts. The measure, backed by Spain’s conservative Popular Party and supported by the far-right, passed by a vote of 20 to 13, while the ruling Socialist Party abstained. Related Articles In notably blunt language, lawmakers said that if the museum fails to comply by the deadline, Spain’s Ministry of Culture should remove Segade as director. The text also calls for a “total and absolute” audit of the museum’s holdings, including works on loan, deposited artworks, and pieces whose whereabouts remain unclear. “The artworks held in the museum—as well as those belonging to it that cannot be duly located—can no longer be allowed to remain at risk,” representatives of the Popular …

Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale Totals 3.9 M. Led by Matisse

Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale Totals $303.9 M. Led by Matisse

Published by Jenni Sidey

A few minutes into Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction on Tuesday night, the pauses between bids began telling their own story. Collectors still showed up for the museum-quality material, particularly blue-chip works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, and Vincent van Gogh, but the atmosphere inside the Breuer building often felt cautious rather than euphoric, as buyers weighed estimates carefully and bidding wars appeared only intermittently. By the end of the evening, Sotheby’s had achieved a total of $303.9 million, with 98 percent of lots finding buyers. While the sale brought in 63 percent more than the equivalent sale last year—marked by the infamous Giacometti flop—the total came in below the presale high estimate of $320.2 million. Overall, the sale’s results reinforced a growing reality across the art market this season: demand remains strong for exceptional works, but conviction still comes with conditions. Related Articles As one New York advisor, who asked not to be named, texted me more than halfway through the sale, the evening was “solid financially, but also lacking in energy,” adding …

Malaysia unveils Picasso and Miró works recovered from 1MDB scandal

Malaysia unveils Picasso and Miró works recovered from 1MDB scandal

Published by Daniella Wilson

On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Malaysia has unveiled artworks by artists including Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró that authorities say were bought using money stolen from a multibillion-dollar state investment fund. The works were acquired using funds allegedly taken from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, a Malaysian government fund set up in 2009 by then prime minister Najib Razak. According to the US Department of Justice, more than $4.5bn (£3.3bn) was misappropriated from the fund between 2009 and 2014 and used to buy luxury homes, jewellery, yachts, private jets, artworks, and even help finance the 2013 Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street. The allegations triggered investigations in the US, Switzerland, Singapore, and several other countries and contributed to the collapse of Najib’s government in Malaysia’s 2018 general election. Najib has denied wrongdoing, and has been imprisoned since 2022 after losing a final appeal in a corruption case involving a former 1MDB subsidiary. …

Malaysia Showcases Recovered 1MDB Artworks, From Picasso to Miró

Malaysia Showcases Recovered 1MDB Artworks, From Picasso to Miró

Published by José Betancourt

Four artworks recovered from the 1MDB scandal have gone on public view in Malaysia for the first time, offering a modest but pointed reminder of one of the largest financial frauds in modern history. The works—by Picasso, Miró, Balthus and Maurice Utrillo—were unveiled Wednesday at the headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in Putrajaya, according to the South China Morning Post. They had been repatriated from New York last month after being traced through Sotheby’s and shipped back to Malaysia on April 14.  Related Articles The four paintings are Joan Miró’s Composition (1953), Maurice Utrillo’s Maison de rendez-vous de chasse de Henri IV, rue Saint-Vincent, Montmartre (1934), Balthus’s Etude pour femme couchée (1948), and Pablo Picasso’s L’Ecuyere et les clowns (1961). Together, they are estimated at about $198,125, a tiny figure next to the billions allegedly stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the state investment fund at the center of the scandal. Still, Malaysian officials framed the display less as an art event than as an act of restitution. “This is a betrayal of the people’s money,” MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki told reporters, …

S.I. Newhouse Left the MoMA Board Over a Picasso. Now It’s At Auction

S.I. Newhouse Left the MoMA Board Over a Picasso. Now It’s At Auction

Published by Jenni Sidey

Christie’s New York is offering 16 top-notch works by titans of the 20th and 21st centuries next month, all from the holdings of the late publishing magnate S. I. (aka Si) Newhouse, head of Conde Nast, who died in 2017. At a packed Rockefeller Center salesroom on May 18, masterpieces by artists including Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol will come to the block. The group is expected to ring up collectively for about $450 million, an enormous sum in any market, but a truly titanic one in a shaky moment in the art market and the global economy. Related Articles Among this stratospheric group, with individual estimates topping out at $100 million, Picasso’s Cubist canvas Homme à la guitare (1913), estimated at $35 million to $55 million, stands out because Newhouse surrendered far more than cash to own it. Twenty-six years ago, Newhouse actually chose it over the powerful seat he had long held on the board of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, when he controversially …

Father, Daughter Plead Guilty to M. Counterfeit Art Scheme

Father, Daughter Plead Guilty to $2 M. Counterfeit Art Scheme

Published by José Betancourt

Two New Jersey residents pleaded guilty to running a years-long counterfeit art scheme that funneled fake works into the legitimate market, defrauding buyers of at least $2 million. Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, admitted in federal court in Brooklyn to wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresenting Native American–produced goods, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The pair, a father and daughter, now face up to 20 years in prison, along with at least $1.9 million in restitution.  Related Articles Prosecutors say that between 2020 and 2025, the two consigned more than 200 counterfeit works to galleries and auction houses across the United States, slipping them into the market as if they were by blue-chip names, including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Banksy, and Luiseño artist Fritz Scholder. Some were listed for sale at prices reaching $160,000, a level that placed them comfortably within the mid-tier market where due diligence can be uneven and provenance often taken at face value.  To give the works a veneer of legitimacy, the defendants fabricated …

Is A Random Unknown Artist More Valuable Than Picasso? AI Thinks So.

Is A Random Unknown Artist More Valuable Than Picasso? AI Thinks So.

Published by Jenni Sidey

What’s worth more—a Picasso or a painting by a street artist no one has heard of? According to the AI model we built, the answer is the latter. That surprising result came out of an experiment I ran with a data scientist and an AI expert from Silicon Valley. Our goal was to see whether artificial intelligence could bring more transparency—and, perhaps, greater fairness—to the art market. The timing is urgent. The art world has been in a recession for 15 years, galleries are closing, young collectors are holding back, and artists trying to make it in the major market centers are living on the brink of poverty. The market is opaque and elitist. More than 50% of auction value in contemporary art comes from just twenty artists. The attention driven by blockbuster exhibitions and record prices is reserved for a handful of artists and galleries—under the pretense that their art is simply “better.” But is it really? Related Articles To find out, we built an AI model to decode how artistic value is determined …

The Dog’s Gaze by Thomas Laqueur review – the art of the canine, from Velázquez to Picasso | Art and design books

The Dog’s Gaze by Thomas Laqueur review – the art of the canine, from Velázquez to Picasso | Art and design books

Published by Sam Flores

Thirty-five thousand years ago, in the Ardèche region of France, Paleolithic artists drew a spectacular bestiary on the walls of the Chauvet cave. Their focus was apex predators, so there were lots of lions, as well as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses. Dogs were nowhere to be seen, and yet in the soft sediment on the limestone floor of the cave, there are traces of canid pawprints next to human footprints. Two fellow creatures, most likely a boy and a dog, stood together, about 10,000 years after the art was made, looking up at the walls in wonder. Here was a moment of shared contemplation, followed perhaps by a glance to see the other’s reaction. In this luminous book, the American cultural historian Thomas Laqueur explores what he calls “the dog’s gaze”. The dog was the first animal to live companionably with humans, and Laqueur argues that this marks the boundary between nature and culture. It is this threshold status that has, in turn, qualified the dog to play a rich, symbolic part in western art. Just having dogs in a picture – snuffling for picnic crumbs …

French Engineer Turns 8 Raffle Ticket Into .2 M Picasso Painting

French Engineer Turns $118 Raffle Ticket Into $1.2 M Picasso Painting

Published by Jenni Sidey

A 58-year-old Paris-based engineer named Ari Hodara bought a raffle ticket on a whim, and ended up winning a gouache-on-paper painting by Picasso a few days later. The 1941 painting, Head of a Woman, is a portrait of the French artist’s lover and muse Dora Maar, an artist in her own right who was frequently painted by Picasso. Before Hodara, the portrait was owned by Opera Gallery, an international operation with branches in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the U.S. The gallery sold 120,000 tickets for 100 euros (about $110) each, to hopeful art enthusiasts around the world. The first 1 million euros ($1.2 million) raised went to Opera Gallery, with the rest being donated to the Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, a French organization. Related Articles The charitable endeavor, called “1 Picasso for 100 Euros,” was launched in 2013 by the Beirut-born French journalist Péri Cochin. The first iteration of the lottery was won by Jeffrey Gonano, a 25-year-old man from a suburb of Pittsburgh, who won a L’Homme au Gibus (1914), also a gouache …