Art Finds...and Fakes

Stories

15 Stories

July 2008
- Cruise Ship Art Dealer Faces Class Action
  
  New York Times | Jul 16, 08 6:07 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Park West Gallery in Southfield, Mich., claims to be "the world's largest art dealer," flogging more works than the major auction houses through its sales on half a dozen cruise lines. But while the onboard auctions promise "good investments," the New York Times reports that Park West is selling works at tremendously inflated prices. Now the gallery is facing a class-action lawsuit by disgruntled collectors. More »
- Tab Claims It's ID'd Graffiti Artist Banksy
  
  Mail on Sunday (UK) | Jul 14, 08 10:56 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - An exhaustive investigation has uncovered the carefully guarded identity of guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy, the Mail on Sunda y claims. The man whose works are coveted by celebrities and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars is Robin Gunningham, now 35, who attended a posh private school as the son of middle-class parents in Bristol, in the west of England. More »
June 2008
- 'Fake' Rembrandt a Real $40M Self-Portrait
  
  Associated Press | Jun 19, 08 3:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A self-portrait formerly considered a Rembrandt knockoff has been deemed a genuine early work of the Dutch master—and valued at $40 million. Rembrandt Laughing , executed on a small copper plate, was examined by Holland's leading Rembrandt experts. A British art collector purchased the work late last year for $4.5 million from an auction house that had appraised it at $3,100. More »
May 2008
- Greek Claims 'Last' Van Gogh
  
  Guardian (UK) | May 19, 08 6:35 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A painting under examination in Greece is being billed as the last work of Vincent van Gogh, the Guardian reports. Seized by the Nazis from French Jews, then "liberated" by Greek resistance fighters in 1944, the work appears to be a third portrait of van Gogh’s physician, Dr. Gachet—though a notebook found with the portrait has been dismissed as not van Gogh's. More »
April 2008
- Classic Painting May Not Be Goya's
  
  Independent (UK) | Apr 14, 08 8:28 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Madrid's Prado Museum tomorrow opens a major exhibition, Goya in Times of War , but while the show will contain many of the master's most famous paintings from the Napoleonic invasion, his major 1808 work The Colossus has been withdrawn. The reason? After two centuries, art historians say the work might not be Goya's at all. More »
- Art Dealer Larry Salander Trials
  
  Portfolio | Apr 1, 08
  
  Looking back now, friends say that it was clear last summer that something was bothering Larry Salander. He had stopped returning their phone calls, and many hadn’t spoken to him or seen him in months. Those who had run into him on the street or seen him briefly at Salander-O’Reilly, his gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, were struck by how haggard he looked. He seemed distracted and tense, "totally wired," one artist and longtime friend recalls.
March 2008
- Beloved Brit Painting Once Owned by Hitler
  
  Guardian (UK) | Mar 28, 08 11:17 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A nude painting of Venus on display in London's National Gallery for 45 years—one of the gallery's most popular works—turns out to have been once owned by Adolf Hitler. The whimsical Cupid Complaining to Venus, by German master Lucas Cranach, was given to Hitler by a prominent Nazi and hung in his apartment in Munich, the Guardian reports. More »
- New Keller Photo Surfaces
  
  Associated Press | Mar 5, 08 8:20 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A rare photo of a young Helen Keller accompanied by teacher Anne Sullivan in 1888 has surfaced among a family collection donated to the New England Historic Genealogical Society. The photo, which was tucked away in an album, may be the first taken of the two and the only to show Keller with one of her beloved dolls, the AP reports. More »
February 2008
- Old Chess Guide May Have Drawings From Da Vinci
  
  BBC | Feb 27, 08 6:51 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Sections of a recently unearthed manuscript, dating back to about 1500 and describing chess strategy, were likely illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, the BBC reports. The book, De ludo scacchorum , is a collection of puzzles by Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli, a friend of da Vinci's. The striking illustrations are in da Vinci's style. More »
January 2008
- Experts Check Out Supposed Van Gogh Sketchbook
  
  Reuters | Jan 16, 08 6:37 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Experts will take a look at a sketchbook said to be Vincent van Gogh's, Reuters reports, to determine its authenticity. The book was found by Greek writer Doreta Peppa, who said it was taken from a Nazi train by her father, a resistance fighter. The book contains several sketches that appear to be studies for some of the artist's most well-known paintings. More »
December 2007
- Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Dec 12, 07 12:37 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A British art historian who bought a misattributed painting at auction last year has demonstrated it is the work of Caravaggio. The Telegraph reports that Sotheby's sold what it thought was a copy of The Card Sharps , one of Caravaggio's most famous works that currently hangs at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, for $100,000. But after a year's research, experts have concluded the work is an earlier version by the master himself. More »
- Gauguin Sculpture a Fake
  
  Associated Press | Dec 12, 07 12:03 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - After a decade on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, a ceramic figure allegedly sculpted by Paul Gauguin was revealed yesterday to be a fake. The museum discovered 'The Faun,' a half-man, half-goat figure, to be the work not of the 19th century French artist, but of a British family notorious for producing art forgeries, the AP reports. More »
- Michelangelo Sketch Turns Up at Vatican
  
  BBC | Dec 7, 07 4:25 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A red chalk drawing, possibly Michelangelo's last before his death at 88, has been found in a Vatican archive after nearly 500 years. The sketch is a plan for the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, which Michelangelo was put in charge of in 1546, the BBC reports. A researcher "happened upon this little sketch, which he believes is by the hand of Michelangelo," the head of the archives told the AP. More »
November 2007
- Mama Mia! 400-Year-Old Table Found in Pizzeria
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Nov 29, 07 6:15 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A 17th-century cabinet expected to fetch up to $2 million at auction has an unlikely provenance: its long-missing bottom half was discovered outside the bathrooms at a pizza parlor. The Telegraph reports that the cabinet, which depicts St. Peter's Square and other images of Rome, was missing the carved wooden table that it stands upon for at least 20 years before a Sotheby's specialist located it at a pizzeria in northern England. More »
August 2007
- New Van Gogh Surfaces
  
  Associated Press | Aug 3, 07 6:20 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A previously undiscovered Van Gogh has been found hiding in plain sight—beneath another painting. Conservators at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts X-rayed The Ravine , revealing another painting created several months earlier, the MFA and the Van Gogh Museum said today. A pen-and-ink drawing of the concealed painting, Wild Vegetation, is in the Amsterdam institution. More »