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…)

A masterwork piece by Joseph Turner, depicting a view of the city of Rome from Mount Aventine, will go on sale at Sotheby’s in London this December.  The piece, estimated to sell for £20 million, has remained in the same family for nearly two hundred years, and was only sold once before, setting a then-record auction price of £6,000.  “This painting, which is nearly 200 years old, looks today as if it has come straight from the easel of the artist; never relined and never subject to restoration, the picture retains the freshness of the moment it was painted: the hairs from Turner’s brush, the drips of liquid paint which have run down the edge of the canvas, and every scrape of his palette knife have been preserved in incredible detail,” says Sotheby’s Old Masters head Alex Bell. (more…)