News & Notes
April 2007
►In a deal reported to exceed $1 billion, France will give the Louvre name to Louvre Abu Dhabi, |
Rendering of Louvre Abu Dhabi. |
►According to published reports, the first known painting by Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca (1422–92) was located in Chile. The painting, last seen in 1940, was found by organizers of an exhibition in Arezzo, Italy.
►In March, a U.S. grand jury indicted Massachusetts attorney Robert Mardirosian for possessing seven paintings he received from a thief shortly after they were stolen in 1978. The value of the paintings—five of which have been recovered and returned to the original owner—is estimated at $30 million.
►In a first for The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, Netherlands, both Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses had a presence at the fair. Sotheby’s bought Maastricht-based Noortman Master Paintings last June, and King Street Fine Art is owned by Christie’s.
►A dozen lithographs estimated at $250,000 were stolen from a car in San Francisco in February. A signed and numbered reproduction of Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Monroe” is among the missing works.
►By the end of 2008, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will complete its purchase of 1,700 lithographs, etchings, relief prints and screen prints by Jasper Johns (b. 1930).
►Robert Fitzpatrick, Pritzker Director and CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago for 10 years, plans to leave the museum in 2008.
►Forever International Auction Company Limited in Beijing, licensee of the Christie’s name in China, appointed Paul Dong Jun as its general manager in March.
►Picasso collector and friend Heinz Berggruen, 93, died Feb. 23, 2007, in France. His collection of the Spanish master’s works number more than 130.
►The William Penn Foundation has issued a three-year grant to the Library Company of Philadelphia toward “Philadelphia on Stone: The First Fifty Years of Lithography,” an exhibition and digital catalogue of more than 800 views of Philadelphia.
►Romare Bearden Foundation in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago are among recipients of grants totaling $120,000 from the Terra Foundation for American Art. For more information, visit www.terraamericanart.org.
►Willard Holmes announced in February that he is leaving his position of director at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., after four years.
►More than 100 Chelsea art galleries exhibited at New York’s art fairs in February, accounting for one-fourth of all galleries exhibiting.
►In February, the Miami-based Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) announced 13 mid-career and emerging artists for its 2007 Grants and Commissions programs. For more information, visit www.cifo.org.
►In February, Bonhams & Butterfields appointed K. Scott Rodolitz as Senior Consultant of the auction house’s new African & Oceanic Art division, to be based in San Francisco. An inaugural sale is planned for fall 2007.
►The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in February named Dutch-born and London-based dealer Ben Janssens Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chairman Antiquairs of the Board of Trustees of TEFAF. Janssens succeeds Dave Aronson, who had recently died.