A Long Island art seller is being sued by a pair of galleries after allegedly losing a $3 million Degas sculpture.  Rose Ramsey Long accompanied a set of works earlier this year to San Francisco, where real estate mogul Luke Brugnara was supposed to purchase them.  However, Long left the works in an empty house as Brugnara directed, and when Brugnara was arrested for fraud in the sale, the Degas sculpture had disappeared.   (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…)

Experts have identified a work found in a private Swiss collection to be a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, which has been considered lost for over 500 years. The portrait, depicting noblewoman Isabella D’Este, is believed to have been painted by Da Vinci and several of his assistants.  “There are no doubts that the portrait is Leonardo’s work,” said Carlo Pedretti, an emeritus professor of art history at the University of California. (more…)

A recently discovered painting has been confirmed as an authentic Van Gogh, and is set to go on view at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam later this month.  The work, Sunset at Montmajour, was identified as a Van Gogh by the materials and through personal letters, in which the artist describes the work to his brother Theo.  The work had sat in an attic for years, held by a discouraged Norwegian man who had been told the work was not authentic almost twenty years prior.  Researcher Teio Meedendorp commented that he and his fellow researchers “have found answers to all the key questions, which is remarkable for a painting that has been lost for more than 100 years.” (more…)