Bloomberg profiles new tech startup Verisart, a digital venture founded by Robert Norton, the former CEO of both Saatchi Online and Sedition. that utilizes the bitcoin block chain to authenticate and catalog works currently on the market.  “We think long-term monetization will come through building a verified database of inventory,” he says. “We think that that will enable transactions through Verisart.” (more…)

Germany’s Cultural Minister is pushing to pass a new law that will strictly limit the international sale of works deemed of particularly high cultural value, as well as potential fakes and illegally sold antiques, particularly works valued over €150,000 ($164,000) and/or older than 50 years.  The proposal has seen staunch opposition from a number of artists, including Gerhard Richter.  “No one has the right to tell me what I do with my images,” the artist said this week. (more…)

The New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl offers his take on the “fearful frenzy” of the art market this week, and the ominous notes that the current focus on the market by the über-wealthy strike.  “Alongside global prosperity has come a lot more political instability, and it’s in the interests of the social elite to keep their options open as to where they relocate,” he quotes from Artnet’s J.J. Charlesworth. (more…)

Collector and former MoMA President Agnes Gund is profiled in the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing the state of the market, her focus on female artists, and her organization Studio in a School, an arts program offering training in teaching art to young students.  “If it’s taught well, art really is important to kids early on,” she says. “It helps children develop language and allows them to see themselves in a way that isn’t right or wrong, because if they draw an animal with five legs instead of four, nobody’s criticizing them for it.” (more…)

The Art News published its annual list of the Top 200 Collectors this week, featuring short profiles on the collectors on the list this year, including Roman Abramovich, Agnes Gund, Paul Allen, and Leonardo DiCaprio.   (more…)

The Economist reviews the touring exhibition of the M+ Museum collection, before the Hong Kong museum opens its doors in 2019, and profiles some of the most important contributors to the emergence of Chinese contemporary art worldwide, including businessman and diplomat Uli Sigg, and Guy Ullens, founder of the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art.  “The view was that art and culture were enshrined in the past—that Chinese art was ‘something ancient’,” says Edmund Capon, who served as head of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the increasingly complex internal workings of the guarantor system at Christie’s this week, including a growing number of behind the scenes deals and third-party guarantees or investors that help push works to ever higher prices.  “It is becoming more complex and confusing, and that’s not what you want to have in an art market where prices are at this level,” says economist Olav Velthuis. “With the market expanding and prices rising so high, you want more transparency—but this is resulting in the opposite.” (more…)

Andy Warhol, One Dollar Bill (1962), via Sotheby’s

The results are in for Sotheby’s Evening Sale tonight, drawing the first half of the 2015 market year to a close with a mixed sale that saw impressive strength in unexpected places and a number of major letdowns at the higher end of the sale, ultimately closing on a final tally of £130,376,500, well shy of the £203 million mark the auction house had trumpeted earlier this month, with 9 of the 58 lots going unsold. (more…)

Francis Bacon, Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer (1967), via Christie’s

Another auction come and gone for Christie’s tonight in London, and another set of strong results, as the auction house capped a 76 lot sale to the tune of £95,646,500, meeting expectations, and setting several records for non-blue chip artists along the way, with 10 lots going unsold, including a string of Gerhard Richter works that may signal a downturn in the artist’s market popularity. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010), via Phillips

Sales have concluded at tonight’s Contemporary and Post-War Evening Sale at Phillips Auction House in London, capping a strong outing by the company that saw 10 of the 53 lots going unsold.  With somewhat sluggish proceedings and a few surprises, the auction seems to be something of a stumble in Phillips’ attempts to challenge the larger auction houses this week.

Sigmar Polke, Carnival (1979), via Phillips (more…)

The Financial Times charts the ambitious efforts and long time frame for bringing an artist’s Catalog Raisonné to fruition, the effects this effort can often have on an artist’s market, and the resulting disputes over authenticity of works that may occur as a result.  “The authentication of individual works clearly belongs in the purview of the individual author or foundation,” says Deborah Aaronson, Phaidon’s group publisher, who just published the final volume in Andy Warhol’s Catalog Raisonné. “Authentication is clearly a huge issue with Warhol, so it’s not our policy to get caught up with those things.” (more…)

Yves Klein, Peinture de feu couleur sans titre (FC 27) (1962), via Christie’s

Following strong but subdued outings last week during the London summer sales, attention turns to the Contemporary market in the UK, as a trio of sales this week will usher in the summer months.  The sales start tomorrow, spanning three nights in the British capital, and drawing the first half of the year’s major sales to a close.

Andy Warhol, One Dollar Bill (1962), via Sotheby’s (more…)

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism, 18th Construction (1915), via Sotheby’s

The Impressionist and Modern sale has concluded at Sotheby’s tonight, with 51-lot sale that failed to live up to the auction house’s pre-sale proclamations of a record breaking sale.  The auction brought a final total of £178,590,000, falling just shy of the £186.44 million record for London auctions it was expected to beat. (more…)

Claude Monet, Iris Mauves (1914-1917), via Christie’s

The London summer auctions are underway, after Christie’s opening sale this evening at its King Street location, a steady if somewhat relaxed sale that seemed a markedly subdued affair compared to the fireworks the auction house saw last month in New York.  Capping the 52-lot sale with a final tally of £71,461,000, the evening was still a strong entry in the auction house’s recent outings.  Despite lackluster bidding, the sale achieved a remarkably strong sell-through rate, with only 8 works going unsold.  The auction house seemed content to let a number of works go just below estimate, continuing a commitment to a sales-first strategy outgoing president Steven Murphy had outlined late last year. (more…)

Paul Cézanne’s Vue sur L’Estaque et le Château d’If has been placed under export bar in the United Kingdom this week in an attempt to keep the work in the nation.  “I hope that the temporary export bar I have put in place will result in a UK buyer coming forward and that the painting will soon be back on the walls of one of our great public collections,” says minister of culture Ed Vaizey. (more…)

The once rigid boundaries between commercial galleries and museum exhibitors are quickly diminishing today, The New York Times notes, as top galleries turn towards high profile museum curators to create historically and culturally resonant shows.  “I think galleries do it for prestige,” says John Elderfield, a former MoMA curator who has done independent work for Gagosian.  “It burnishes their image.  Of course, when one gallery does it, another one wants to do it.” (more…)

As London auction houses prepare for this week’s Impressionist and Modern sales, Bloomberg recaps the battles between giants Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and the aggressive stance on auction guarantees that have helped to define the massive prices achieved in recent sales.  “Our profit margin is good,” says Christie’s recently appointed CEO Patricia Barbizet. “Guarantees are risk management and offer an assurance to the seller.” (more…)

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism, 18th Construction (1915), via Sotheby’s

Following the big ticket sales in Art Basel this past week, the art market’s focus will shift to London this week, where a pair of major Impressionist and Modern Evening sales will launch the last two weeks of market activity before the summer months and their lull of activity.  Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s will face off again following last month’s monumental sales results in New York, with a number of extremely impressive works offered, often with equally impressive price tags. (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the impact that the soaring price of the Swiss Franc has had on the market at Art Basel this year, pushing Switzerland’s high prices even higher, with prices about 15% higher than last year as a result.  “Even the bratwurst is unaffordable,” jokes Andreas Gegner of Sprüth Magers. (more…)

In the Courtyard of Messe Basel

As the opening previews draw to a close in Basel today, the 46th edition of Switzerland’s massive art fair and exhibition is well underway, capping two initial days of strong sales and attendance during the VIP Previews that have set a brisk tone for the week’s proceedings. (more…)

Bloomberg looks at the popularity of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms among collectors, and its prominence in a number of major museum collections, including the recently opened Garage Center in Moscow.  “Russians loved Kusama,” says collector Inga Rubenstein. “The work is easy to understand because it’s so beautiful.” (more…)

Outside Art Basel, via Art Basel

The doors are set to open at Messeplatz in Basel, Switzerland this week, for the 46th edition of the Art Basel art fair, the massive fair exhibition that has come to define the early summer months in Europe.  Bringing the massively international scope of the world’s elite galleries, this year’s Art Basel promises another strong outing.  (more…)

An article in Bloomberg this week traces the path of stolen art from theft through to sale, accounting for the variations in strategy by thieves for maximizing returns on what are often considered unsellable works.  “Sometimes people don’t even recognize that the art’s gone missing” says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, head of the FBI’s art-theft program. “It could be in a storage facility, or in the basement of someone’s house, and it can often be years before anyone notices it’s gone.”  (more…)

Sotheby’s has announced that its London Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale, scheduled for June 24th, will lead with Edgar Degas’ iconic sculpture Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, estimated at £10-£15 million.  “The artist’s ambitious and highly innovative work marks the pinnacle of his achievements as a sculptor, and its forthcoming sale represents a rare opportunity to acquire an icon of Impressionist art,” says Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide. (more…)