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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: contemporary art

contemporary art stories: 15 news summaries


 Modest Success 
 at Christie's 
 Cheers Art World 

Hockney breaks record as auction house sells $93.7M

May 14, 09 6:32 AM CDT
(Newser) - Christie's contemporary auction in New York last night went better than expected, selling $93.7 million worth of postwar art—double the result of its rival Sotheby's the night before. The top lot was a 12-foot panorama by British painter David Hockney, which sold for $7.9 million, a record... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • Christie's • David Hockney • auction • art auction • Jay-ZTV

 Art Prices Tumble 35% 


Apr 7, 09 10:22 AM CDT
(Newser) - Art prices went into freefall in the first quarter, as cash-strapped collectors unloaded their masterpieces, the Financial Times reports. Prices dropped 35%, after falling just 4.8% for all of 2008. Postwar and contemporary artists, favorites of the Wall Street elite, have been hit especially hard, with even the... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • Andy Warhol • recession


 Troubled LA Museum 
 Wins $30M Bailout 

MoCA warms to Eli Broad amid reports that director has resigned

Dec 19, 08 7:27 AM CST
(Newser) - LA's troubled Museum of Contemporary Art is moving toward a bailout deal with Eli Broad, reports the Los Angeles Times. The billionaire real estate investor and art collector offered MoCA a $30 million donation contingent on improved performance, which board members favored over a merger with the Los Angeles County... More »

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art museum • contemporary art • Eli Broad • art • museum • Los Angeles • Los Angeles County Museum of Art • bailout • Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

 Auction Houses 
 Counting on 
 Russians 

Buyers prop up industry staggering from economic crunch

Nov 30, 08 1:28 PM CST
(Newser) - With dwindling sales and empty showrooms, art auction houses are increasingly relying on what they have dubbed RR: rich Russians. Houses are hoping the record price drawn by a Kasimir Malevich painting earlier this month is proof that the Russian market will escape the downturn that's affecting other sectors. Of... More »

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Russia • contemporary art • Moscow • art • Sotheby's • Christie's • modern art • Bonhams Auctions • art auction

ART REVIEW

 Huge LeWitt Exhibition 
 Is Beautiful Lunacy 

Mass. retrospective traces artist's work in Minimalism and Conceptualism

Nov 17, 08 12:16 PM CST
(Newser) - Sol LeWitt died last year, but his artwork is still being created—executed by handlers according to written instructions. This weekend marked the opening of a massive exhibition of LeWitt’s wall drawings at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, an exhibition Sebastian Smee, in the Boston Globe, calls “... More »

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art museum • contemporary art • art • Massachusetts • Berkshires • Sol LeWitt • Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

 Major Works 
 Fail to Sell 
 at Christie's 

Dismal auction season continues as Bacon fails to find buyer

Nov 13, 08 9:16 AM CST
(Newser) - The art world bust continued last night at the Christie's contemporary auction in New York, where almost a third of the 75 works on the block went unsold. Not a single collector bid for the highlight of the sale, a self-portrait by Francis Bacon estimated to sell for around $40... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • Christie's • Francis Bacon • Lehman Brothers • art auction • Richard Fuld

 Contemporary 
 Art Goes Bust 
 at Dismal Auction 

Lot after lot goes unsold at New York auction

Nov 12, 08 7:58 AM CST
(Newser) - Collectors from Steve Martin to Valentino packed the Sotheby's saleroom in New York last night, but its contemporary art auction barely pulled in $125 million—far below the low estimate of $202 million. For those who could afford it, works were going at bargain-basement prices. "It was a half-price... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • Sotheby's • art auction

 Hirst Heads to $120M Payday 

Art's bad boy prepares to move in a new direction

Sep 5, 08 1:58 PM CDT
(Newser) - Damien Hirst is preparing for the biggest sale of his life—and for one of the richest artists alive, that’s saying something. Sotheby’s is about to auction 223 pieces straight out of his studio, for an anticipated take of $120 million. It marks an unprecedented end run around... More »

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contemporary art • art • Damien Hirst

 Not a Great Time to Be an Artist 

Top financier predicts sharp downturn in market

Apr 3, 08 5:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - The exploding art market may be about to deflate: New York’s flurry of contemporary art fairs last week had surprisingly good sales in light of the economic times, reports Portfolio, but the president of one of the nation’s most active lenders against art predicts a sharp downturn from... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • recession • art collector • art auction

Contemporary Art Scores for Auction Houses

Sales swelled 36% in 2007; some fear houses too invested in the new

Dec 27, 07 11:39 AM CST
(Newser) - Contemporary art has been very good to Sotheby’s, fueling a 46% boost in sales for the world’s second-largest auctioneer this year over last, Bloomberg says. A crop of new collectors from the US, Russia and Asia brought new records for artists like Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons, for... More »

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contemporary art • London • art • subprime mortgages • Sotheby's • Christie's • Francis Bacon • Vincent Van Gogh • art auction • Jeff Koons • impressionist art

Museum Bids to Turn
eBay to Art

Vermont museum gives celebs $1000 to blow online, then curates finds

May 29, 07 9:16 AM CDT
(Newser) - Ebay as high culture? The Shelburne Museum in Vermont is showcasing the online auction winnings of celebs such as Jerry Seinfeld, Bianca Jagger, and John Lurie, in an exhibition titled "Got eBay? Celebrity Collections Created Online." Museum director Stephen Jost gave a group of big names $1000 each... More »

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art museum • contemporary art • eBay • art • museum • Bianca Jagger • John Lurie • Jerry Seinfeld • Shelburne Museum • Vermont • online auction

(Newser) - A New England museum will display an artist's work against his will, the New York Times reports. Swiss provocateur Christoph Büchel, who recreates environments for visitors to wander through, shut down his show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art after a squabble over budget constraints. But the museum... More »

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contemporary art • art • Christoph Buchel • museum • artist

$72M Sale Shatters Warhol Record

Auction madness continues
as contemporary-art market sizzles

May 17, 07 4:33 PM CDT
(Newser) - An Andy Warhol painting sold for $71.7 million last night at Christie's, more than quadrupling the previous record price for a work by the pop artist. The price for "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," part of Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, more than doubled... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • painting • pop art • Mark Rothko • art auction

Rothko Fetches $73 Million

Record price for seminal modern work marks trend in art purchases

May 16, 07 8:18 AM CDT
(Newser) - Sotheby’s sold a Mark Rothko painting last night for $72.84 million, a record price for a piece of art created after World War II and a signal of a new boom in the market. Seller David Rockefeller bought the 7-foot-tall "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender),"... More »

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art market • contemporary art • globalization • art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • Damien Hirst • painting • Mark Rothko • Jasper Johns

Art Market Fuels Boom in Private Museums

Contemporary collectors keep architects busy designing special exhibition spaces

Mar 18, 07 10:13 PM CDT
(Newser) - Contemporary art collectors, no longer content to hang the Julian Schnabel over the sofa, are commissioning celebrity architects to design special exhibition spaces, complete with soaring ceilings, professional lighting, and temperature controls. With the art market booming, so is the market for private museums, worrying some observers that important works... More »

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art market • contemporary art • private museums • Richard Gluckman • Rene Gonzalez • Richard Meier • Michael Matzan • Julian Schnabel • architecture • art • art collector

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