AO Art Observed™

Soon-to-be-former Lehman Brothers corporate headquarters

Lehman Brothers may sell some or all of its 3,500-work corporate art collection [Bloomberg]
How the Wall Street firm implosion jeopardizes New York arts funding [NY Sun]
French art dealers, armed with currency arbitrage, settle into Manhattan [The Art Newspaper]
7 artists recontextualise the River Thames [GuardianUK]
Following ‘Pest Control,’ ‘Vermin,’ a second Banksy authentication group emerges [Art Info]
Five 17th century Dutch paintings stolen in 2002 at $4.2M of insurable value are recovered [BBC]

Cubist Still Life by Arshile Gorky, one of the paintings stolen from the Los Angeles’s couples home via LA Times

An unidentified elderly couple of Enico, Los Angeles were at home preoccupied while a thief, or possible thieves, entered their home and stole an art collection worth millions of dollars. At least a dozen paintings were stolen including works by Marc Chagall, Hans Hofmann, Chaim Soutine, Arshile Gorky, Emil Nolde, Lyonel Feininger, Diego Rivera, and Kees van Dongen. Each stolen work was worth at least six figures, some of them closer to $1 million. While the theft occurred in August police waited until September to publicly announce the crime and the $200,000 reward for information leading to the return of the paintings. The couple remains unidentified by police as does the source of the reward money. It remains unclear if was a single thief, or a group. Police are also uncertain if it was a common thief-likely to pawn off the paintings immediately, or a more sophisticated thief with ties to collectors or criminal gangs specializing in pilfered artwork. Art theft is by FBI estimates is a $6-billion-a-year global industry.

Swift L.A. art heist claims couple’s collection worth millions [LA Times]
A Dozen Artworks Stolen from L.A. Collectors’ Home [ArtInfo]
Find stolen paintings, collect $200,000 [Two Coats of Paint]

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Jeurgen Teller and his son via New York Magazine

Art auctionable fashion photographer (and husband to London gallerist Sadie Coles) Jeurgen Teller [New York Mag]
A billionaire’s $4 million, 14,000 sf gallery to sell his mother’s art in midtown Manhattan [Bloomberg]
After her big art event in Moscow, more on Daria “Dasha” Zhukova [Times Online]
Curating the Met’s acquisition of the complete Diane Arbus archive [NYsun]
Police recover final piece stolen during the daylight theft at Estacao Pinacoteca Museum, Sao Paulo [Art Daily]

Brice Marden via the The New York Observer

Artist Brice Marden is redeveloping a hotel in the Caribean island of Nevis [NYObserver]
S&M self-portraiture coming to the Guggenheim with Catherine Opie retrospective [NYTimes TMagazine]
After 30 years, lawyer on trial for attempting to profit off stolen art, including a $29.3M Cezanne [Artinfo]
Fake American Apparel ads in Brooklyn reference Jeff Koons and perhaps Damien Hirst [AnimalNY]
Ed Ruscha’s open-air studio in Venice Beach, CA may become a city parking lot [NYTimes]
The 100% self made custom wardrobe of artist Mike Latham, of Art’s Corporation, features his signature barcode [NYSun]

Tete de Diego, Giacometti sculpture found in apartment, via FBI

On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation posted 137 artworks on their homepage as part of a two year long effort to track down their rightful owners. In 2006, a Manhattan eccentric who went by the alias William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland passed away, leaving behind an extensive collection of art piled inside his one bedroom East 72nd Street apartment. Christie’s has valued the higher-end works at around $2.4M.

Looks for owners of Stolen Paintings [Artdaily]
NY Art World Shock: Stolen Paintings in Famous Collection [New York Post]
Two Years Later, the F.B.I. Still Seeks the Owners of a Trove of Artworks [NYtimes]
Stolen Art Uncovered: Is it yours? [FBI] and a gallery on the website of the recovered works here

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Ryan McGinley shooting for Wrangler Jeans via Radar

Ryan McGinley is making ads for Wrangler jeans (running only in Europe) [Radar via Artfagcity]
Sotheby’s consolidates Asian art auctions from New York to Hong Kong [Bloomberg]
Taryn Simon commissioned by Nike to shoot the Men’s US Olympic Basketball team [SuperTouch]
Stained-glass cathedral window by Marc Chagall is shattered by vandals in France [NYTimes]
The global effects of four major types of art crimes: vandalism, theft, looting and forgery [Art Info]

Andy Warhol’s Muhammed Ali Print via Artinfo

Warhol’s $28m “Athletes” series in Beijing for the Olympics [Macau Art]
Armed thieves steal 15 Antonio Berni works worth $2.2m in Buenos Aires [Art Daily]
New niche for ‘functional sculpture’ or art-as-furniture, among the big art buyers [Independent]
An increase in collectors wanting liquidity in their art by borrowing against it [NYSun]
Western art galleries in Beijing work quickly to cater to new wealthy Asian buyers [Telegraph]
Pretty Ugly at Gavin Brown and Maccarone reviewed the Times, previously covered by AO here [NYTimes]

Snow Scene at Argenteuil 1875 by Claude Monet (1840-1926) via Guardian

On view at Tate Britain: 18 masterpieces recently bequeathed to British National Gallery, including works by Degas, Freud, Monet, worth roughly $200,000,000 [GuardianUK]
The art/fashion, Vuitton/Richard Prince link in London [Bloomberg]
Mutualart.com’s Top Art Exhibitions for 2008 [Businessweek]
French art thief pleads guilty in botched $4.7M masterworks sale, indictment covered by AO here [NYSun] [AO]
2009 Turner Prize judges announced [TheArtNewspaper]
MOMA buys 3 Jasper Johns works for undisclosed sum (note: 2 years ago a Johns sold for $80M) [NYTimes]

State prosecutor, Jacques Dallest, displays stolen paintings via ReutersUK

A Frenchman living in Florida has been charged with conspiring to sell four masterpieces, stolen from the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Nice, France back in August 2007. The Frenchman, Bernard Jean Ternus, was caught trying to sell four paintings, by Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Pieter Breugel, to undercover FBI agents. The four recovered paintings were Falaises près de Dieppe by Claude Monet, Allée de peupliers de Moret by Alfred Sisley, and Pieter Breugel’s Allégorie de l’eau and Allégorie de la terre.

French Man Living in Florida Indicted for Conspiring to sell stolen works [Artdaily]
Frenchman in Florida charged in Monet, Sisley Art Heist [CBC]
U.S. charges Frenchman over stolen Monet, other art [ReutersUK]
Frenchman Charged With Plotting to Sell Stolen Monet Painting [Bloomberg]
French Citizen charged in brazen Art Theft [CalgaryHerald]
Art thieves aren’t just in it for the Monet [Guardian]

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Amy Winehouse via musikxtrema

Roman Abramovich pays Amy Winehouse $2 million to open girlfriend Daria Zhukova’s 8,000 square meter Moscow gallery [Ria Novosti]
Tom Sachs Interview[artinfo] and double show review [NYTimes]
Two Picasso prints ($612K) stolen from Brazil museum by force [Int. Herald Tribune]
Sotheby’s floating $300 million of convertible notes [Bloomberg]
1.27 Million pound record for indian art sale[Bloomberg]
London new mayor keeping art on fourth plinth[artinfo]

via Telegraph.co.uk

Israel’s National Museum opened a two new exhibitions that aims to reunite works of art and their rightful owners. “Looking for Owners” features roughly 53 works on loan from French Museums that were stolen by the Nazis and never returned. “Orphaned Art” exhibits works of which the owners are known to be deceased. The exhibitions have an impressive roster that include works by Courbet, Matisse, Monet, and Seurat.

Israel Museum Displays Looted Art [Associated Press]
Israel Tries to Unite Owners with Nazi Looted Art [Art Info]
Art Stolen by Nazis Shown for First Time [Telegraph]

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Monet’s “Poppies Near Vetheuil”, via New York Times

Monet’s “Poppies Near Vetheuil” and Van Gogh’s “Blossoming Chestnut Branches” were found last night by Zurich police. Cezanne’s “Boy in Red Jacket” and Degas’ “Count Lepic and Daughters” still remain missing.

Monet and Van Gogh’s Recovered [Bloomberg]
Police Recover Paintings [City News]
Art found near psychiatric hopital [New York Times]

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The “most valuable missing painting,” Picasso’s “Maya with her Doll” - courtesy art.com

In the past few months there have been a series of Art Thefts worldwide, in Brazil, Zurich, and Zurich again. These thefts have prompted a series of different discussions and articles regarding the current frequency and history of Art Theft in general. Below is a brief list of different outlets take on the recent epidemic.

• If You Only Steal One Masterpiece per Year [Guardian UK] - Top 10 Stolen Pieces by price
• Where are you going with that Monet? [NY Times] - Inherent Flaws in Art Theft
• Opportunity Makes a Thief [Wall Street Journal] - Justifying Art Theft and its Economics
• Reward beats Risk for Art Thieves [CNN] - How stolen art makes its way to respectable retailers
• The World’s Most Famous Art Heists [Forbes] - Top Historical Art Heists
• The Art of Stealing [The Independent] - Overview of Art Theft Economy ($3bn/yr)
• List of Notable Art Robberies [International Herald Tribune via CultureGrrl] - Timeline of Art Thefts
• How to Steal a European Painting [Slate via C-Monster] - Analysis of Repeated Art Theft in EU

Andy Coolquitt, JSUT, 2007 via Art Review

Galleries worth leaving Chelsea for [Art Review]
Details of 46,000 artworks stolen by Nazis [Bloomberg]
Interview with Armory Show chief Katelijne De Backer [Art Fag City]
Artist Hope Atherton on Peter Doig, soon to open at Tate [Style]
No market for stolen art: art thieves will have difficulty selling loot [NYSun]
Poussin Paintings together again [NYTimes]
Saatchi/HarperCollins join to sponsor a book design competition for Sean Dixon’s debut novel [Londonist]
Top Moscow contemporary art galleries merge [Bloomberg]
The Finnish version of the UK’s Turner prize: More of a marketing tool? [NYSun]

Clockwise from Top Left, Monet’s “Poppies” , Van Gogh’s “Chestnuts in Bloom”, Cezanne’s “Boy in Red Jacket” and Degas’ “Count Lepic and Daughters” courtesy of BBC

Zurich, Switzerland - A gang of masked men threatened a security guard with a pistol and proceeded to steal 4 extremely valuable works of art: “Poppies” by Claude Monet, “Chestnuts in Bloom” by Vincent Van Gogh, “Boy in Red Jacket” by Paul Cezanne and “Count Lepic and Daughters” by Edgar Degas. (more…)

“The Tete de cheva” (Horse Head) Picasso via Daily Mail

Two Pablo Picasso paintings were stolen from an exhibition on Wednesday in a Zurich Museum. Police say that the burglars may have locked themselves into the building before the museum had closed for the night. The culprits broke into the Seedamm-Kulturzentrum cultural center and are thought to have escaped in the middle of the night. In a press conference on Thursday morning, the lead detective announced the case was still under investigation.

Two Picasso Paintings Stolen From Swiss Lakeside Museum [Bloomberg]
Two Picasso paintings stolen from Swiss exhibition, police say [Herald Tribune]

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Sao Paulo police guard the recovered paintings photo courtesy of the Guardian Unlimited

Two suspects were arrested in Sao Paulo for the theft of two uninsured paintings, a Picasso and a Portinari, with an estimated combined worth of $55 million. The works were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (arguably the most important art museum in Latin America) on January 5th and were found unharmed in a home located in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. The MASP has been closed since the works were stolen.

Stolen Picasso Found in Sao Paulo [BBC]
Stolen Picasso recovered undamaged in Brazil [Guardian Unlimited]
Stolen artwork is found; 2 arrested [Detroit Free Press]
Picasso stolen from museum is recovered [Times Online UK]

Courtesy BBC

Picasso Brazilian Burglary Update [BBC]
AP on strong state of Art Market [AP]
Sotheby’s Sales Continue to Rise, up to $5.3B [Bloomberg]
Damien Hirst Goes Solar, spends $3m for his studio in Gloucestershire [EnvironmentalGraffiti]
Did Hirst truly sell his skull? [FirstPost]