Early estimates claim that the Giacometti sculpture Looking Forward to the Past may smash its just recently set record of over $100 million next month at Christie’s Modern Sale in New York, with speculation that the work may achieve a final price of at least $130 million.  “It’s Giacometti saying: ‘Move forward! The war is behind us,’” Jussi Pylkkanen says of the work. “It’s the sculpture that symbolizes the future.” (more…)

Giuseppe Penone, Earth on Earth – Face (2014), via Marian Goodman

The New York outpost of Marian Goodman Gallery is currently presenting an exhibition of new works by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone, continuing the artist’s practice of casting living trees in order to reposition his subject’s relationship to the natural world.  The exhibition, curated by Dieter Schwarz, director of the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, also culls a series of historically resonant works from the artist’s early career, extending a natural progression throughout the last 40 years of the artist’s practice. (more…)

Giuseppe Penone, Le Corps D’Un Jardin (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

Leading up to a major installation of sculptures at the Chateau de Versailles in Paris, Giuseppe Penone and Marian Goodman Gallery are presenting a selection of past works by the artist, exhibiting a selection of works playing on themes of nature, flux, space and texture.  Consisting of large sculptures and wall-mounted works, Penone explores the interplay of  gesture and movement within the relatively static forms of the artistic practice, and the elegant exchange between nature and man’s depictions of it.

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A work depicting Saint Helen in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum has been revealed as a Tintoretto.  Previously credited to Schiavone, The Embarkation of St Helena to the Holy Land was discovered as a misattribution during a digitization of the museum’s records.  National Inventory Research Project director Andrew Greg said: “Non-British paintings are sometimes a comparatively neglected aspect of a museum’s collections and we also recognised that few museums have complete up-to-date catalogues of their picture collections. (more…)

Late art historian and collector Denis Mahon has left 57 works, valued at over £100 million, to the British nation, including many works by Italian masters Guercino, Guido Reni and Luca Giordano, under one condition: Britain must never sell them or charge admission for their viewing.  Mr. Mahon reportedly built his collection without paying more than £2,000 for most of his works, and was adamant on their public accessibility.  If these conditions are not met, public arts institution The Art Fund is legally able to take them back; an attempt to “keep up the pressure for governments to do the right thing by museums and galleries” says Art Fund Chief Executive Stephen Deuchar. (more…)

Massimiliano Gioni, the 39-year old director of special exhibitions at the New Museum in New York, sat down with the Wall Street Journal recently to discuss his upcoming position as the youngest curator for the Venice Biennale in one hundred years, his history of innovative exhibitions, and his inclusive take on conceptual and contemporary art.  “We need to remind ourselves that contemporary art is first of all a form of conceptual gymnastics, in which we learn to coexist with what we don’t understand,” he says. (more…)

A trove of 100 paintings and drawings possibly by Renaissance master Caravaggio is discovered in a castle in Milan. Worth a reported €700 million – the discovery is the subject of much contention as the authenticity of the collection remains uncertain.

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