Gallerist Jonathan Green has found a previously unknown pastel work by Claude Monet taped to the inside of another two works he purchased at auction last year. “We were very excited,” Green told the Guardian. “Pastels by him are incredibly rare. These are a pointer to his future. You can see his fascination with light.” (more…)
A rare Bernini sculpture that many historians had thought lost or destroyed has been acquired by the Getty Museum. The marble bust of Pope Paul V will “become one of a handful of the most important sculptures in the Getty’s collection, no question,” says Director Timothy Potts. (more…)
A pair of classic bronze works have been revealed to be the work of Michelangelo, after an extensive research undertaking in Cambridge, a discovery that would make the sculptures the only surviving bronzes by the artist in the world. “They are clearly masterpieces,” says Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum. “The modelling is superb, they are so powerful and so compelling, so whoever made them had to be superb.” (more…)
A series of recently discovered cave paintings in Sulawesi, Indonesia have been dated as 35,000 years old, making them one of the oldest pieces of art ever found, and indicates that early art most likely originated on the African continent. “Our discovery on Sulawesi shows that cave art was made at opposite ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world at about the same time, suggesting these practices have deeper origins, perhaps in Africa before our species left this continent and spread across the globe,” said archaeologist Dr. Maxime Aubert. (more…)
Researchers have proven a long held belief that there is a hidden painting beneath Picasso’s iconic The Blue Room. Using infrared scanning technology, experts revealed a portrait of a bow-tied man, resting his head on his hand buried under the layers of the finished painting. “It’s really one of those moments that really makes what you do special,” said Patricia Favero, the conservator of the Phillips Collection. “The second reaction was, well, who is it? We’re still working on answering that question.” (more…)
An Henri Matisse painting from the collection of Cornelius Gurlitt has been confirmed as Nazi loot, the Art Newspaper reports. A task-force has uncovered that the 1921 work Femme Assise was taken from the collection of the Paris-based dealer Paul Rosenberg. “Even though it could not be documented with absolute certainty how the work came into [Cornelius Gurlitt’s father] Hildebrand Gurlitt’s possession, the task force has concluded that the work is Nazi loot and was taken from its rightful owner Paul Rosenberg,” says researcher Ingeborg Berggreen Merkel. (more…)
A lost Van Gogh has been discovered by tax collectors in Spain, hidden away in a bank deposit box. The work, Cypress, Sky and Country, is dated 1889, and has three seals of authenticity. It was last on view at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum over 50 years ago, and an investigation is underway as to how the work may have found its way into deposit box. (more…)
Ten years of research into the identity of a purported Lucio Fontana painting has resulted in the work’s authentication, ArtNews reports. Le Jour, painted in 1962, had sat in a European collection for many years, with the identity of the artist in question, until the piece was shown to Michele Casamonti of Tornabuoni Art Paris. “It’s very interesting because it shows the physical position of Fontana in front of the canvas,” Casamonti notes. “It also shows how Fontana studies his gestures before realizing them. Preparation is almost more important than the execution, which is instinctive, total, and immediate.” (more…)
A Virginia court has ruled that a Renoir purchased at a flea market for $7 must be returned to the museum it was stolen from in 1951. Paysadge Bords de Seine, stolen from Baltimore Museum of Art, was discovered by teacher Marcia “Martha” Fuqua, and was valued at $22,000. “The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen,” Brinkema said, citing a 1951 police report and museum records. (more…)
A selection of authentic works by Egon Schiele have been discovered in Austria. The portfolio of works were discovered in the attic of a recently deceased man’s home, when his son was cleaning. “When I saw Schiele’s signature on one of the pics I thought it was probably a copy. I never dreamed it might be genuine,” he told local news. (more…)
The recent discovery of what may in fact be the last painting Jackson Pollock created before his untimely death has placed Pollock experts against forensic investigators, with many art historians debating the work’s origins. “I don’t think there’s a Pollock expert in world that would look at that painting and agree it was a Pollock,” says Francis V. O’Connor, a co-editor of the definitive Pollock catalog. (more…)
The Enchanted Pose, a Magritte painting long thought to have been lost or destroyed, has been discovered in segments below the surfaces of two other Magritte works. Using X-Ray imaging, researchers discovered the painting while working on the Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, focusing on the artist’s work. “It’s very exciting. Here is this Magritte that’s been believed to be missing, that was clearly a large and important work for him at one point in time.” says MoMA curator Anne Umland. (more…)
The restoration of artist William Morris’s home in London has uncovered a full wall, Pre-Raphaelite mural, believed to have been painted by Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Ford Madox Brown and Morris himself. The work was discovered under layers of paint, completely unbeknownst to those working on redeveloping the house. “In the morning we had one and a half murky figures, in the evening we had an entire wall covered in a pre-Raphaelite painting of international importance,” property manager James Breslin. (more…)
The Sacrifice of Polyxena, a painting by 17th century artist Charles Le Brun recently rediscovered in a suite at The Ritz Hotel, has been purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the price of $1.9 Million. The museum had searched for a Le Brun for over 50 years, and seized on the chance to own the painting when it went up for auction on April 15th at Christie’s. “No really famous expert of 17th-century painting has ever stayed in the Coco Chanel suite, apparently,” specialist Olivier Lefeuvre said when asked how the painting had hund undiscovered for so long. (more…)
A painting bequeathed to the British National Trust has been identified as a self-portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn, refuting prior beliefs that the work was done by one of his students, or perhaps a copy. Donated in 2010, the work was recently rexamined by Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering, of the Rembrandt Research Project, and who was immediately convinced that the work was by the famous Dutch artist. This new discovery raises the estimated value of the work to £20 million. “Over the past 45 years we have gathered far more knowledge about Rembrandt’s self-portraits and the fluctuations in his style,” said Van de Wetering. “In 2005 I published an analysis of the genesis of the painting on the basis of an x-ray. This analysis and newly found circumstantial evidence remarkably increased the likelihood that the painting was by Rembrandt himself.”
A painting found in the collection of the Bowes Museum in the U.K. city of Durham, has been confirmed as an original work of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. The work, a portrait of Lady Olivia Boteler Porter, was thought to be a 19th century copy after Van Dyck until recent examinations proved it as an original. “To find a portrait by Van Dyck is rare enough, but to find one of his ‘friendship’ portraits like this, of the wife of his best friend in England, is extraordinarily lucky. Although as part of our national heritage values are irrelevant, for insurance purposes it should now be valued at anything up to £1m.” Said Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, an art historian and presenter. (more…)
A collection of thousands of works by abstract painter Arthur Pinajian, discovered in a Long Island cottage, have been appraised at over $30 million dollars. The works, which were uncovered in 2007 when the house was purchased by new owners. Some have recently sold for $500,000, and 50 are currently on view at Manhattan’s Fuller Building.
Several works by painter Francis Bacon have been discovered on the backs of amateur paintings, and are expected to sell for at least £100,000 at auction next month. The works, which bear similar elements to Bacon’s “Pope” paintings, were found on the back of several works by Guildford painter Lewis Todd. Both artists had been given supplies by Cambridge’s Heffer Gallery, but it is uncertain how Bacon’s canvases ended up at the gallery. (more…)
An interior by French post-impressionist Henri Le Sidaner has been discovered in an office of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania School District. The work, which was purchased in 1933 and donated to the school system, has been considered missing for 80 years, and is valued at $500k. “It was really great it turned up and we know where it is now,” said Louise Lippincott, curator for fine arts at Carnegie Museum of Art.
A painting by French Master Charles Le Brun has been discovered at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. The work, titled Le Sacrifice de Polyxène, had hung for years in plain sight in the suite where Coco Chanel had lived for 30 years, but only drew attention recently, when the Hotel closed for renovations. “It is a magical discovery,” said Cécile Bernard, a Christie’s expert. “The painting must have been there for at least 50 years.” (more…)
