Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s extensive art collection, looted by the Nazis during their reign of terror in Europe, is the subject of another lawsuit, filed by his heirs. At issue is an iconic Picasso painting known as “Madame Soler.” The Mendelssohn dynasty included famed composer Felix Mendelssohn and Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn....
Florida socialite Maureen Dunkel, who owns 10 of Princess Diana’s most iconic dresses, is being forced to put them up for auction to satisfy creditors in her bankruptcy case, including the gown she wore when she danced with John Travolta at the White House. ...
Eugene Delacroix’s homage to the French Revolution, entitled “Liberty Leading the People” has been defaced by a “9/11 truther,” raising questions once again about museum security and public access to priceless works of art. The 29-year-old woman used an indelible maker to write “AE911″ on the 1830 painting, one of the best known symbols of the 18th century Gallic upheaval....
Pablo Picasso rivaled other modern-era painters with the sale of a 1932 painting of his “golden muse” for a stunning $45 million at Sotheby’s in London. The buyer was anonymous. The impressionist and modern art sale also included Monet, Edgar Degas and others. ...
Sau-Wing Lam’s collection of rare Italian string instruments will go on display for the first time in the United States at the Metropolitan Museum of Art later this month. The collection includes rare violins by Antonio Stradivari. Sau-Wing worked as president of the Dah Chong Hong Trading Corp., Inc. in New York City, an import-export business. An amateur violinist and violist, Lam bought his first important violin in the 1960s and over the 25 years assembled his impressive collection of stringed instruments and bows....
A Mark Rothko painting defaced at London’s Tate Modern museum over the weekend once again raises questions about how to balance security against the desire to give the public the best experience possible while viewing priceless works of art. A man at the Tate was able to walk up to the Rothko’s untitled 1958 painting best known as “Black on Maroon” and mark a slogan on it in black paint. He was gone in a matter of minutes. The slogan “Vladimir Umanets ’12, a potential piece of yellowism,” doesn't seem to have a direct connection to Rothko or the work....
Financial mogul Jeffrey Gundlach knows there is no honor among thieves. He’s offering a $1.7 million reward for information leading to the return of his art collection as well as other luxury items, including a Porsche sports car, stolen from his Santa Monica, Calif. home. ...
Abraham Roentgen was known throughout Europe for fine cabinetmaking starting in the mid-1700s, when he established his shop in Germany. Today, Roentgen’s works are hailed as masterpieces, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has gathered nearly 60 exquisite pieces, many of which have never been seen outside of Europe, for a special exhibition in New York....
Gore Vidal, one of the last true men of letters, a wit, prolific writer and bon vivant, who move easily in political as well as celebrity circles, has died in Los Angeles after a long illness from pneumonia. He was 86. Nephew Burr Steers said Vidal died at his Hollywood Hills home yesterday (July 31) in the early evening. Vidal had been in failing health for "quite a while," he said....
How about this for a lunch? Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick and Victoria Jackson sitting around a table plotting petty crimes in “Family Business,” the woefully underrated 1989 Sidney Lumet picture. The world often revolves around lunch, whether it’s a power lunch at The Palm or as simple as a cheeseburger and fries on the run. The New York Public Library examines the ritual in a new special exhibit....
New York billionaire Leon Black spent $120 million in 12 minutes of furious bidding to become the proud owner of one of four copies of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece “The Scream.” TheImproper reported in February that Sotheby’s auction house in New York would sell the painting to the highest bidder in May. It was considered the ultimate prize for collectors of pre-expressionist 19th Century art, or any art for that matter....
George Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution so it was only natural that he got a copy of the august document and its attendant Bill of Rights, both of which just fetched $9.8 million at Christie's in New York on Friday (June 22)....
Ray Bradbury, who inspired the imaginations of countless readers with his tales of starships and life on distant planets, as well as provoking political commentary in his books, has died at 91. No immediate details concerning his death were available....
Artist Richard Phillips, has returned to his muse, yes, Lindsay Lohan, for a second 90-second “motion portrait” of the actress that plays off of sun, sand and water. It’s a follow-up to a similar project last year with similar themes....
The art market shows no signs of cooling off after record sale prices in the past week for works like Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis,” Roy Lichtenstein’s “Sleeping Girl,” and Mark Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow.”...
A bottle of 1820 A. De Luze et Fils grand fine champagne cognac is one of the highlights of a fine wine auction in Boston next month. Also featured will be wines from Bordeaux, Napa, Burgundy and the Champagne region of France. The two-part live and online auction, May 4 through May 13, will feature more than 950 lots....
A painting by the French artist Paul Cezanne, worth an estimated $100 million, has been found relatively unscathed four years after it was stolen at gunpoint from a Swiss museum by three masked robbers. The painting, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, was one of four stolen from the E. G. Buehrle Collection in Zurich in 2008 by three robbers who burst in just before closing time and told staff to lie on the floor while hand-picked the paintings to steal....
Albrecht Dürer is German's dominant artist from a period spanning almost 300 years in Central European development. But a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases the works of other who shaped German, Swiss, Austrian, and early Bohemian drawings. The exhibition of artists were active before 1700 in the Holy Roman Empire runs from Apr. 3 through Sept. 3, 2012....
Elvis Presley has been worth more dead than he ever was in his lifetime, but the late pop artist Andy Warhol could send the King of Rock through the stratosphere. A Warhol painting of Elvis is expected to fetch an astronomical sum at auction. Presley is garbed in cowboy duds, with a six-gun drawn. Sotheby's described him as "a Hollywood icon of the '60s rather than the rebellious singer who shook the world of music."...
The unsinkable H.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg, sunk in just over two hours and lay undisturbed in the North Atlantic seabed for seven decades. Now more than 5,500 artifacts and the ship itself is up for auction in an unprecedented sale. The famous shipwreck, which reaches its centennial this year, yielded fine china, silverware, clothing, diamond jewelry and other personal items, decorative items from the boat, and even pieces of the ship, according to RMS Titanic Inc., a division of Premier Exhibitions....
