Arthur Brand, the Dutch private investigator working on locating works from the the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist has stated that he believes some works are in the hands of former IRA members, the Daily Mail reports, and is confident he can bring at least some of the works home. “Former IRA sources have told me or people that I know that there has been talk about these paintings for years within the IRA,” he says.  
Read More »

A report by non-profit group Americans for the Arts has figures claiming that the revenue generated nationwide by arts funding sits at $166.3 billion.  “Arts and cultural organizations are valued members of the business community. They employ people locally, purchase goods and services from within the community, are members of their Chambers of Commerce, and promote their regions,” the report reads.  
Read More »

The New York Times writes on Jeff Koons’s bouquet of flowers sculpture for Paris, intended as a gift to the city in the wake of terrorist attacks, and on the strings attached to the gift that have complicated its installation process. “They presented this bouquet as a symbolic present to Paris, but then we realized it wasn’t exactly a present, since France had to pay to install it,” says art critic Isabel Pasquier. “Whether you appreciate his art or not, Jeff Koons is a businessman, and we quickly understood that he was offering Paris to himself as a present.”
Read More »