| | Christie's announces sale of the legendary jewels from the collection of Elizabeth Taylor
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Part of a Suite of Kunzite, amethyst and diamond “Triphanes” jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels, from Elizabeth Taylor's estate, is shown in this photograph at Christie's, in New York. It is estimated at $70,000 – $100,000. Christie’s auction house is selling her complete jewelry collection in New York on Dec. 13-14. AP Photo/Richard Drew.
By: Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP).- Elizabeth Taylor dazzled the world with her luminous beauty, lavish lifestyle — and an unquenchable passion for diamonds and jewels that was fueled by the great loves of her life. The late Hollywood star amassed one of the foremost jewelry collections in the world, including a 33.19-carat diamond ring and a 16th century pear-shaped pearl from one of her seven husbands, Richard Burton. The Associated Press recently viewed about two dozen of her most iconic pieces at Christie's auction house, which is selling her complete jewelry collection, valued at $30 million, in New York on Dec. 13-14. "These are the top jewels that Elizabeth Taylor received from the great loves of her life, Mike Todd and Richard Burton," said Christie's jewelry expert Rahul Kadakia. "They're from moments in life that were very dear to her," jewels that were purchased in Bulgari in Rome, at Cartier in New York and at auction. ... More |
| Sotheby's London to sell an exceptional private collection of 20th century Italian art | | Sotheby's Hong Kong to hold Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Autumn Sale | | Acclaimed Hong Kong collection of Ming loyalist art on view at Metropolitan Museum this fall | 
Alberto Burri, Combustione Legno, 1957. Estimate: £800,000-1,200,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Sotheby’s announces that it will offer for sale an exceptional private collection of Italian Art that spans the whole of the 20th century. The collection, Italian Identity, which will be offered in Sotheby’s annual 20th Century Italian Art Sale on Thursday, October 13, 2011, represents all of the major developments in Italian Avant-garde art and is highlighted by the most comprehensive group of ‘Arte Povera’ ever to come to the open market. The collection, which includes pieces by Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Alberto Burri, Piero Manzoni, Alighiero Boetti and Michelangelo Pistoletto, is estimated to realise in excess of £7 million. Prior to the pre-sale view in London, the collection will also be on view in Italy both in Turin and in Milan**. Commenting on the sale of ‘Italian Identity’, Claudia Dwek, Chairman of Sotheby’s Italy, said: “The collecting category o ... More | | 
A "peach" vase expected to fetch US$80 to 120 million. AP Photo/Vincent Yu.
HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong announces that Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Autumn Sale Series 2011 will be held on 5 October, 2011 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Leading the season is a prestigious European collection of Chinese Art – The Meiyintang Collection, Part II – An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Together with a various-owner sale, a total of over 310 lots will be offered with an estimated total value of over HK$1.17 billion / US$150 million*. Nicolas Chow, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia and Sotheby’s International Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, said, “We are pleased to offer this season exceptional objects from a variety of prestigious private collections. From the Meiyintang collection - possibly ... More | | 
Xiao Yuncong (1596-1673), Landscapes, Dated 1645. Album of 12 leaves, ink and color on paper. Each 23 x 15 cm. Lent by The Chih Lo Lou Collection, Hong Kong.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- The collapse of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and subsequent conquest of China by semi-nomadic Manchu tribesmen from northeast of the Great Wall engendered some of the most traumatic events in Chinese history. This wrenching era also spurred an enormous outpouring of creative energy as many former Ming subjects turned to the arts to express their loyalty to the noble but doomed cause of Ming restoration and to assert their defiance and moral virtue. Drawn from one of the finest and most comprehensive private assemblages of the art of the Ming-Qing transition, The Art of Dissent in 17th-Century China: Masterpieces of Ming Loyalist Art from the Chih Lo Lou Collection showcases more than 60 landscape paintings and ... More |
| Curators make hard choices at New York museum memorializing the September 11, 2001 attacks | | China warns museums to tighten security after series of embarrassing thefts | | The Brooklyn Museum installation Ten Years Later: Ground Zero Remembered now on view | 
A "Little Red" doll discovered by Brian Van Flandern on September 12, 2001. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson.
By: Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK, N.Y. (REUTERS).- Curators are making hard choices at the museum memorializing the September 11, 2001 attacks at the site of the World Trade Center's toppled twin towers, aiming to convey the horror of the event without trespassing into ghoulishness. "We're not here to traumatize our visitors," said Alice Greenwald, director of New York's 9/11 Memorial Museum that is due to open in its underground home at the Ground Zero site next year on the 11th anniversary of the attacks. "Monumental artefacts are one thing, but we also have a human story to tell," Greenwald said. Some of the most potentially disturbing exhibits are being set aside from the main exhibition spaces in special alcoves to allow visitors a chance to decide whether or not to view it. It is here that museum curators have placed material such as images of people plummeting from the burning towers after the buildings were struck by airliners hijacked b ... More | | 
A cosmetic case made in 1930-1940 was stolen from an exhibit at China's famed Forbidden City. AP Photo/Palace Museum.
BEIJING (REUTERS).- China has ordered its museums to tighten security after a series of embarrassing thefts, including at Beijing's Palace Museum, and will temporarily shut those which don't meet standards, state media reported on Wednesday. Curators at the Palace Museum, housed in the former home of China's last emperors in the Forbidden City, were left red faced after several items loaned from a Hong Kong museum were stolen in May. "People who have been lured by the high profits attained through the theft and smuggling of ancient relics tend to set their targets on various museums," state news agency Xinhua cited a notice from Ministry of Public Security and State Administration of Cultural Heritage as saying. "Police and cultural authorities should examine museum security systems and improve training for museum guards. Museums should make emergency response plans and conduct emergency drills every six months to improve thei ... More | | 
Michael Richards, Tuskegee Airmen Series, 1997. Fiberglass and resin with iron oxide, 72 x 24 x 19 in. Anonymous gift in honor of Michael Richards, Brooklyn Museum© Estate of Michael Richards.
BROOKLYN, N.Y.- The Brooklyn Museum will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, with an installation, Ten Years Later: Ground Zero Remembered, the focal point of which will be a work in the late Michael Richards’s Tuskegee Airmen Series (1997) and Christoph Draeger’s photographic jigsaw puzzle WTC, September 17 (2003). The works will be displayed alongside two 2002 comment books filled with text and images by visitors who viewed images documenting 9/11 displayed on the first anniversary of the tragic events. Visitors will also be encouraged to view several paintings and sculptures in the adjacent American Identities Gallery, among them the painting Trinity Church and Wall Street by Bertram Hartman, one of the sixty versions of The Peaceable Kingdom by Quaker preacher Edward Hicks, and the sculpture Décontractée by Louise Bourgeois. In recognition of t ... More |
| German Artist Christian Jankowski premieres new film in exhibition at Lisson Gallery | | Portland Museum of Art's chief curator accepts director position at Shelburne Museum in Vermont | | Artists working in various media open exhibition at Nature Morte Gallery in Berlin | 
Christian Jankowski, Casting Jesus, 2011. Dual channel video projection. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.
LONDON.- Lisson Gallery hosts the world premiere of Christian Jankowski‘s new film, Casting Jesus, opening on 7 September, 2011. The film focuses on an audition to select an actor that best interprets the role of Jesus, judged by a jury of Vatican members. Using a game show format, 13 professional actors compete for the role of Jesus. A distinguished panel: Monseñor José Manuel del Rio Carrasco, Vatican Priest; Sandro Barbagallo, Art Critic at the Vatican’s L'Osservatore Romano newspaper, and Massimo Giraldi, journalist and Secretary of the Commission for Film Classification of the Italian Bishop Conference, judge the actors as they complete a variety of tasks including, breaking bread, performing a miracle and carrying the cross, as well as dramatic interpretations of their favorite Jesus quotes. Filmed by Jankowski in the Complesso Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, and watched via live video stream by a separat ... More | | 
Thomas Denenberg is going to become the next director of Vermont's Shelburne Museum. AP Photo/ Shelburne Museum.
PORTLAND, ME.- Thomas Denenberg, Deputy Director, Chief Curator, and William E. and Helen E. Thon Curator of American Art at the Portland Museum of Art, has accepted the position of Director at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Shelburne Museum is one of North America’s finest, most diverse, and unconventional museums of art, design, and Americana. Denenberg will start his new job on November 1, 2011. “From Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography to Winslow Homer and the Poetics of Place, Tom has given our community extraordinary art experiences,” said Director Mark H. C. Bessire. “We will miss Tom, but are thrilled for him and his family as he takes on this wonderful position.” Thomas Denenberg was hired by the Portland Museum of Art in 2006 as Chief Curator and William E. and Helen E. Thon Curator of American Art. He added Deputy Director to his list of duties in 2008. ... More | | 
Xiong Yu, A Long Journey, 2010, oil on canvas 200x 300 cm. Photo: Courtesy Nature Morte, Berlin.
BERLIN.- Gallery Nature Morte Berlin presents ASIANART-SUSTAIN, an exhibition curated by Tereza de Arruda in the framework of the 8th Asia-Pacific Weeks, a biannual forum for political, economical, educational, and cultural exchange between Germany and the Asian-Pacific region. The focus of this year’s Asia-Pacific Weeks are Water, Food, and Health, issues which determined the selection of the artists from China, India and Japan. Working in various media, the artists Sheba Chhachhi, Wang Chengyun, Liu Ding, Song Dong, Takafumi Hara, Takeshi Makishima and Rosilene Luduvico, Vivan Sundaram, Thukral & Tagra, Yukihiro Taguchi, Miao Xiaochun and Xiong Yu address the necessity of living sustainably. They playfully convey our dependence on water, food and health, without which humans could not exist. In many parts of the world, the distribution of these three elements is determined and manipulated by nationality, religion, ... More |
| Rare scented chess set & a Spassky signed board for sale at Bonhams chess & games auction | | Installation works by leading artists Liam Gillick and Susana Solano opens at Irish Museum of Modern Art | | Sotheby's London to host exhibition of Fine Archaic Chinese Bronzes from Compton Verney | 
A Mary Chess scent or perfume bottle glass chess set, Mary Chess Ltd, London, 20th century. Photo: Bonhams.
LONDON.- Bonhams will offer a number of very rare and unusual items in the Chess Sets, Playing Cards and Games sale on the 14th September, taking place in the Knightsbridge saleroom. An unusual “Mary Chess” glass perfume bottle chess set is estimated to sell for £2,000 – 3,000. During the 1930s Mary Chess became synonymous with fine women’s perfume, and a selection of popular scents were bottled in glass chess pieces. Together with a full set of unopened scent bottles, a number of letters written to Mary Chess Ltd are also included in the sale. The Queen Mother owned a similar set and letters from her lady in waiting and financier thanking Mary Chess for the “magnificent chess set” along with a letter from the Queen of Sweden’s lady in waiting thanking the company for the “useful and wonderful products” will all be offered with the scent ... More | | 
Artist Liam Gillick with his work A Game of War Structures, 2011, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
DUBLIN.- Two new site-specific works by leading international artists Liam Gillick and Susana Solano went on show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 7 September 2011. The installations have been commissioned by IMMA for its beautiful 17th-century courtyard, which is at the heart of the IMMA complex. Widely regarded as one of the most pioneering artists of his generation, British artist Liam Gillick presents A Game of War Structure, 2011, a newly-designed version of The Game of War (Le Jeu de la Guerre) created originally by the French Situationist Guy Debord in 1977, while the internationally-celebrated Spanish artist Susana Solano’s work, Carmen, 2011, is a large stainless steel sculptural work which encourages the viewer to experience the emotion that the form engenders as it transforms the surrounding environment. Gillick’s work is based on the war game first produced by Debord who in 1977 ... More | | 
Wine Vessel and Cover, Fangjia, Bronze, Late Shang Dynasty.
LONDON.- Sotheby’s London announces that it will host “Fine Chinese Archaic Bronzes from Compton Verney”. The Exhibition will feature rare works from one of the most important private museum collections of Chinese archaic bronzes in the U.K and will take place at Sotheby’s London 34-35 New Bond Street from November 6th-9th 2011 during London Asian Art Week. Meticulously curated, it features 12 remarkable archaic bronzes dating from the Shang (1600-1100 BC) to the Zhou (1100-256 BC) dynasties, a period of over 1,000 years and will offer visitors to London the opportunity to view a selection of treasures from this prestigious private museum. Stephen Loakes, Senior Specialist of Sotheby’s London Department of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art said: “Sotheby’s is honoured to stage this important exhibition of treasures from Compton Verney, whose collection of ancient Chinese bronzes is i ... More |
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 G Fine Art begins 10th anniversary season with Maggie Michael: There is No Rising or Setting Sun WASHINGTON, DC.- G Fine Art begins its 10th anniversary season with There is No Rising or Setting Sun, new paintings and works on paper by Maggie Michael. An opening reception will be held Saturday, September 10, 6-8PM, and the exhibition will run through October 15, 2011. Michael’s fourth solo exhibition features a group of works on paper – the Danube Series – executed this summer in Cetate, Romania, following the artist’s recent completion of a collaborative large scale mural for the US Embassy in Bucharest, a commission from the US Art in Embassies program. Paintings executed at the artist’s studio in Washington, DC will also be featured. The new work sees a further evolution in Michael’s oeuvre following the introduction of text-based works in her exhibition All at Once (2008). In There is No Rising or Setting Sun, text is both obscured and evident: “I incorporate the negative and p ... More Smithsonian American Art Museum announces Bresler endowment to support curator position WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Smithsonian American Art Museum has received a gift from noted craft collector and local arts patron Fleur Bresler to create an endowment to support the current curator of craft position at the museum. “Fleur Bresler exemplifies the meaning of philanthropy, supporting our craft program through her myriad contributions of time, expertise and resources,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “We are honored to commemorate her and her late husband Charles’s contributions to the Renwick Gallery through this gift.” “The creativity that has filled my life as a Renwick Gallery docent has been deeply satisfying,” said Bresler. “The excellent shows produced and displayed at the Renwick educate the public and fulfill the artists’ desire to benefit generations of viewers. I believe it is important to see t ... More Architecture of the former Soviet Union dominates new exhibition at Blain/Southern LONDON.- The imposing architecture of the former Soviet Union dominates many of the paintings featured in Remains of Tomorrow, Romanian artist Marius Bercea’s debut exhibition at Blain|Southern. Initially these edifices appear like props in a futuristic movie – Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) offers an immediate point of comparison. This is further enforced by the verdant landscapes in which they sit, an environment where bathers plunge into crystalline swimming pools while others stare in apparent wonderment at the giant, modernist designs surrounding them. However, closer inspection reveals the buildings to be crumbling, the whitewashed concrete degraded with age and neglect. And while the skies in some paintings are an idyllic blue, most are an ominous, sulphurous yellow, hinting at a terrible Chernobyl-like disaster, or worse. Growing up in Cluj, the Transylvanian city which has seen a flowering of ar ... More Finest collection of 1960s DC war comics to be offered at Heritage Auctions BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- The highest-graded copies of the first Sgt. Rock and Haunted Tank comics highlight the war comic collection of Houston business executive Keith Marlow, being offered by Heritage Auctions as part of its Nov. 10-11 Signature(r) Vintage Comics & Comic Art Auction in Beverly Hills, also taking place live online via Heritage's proprietary real-time bidding platform, HERITAGE LIVE!(r) on HA.com. "In assembling this superb grouping, Keith Marlow has accomplished something remarkable," said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President of Heritage. "After selling his entire war comic collection through Heritage in 2007, he went out and amassed an even better war comic collection." War comics were very rarely preserved in high grade compared to superhero comics of the same era, making the assembly of a high grade set exponentially more difficult. The collection, which carries a pre-auction estimate at well into six ... More The Baltimore Museum of Art presents exhibition of Baker Artist Awards 2011 Winners BALTIMORE, MD.- The talent and diversity of Baltimore’s arts community is on display at the BMA with Baker Artist Awards 2011, a multi-disciplinary exhibition showcasing the winners of the prestigious $25,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize. On view September 7 through October 2, the exhibition also features examples of works by the 18 b-grant winners and culminates with a free celebratory Late Night event on October 1 at 7 p.m. The three Mary Sawyers Baker Prize winners this year are performance artist Audrey Chen, visual artist Gary Kachadourian, and beatboxer/vocal percussionist Shodekeh. Visitors to the BMA can see a room-size installation of Kachadourian’s intricately detailed drawings photocopied and enlarged so that every wall in the gallery—as well as parts of the floor and ceiling—are covered with life-sized bricks, trees, lamp posts, and other everyday objects. Another gallery features new video f ... More Kunsthaus Zurich extension to open in 2017 ZURICH.- The preliminary design project for the extension to the Kunsthaus Zürich is now complete. The design by David Chipperfield’s multi-award-winning team of architects has assumed its definitive form. The timetable provides for the electorate to vote on the project in 2012, with the Kunsthaus extension opening in 2017. It will create space for a dynamic, regularly changing presentation of the collection of post-1960 art, attractive temporary exhibitions, and the new speciality of French painting and Impressionism. The design by David Chipperfield’s multi-award-winning firm of architects, which emerged as winner of the competition for the Kunsthaus extension in December 2008 and was subsequently optimized in line with the jury’s recommendations, has now assumed its definitive form. During the preliminary design project, the basic architectural concept of the winning submission was refined and adapted to ... More |
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