'Downing St' Canaletto to be sold

A painting by Italian master Canaletto that adorned the walls of 10 Downing Street is expected to fetch up to 8 million pounds when it is auctioned in London in July. View of the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto was purchased by Sir Robert Walpole, England's first prime minister, in the 1730s. The painting hung in the First Floor Parlour of what was then Sir Robert's private London residence. After his death in 1745 it was sold by Walpole's son, Horace, for 30 guineas.The Sotheby's sale on 7 July marks the first time the painting has appeared at auction for almost 250 years. The world record for a Canaletto was set by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1992 when he paid 10 million for a view of Horse Guards, London.
Irish Art

German Nudes Fill Museum

One hundred virtually naked women between the ages of 18 and 65 displayed their bodies in a Berlin art gallery on Thursday to prepare for a one-day exhibit on Friday. Wearing only transparent tights, the 100 nearly nude models stood, kneeled or sat down on the floor of the New National Gallery before a small crowd of journalists. Bystanders peered in through windows from outside the building.
The women will stand for three hours in a square area in the center of the museum during Friday evening's exhibit. They will not be allowed to talk or look at each other and must remain standing as long as possible. Most of the women responded to a newspaper advert.
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Irish Art

Christie's Taps Arab Market

Christie's International, the second biggest auction house by sales, plans to open offices in Kuwait, Qatar and other Arab states to tap rising wealth and expand its share of the world's $25 billion art market, Bloomberg reports. London-based Christie's, which had auction sales of $2.5 billion last year, will open as many as four offices in the Middle East during the next five years, starting with Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Irish Art

New Home For Mona Lisa

Four years and almost 5 million euros later, the Mona Lisa has moved into spacious new digs at the Louvre Museum in Paris but her famous smile remains as enigmatic as ever. Visitors will find the 500-year-old painting in the Salle des Etats, a large gallery which has undergone a 4.8 million euro ($6.2 million) makeover since 2001.

The Mona Lisa is now smiling from a large structure resembling a giant picture frame right at one end of an 840 sq metre room, where visitors can admire her from behind a wooden railing. New lighting underlines the painting's colours. The masterpiece is set against a marbled beige wall and protected by unbreakable glass. The Mona Lisa has taken on a brownish cast due to the accumulation of dust and dirt and chemical changes to the varnish covering its surface, but the museum has so far resisted pressure to restore the painting to its original colours.
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Irish Art

Art Pulled After Gun Revealed

Art gallery bosses have pulled the plug on a controversial piece of art by a Warwickshire artist featuring a gun embedded in a heater. The concept piece, entitled Home is Where the Peace Is, was put together by well-known Rugby artist Pete Thornley and was scheduled to be on display in Leicester's City Gallery until Saturday.
But gallery bosses acted after realising the work contained a replica firearm in a 1950s-style radiator. Mr Thornley said he was disappointed the work had been withdrawn. He said: "I hoped it would provoke debate about gun culture - art is always about contemporary matters. "The gun was discreetly hidden and I do not think anyone would be able to get to it easily."
City Gallery spokesman Simon Sykes said the piece had been withdrawn for legal reasons but would be reinstated as soon as Mr Thornley provided written confirmation that the gun was a replica.
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Irish Art

Mandela May Sue Over Art

Nelson Mandela is poised to sue his former personal lawyer, Ismail Ayob, for millions for allegedly cashing in on the Mandela legend. Nobody in the Mandela inner circle is talking on the record about the fall-out between Mandela and the human-rights lawyer, who is accused of profiting by selling artworks in the former president's name.
Ayob said he was astonished to hear that legal action was possibly pending against him. He said he had never personally benefited from anything involving marketing the Mandela name. Instead, he acted on behalf of some of the Mandela children and all benefits went to the Mandela Trust, of which they were the beneficiaries.
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Irish Art

Irishman Inspired Van Gogh

It has been one of the art world's greatest puzzles - how Vincent van Gogh was able to recreate a detailed astronomical depiction of the night sky without the aid of a powerful telescope. Now a British academic has claimed that, far from gaining inspiration for his famous work, The Starry Night, from his garret window, the artist copied the image from a sketch drawn by an Irish astronomer.

The sketch of the famous spiral was made by William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, who observed the M51 galaxy from his 72 in telescope - then the largest in the world. The M51 galaxy - estimated to be 37m light years away - could not have been seen by the naked eye, proving the work could not have been painted "from nature".
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Irish Art