Jeff Koons

9 Stories

Art Fair Visitor Breaks $42K Jeff Koons Sculpture

Woman tapped on the glass balloon dog, and it fell off pedestal

(Newser) - A visitor to an art show in Miami has learned an important lesson about Jeff Koons' famous balloon-dog pieces: They're not real balloons. In fact, they're made of glass and thus fragile. As the Miami Herald reports, a woman tapped on a shiny blue dog atop a pedestal...

Koons Reclaims Title of Most Expensive Living Artist

'Rabbit' fetched $91.1M at Christie's auction

(Newser) - Jeff Koons hopped back on top of the art world Wednesday night when his "Rabbit" sculpture sold for a record $91.1 million at a Christie's auction. It was the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold at auction, breaking a record set just six months...

After 6 Frenzied Minutes, Art Sale Record Smashed

Bacon triptych fetches $142.5M as balloon dog pops another record

(Newser) - The world's super-rich toppled plenty of records at a Christie's art auction in New York City last night—including the record for most expensive auction, which now stands at $691.5 million. A big chunk of that came from a single painting, a 1969 Francis Bacon triptych of...

Jeff Koons Says He Owns Balloon Dogs
 Jeff Koons Says He 
 Owns Balloon Dogs 
Irony alert

Jeff Koons Says He Owns Balloon Dogs

Artist files copyright complaint against bookend maker

(Newser) - Jeff Koons, the pop artist famous for making shiny, 10-foot-tall statues in the shape of balloon-animal dogs, is now taking legal action against a company that makes book-ends in a similar shape, and a gallery gift shop that sells them. Which is pretty ironic, the New York Times points out,...

Prince Sues Over 'Grotesque' Versailles Art

Takashi Murakami says his works highlight palace's fanciful style

(Newser) - Off with their heads! A descendant of King Louis XIV is suing the managers of Versailles for a "vile" modern art exhibit in the hallowed halls of the famous abode of French royalty. Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme has taken the action to jettison Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami's cartoon...

Strapped Art Market Preps for Auctions

Expectations low as auction houses try variety of tactics

(Newser) - After a 7-year boom, art auction houses are struggling as collectors hit hard by the recession close their wallets. Sotheby’s predicts it will pull in $179 million to $256 million at spring sales, compared to $742 million a year ago. As the spring events approach, auctioneers are employing an...

With Legal Gray Areas, Art Heists Go Digital

Point-and-click age makes for murky copyright arguments

(Newser) - A disconnect between the artistic and legal communities is reigniting the debate over copyright infringement, the Wall Street Journal reports. The law says an artist can adapt an existing work only if the resulting piece is “transformative,” or provides a new spin. “It’s meant to be...

The Best of the Bush Years: Cultural Edition
The Best of the Bush Years:  Cultural Edition
glossies

The Best of the Bush Years: Cultural Edition

Newsweek picks most emblematic TV, music, movies of last 8 years

(Newser) - The Bush years have been their own little era, sparking artistic dissent and encouraging elaborations on new national themes. Newsweek had its top critics pick the piece from their field that seems most indicative of this decade:
  • American Idol: "Like Dubya, the show makes a virtue of its unflagging
...

Contemporary Art Scores for Auction Houses

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

(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...

9 Stories