Art Prices Rise

Art prices are now at their highest levels since the speculative bubble burst back in 1990. The Artprice Global Index calculated using data on repeat sales reveals that following the fall auction season in New York, art prices rose by 24.4% between January and December 2004. Taking into account fluctuations in exchange rates, the increase in euro terms was just 14% over the same period.
If prices continue to advance at the same pace as in 2004, they could well surpass November 1990 highs in November 2005, thus taking art market prices to unprecedented levels.
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Irish Art

Degas: "Art in the Making"

Edgar Degas was one of the most experimental artists of the 19th century. Throughout his long career he constantly found new ways to use oil paint, chalk, pastel, essence and printmaking processes (in particular monotypes), often combining two or more media in the same work.

This exhibition is part of Art in the Making, the London National Gallery's ongoing series of exhibitions on artists' techniques, and comprises in-depth examination of some twelve works by Degas. These will be complemented by x-radiographs, infra-red reflectograms and pigment analyses, with loans of works from Britain and abroad. It will reveal to a general audience, which has long loved this artist, just how complex Degas's working methods could be. You've got until the 30th of January 2005 to take it all in.

Irish Arts Council grants up 16%

The Arts Council has been granted a 16 per cent increase in its funding for next year, but applications for funding will be almost double the 61 million euros available.
The council announced details of its funding allocation but it has yet to publish the full list of successful applicants.
Some 61 million euros in funding has been allocated to the body for 2005. The council said the 16 per cent increase will be passed on directly to artists and arts organisations. The largest increases were for the film and traditional arts sectors, which received increases of 22 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.
Some 297 organisations have been approved for funding - 39 more than last year. Of these, 18 are first-time applicants.
The successful applicants will be notified by the council later this week and the list will then be published on the Arts Council's website.
Funding programmes include artists' awards, bursaries and schemes, a minor capital scheme and a small festivals scheme.
Irish Art

Chinese Art Market

Nine days ago, China opened its doors to foreign auction houses for the first time to fulfil its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organisation.
The move ended an extraordinary year for the market in Chinese art. In Hong Kong in late October and early November, Christie's sold art and antiques totalling 35 million pounds, doubling its 2003 figures, while Sotheby's auctions soared to 42 million pounds. An anonymous Asian private buyer paid a record 515,531 pounds for the 20th-century Chinese artist Sanyu's Reclining Nude at Christie's in Hong Kong.
However, no work of art dating from before 1949 is allowed to leave the country. Christie's believe they could be holding auctions in mainland China in 10 to 15 years' time, but the restrictions on exporting works of art are simply too tight to make it viable in the short term.
Sotheby's takes a similar view and says that although it "sees China as an extraordinary opportunity for future growth", it does not "currently believe that now is the moment to hold auctions in the People's Republic of China".
The truth is that China and its new millionaires - estimated to number 235,000 already - will play an important part in the art market, but it will not be the instant boom that some people have predicted. In true Maoist style, it will be more of a long march than a quick takeover.
Irish Art

Germany fights for Rubens

Germany renewed its demand last night for the return from Moscow of a priceless Rubens oil painting that mysteriously vanished during the second world war. The Russian businessman who is refusing to give it back was threatened with legal action. The Germans have been trying to get the Rubens back since a consortium of businessmen offered it for sale last year. It disappeared in 1945 from a castle near Berlin.
The Russian businessman who now says he "owns" the painting, Vladimir Logvinenko, insists he bought it legitimately in 1999 from a Russian antiques dealer. Two months ago a court in Germany ruled that the German government had not produced enough evidence to show the Rubens was stolen.
It appears that a Russian officer acquired the painting in April 1945 as the Red Army overwhelmed Nazi Germany - possibly from a country mansion belonging to Joseph Goebbels, where it had hung in the bedroom of one of the Nazi propaganda minister's many lovers.
Art experts agree that despite its poor condition it is worth around 55 million pounds.
Earlier this year Russia's prosecutor general's office ruled that Mr Logvinenko was the Rubens' rightful owner, and said he didn't break any Russian law in acquiring it. Pieces of art stolen by Soviet troops from Germany remain a sensitive subject in Russia.
Many Russians regard them as compensation for the devastation caused by Hitler's invasion. Germany has been negotiating with Russia since 1991 for the restitution of some 200,000 artefacts, while Russia has claims on icons and other artworks stolen by German troops earlier in the war.
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Irish Art

Irish Art in China

Irish artist Clive Murphy opens his exhibition "China OK" at the 411 Gallery, Hangzhou City, China, running until the end of December. Murphy exhibits new work created in Hangzhou over the last 3 months. He is visiting China as part of the 411 Galleries artists exchange programme funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Already a well known community artist in Ireland he has exhibited in the Czech Republic, the US, the UK, Germany and in Shanghai.
Murphy has also exhibited in the prestigious Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast. He has been working with mass produced material such as plastic and cardboard for many years and the "cheap chic" associated with such materials. The China OK exhibition uses a mix of materials and includes video and moving sculpture. The exhibition "plays with our perception and familiarity of the everyday".
Irish Art