Matisse on Russian Art Site

BBC News reports that Matisse's 'Luxembourg Gardens' - one of the paintings stolen from a Brazilian art museum - was put up for sale on a Russian internet auction site for thirteen million dollars. Investigating officer Deuller Rocha, noting that Interpol had joined in the widening search, said that "given the characteristics of the crime, the way the thieves acted, it may be a contract job done for an international crime ring." The Chacara do Ceu museum has put up a reward of $5,000 for the safe return of the art, which experts claim may be worth as much as 50 million dollars.
Irish Art

Shakespeare In Art ? Probably...

Shakespeare has a way of slipping through the fingers. After three and a half years' research, and the detailed examination of six paintings, the National Portrait Art Gallery has concluded that the so-called Chandos portrait shows the true face of Shakespeare...probably.

The Chandos portrait, of a sensitive, almond-eyed fellow with a gold hoop in his left ear and a receding head of hair, has not always been regarded as having quite the look appropriate for England's national poet.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

Bankrupt Trader Auctions Art

Bankrupt trading company Refco won court approval to auction its art collection, including photos by Andy Warhol and Andreas Gursky, to raise money for creditors owed $16.8 billion. US Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain authorized the art auction at a hearing in New York. Refco will sell the art collection at Christie's at Rockefeller Center in New York in separate events scheduled from April through June. The New York futures broker amassed 510 contemporary photos before it filed for bankruptcy protection in October. The photos could fetch as much as 7 million dollars.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

Plug Pulled on Art Baths

Belfast's Ormeau Baths Gallery director Hugh Mulholland has accused the Arts Council of a "scorched earth" policy as the Belfast art exhibition centre was forced to close. He fielded phone calls from around the world, as artists responded to the shock news that the art gallery has had its funding withdrawn. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland informed the chairman of the board of OBG at a meeting on February 13, that the council would be withdrawing funding from the Art Gallery with immediate effect.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

12 Yr Old "Gums" Art Masterpiece

At the Detroit Institute of Arts on Friday, a mischievous 12-year-old boy visiting the museum with a school group took a piece of barely chewed Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's 1963 abstract painting "The Bay," damaging one of the most important modern paintings in the museum's collection and a landmark picture in the artist's output worth an estimated $1.5 million.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

Picasso Damaged In Art Heist

Police confirmed a report that Picasso's "The Dance" was damaged during the heist when a museum guard attempted to wrest the painting from one of the robbers. The multi-million dollar painting by Pablo Picasso was damaged during the daring robbery at a Rio de Janeiro museum and a suspect has been identified, Rio police said. "In his statement to police, the guard said that he had fought with one of the thieves to recover the work and that was when the painting was punctured - he didn't explain the extent of the damage," a police spokesman said.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art


McCartney Sued Over Art Millions

Fashion designer Stella McCartney is embroiled in a family court battle over the proceeds from her late grandfather’s £27.5m art collection. McCartney and six of her relations are being sued for a share of the money raised from the collection of Lee Eastman, who was a successful American lawyer. The seven were beneficiaries of the sale at Christies in New York last year of Eastman’s collection, which held works by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including Picasso, Matisse, de Kooning, Rothko and Giacometti. Although details of the division of the proceeds are not known, an equal share for McCartney would have amounted to about £4m. The battle over the Eastman fortune has been launched by Paul, Peter and Philip Sprayregen, the sons of Lee’s second wife Monique from a previous marriage. They claim their mother built the collection jointly with Eastman and that, as her heirs, they are entitled to part of the money raised from it.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

£30 Million Rio Art Heist

Crowds taking to the streets in masks and fancy dress in Rio de Janeiro provided perfect cover for gunmen to make off with some of Brazil's most treasured paintings in an audacious robbery. They stole works by Monet, Matisse, Picasso and Dalí, worth a total of £30 million, from the Chacara do Ceu museum on Friday night before vanishing among the revellers. At least four gunmen were involved in the heist, she said, one of whom had threatened staff and visitors with a hand grenade and had robbed five tourists into the bargain. Two museum guards who resisted had been hit. The theft of the paintings is the latest in a string of meticulous art robberies in recent years. In August 2004, two masked men armed with machine-guns made their way through the crowds at a museum in Olso and stripped the wall of Edward Munch's The Scream, estimated to be worth £30 million. In 1997, one of Gustav Klimt's most famous works, Portrait of a Woman, valued at £12 million, was stolen from a museum in Piacenza, Italy. The thief used a fishing rod style device to hoist the painting through a skylight without activating the alarm.
For the full story - click the title
Irish Art

FBI Finds Stolen Art

The FBI has recovered 21 paintings, including works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, stolen from a Missouri storage facility in 2002. The paintings were among $4 million worth of cultural treasures stolen from the collection of David and Diane Harter of Florida, which was being stored in Bridgeton, Mo., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday. In addition to the 21 paintings and other pieces from the Harter collection, agents also found 12 other works they said may have been stolen.
Irish Art