A 1903 portrait painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, stolen from a Tokyo home last decade, was reportedly sold at Sotheby’s this past February, Japan Times reports.  The portrait, titled Madame Valtat, had disappeared from its original owner’s home along with works by Marc Chagall and Ikuo Hirayama in 2000.  Sotheby’s has stated that the work had been legally acquired by the seller, and that it will continue to investigate the sale, but the case may prove difficult to fully resolve, as the auction house keeps the names of its sellers confidential. (more…)

The New York Times has published a profile on art forger Guy Ribes, whose remarkably accurate forgeries of works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir are being used in the biographical film exploring the life of the late artist (Watch Trailer).  Ribes, who served several years in prison for forging works by renowned artists and selling them to a criminal art ring, was brought in to recreate works by Renoir, as well as works the artist may have painted.  “It’s funny, isn’t it,” Says writer Jean-Baptiste Péretié, “that the same thing that led to his conviction is what he’s being paid legally to do?” (more…)

The auction of the “flea-market Renoir“, which was purchased by a woman in West Virginia for $7, is cancelled after reporters discover records indicating that it had allegedly been stolen from The Baltimore Museum of Art prior to winding up at a flea market in West Virginia. The original owner of “Paysage Bords de Seine”, Saidie May, had written records showing that she had lent the painting to the museum in 1937. Until title is cleared, the painting’s sale is pending. The value is estimated to be about $75,000-$100,000. (more…)

A Virginia woman’s flea market find may in fact be a lost Renoir. The image, which is likely to be auctioned off at the Potomack Company on September 29th, named “Paysage Bords de Seine” is in Renoir’s catalogue raisonné and appears to have the artist’s name written on the frame. Although it is unclear how it ended up at this flea market sale, it was allegedly bought by art collectors Herbert and Sadie A. May from the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in 1925.

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In auction news, Bloomberg reports on Christie’s 13% sales boost for this past half-year, aided by the sizable profit from various Rothko and Renoir sales. Chief executive officer, Steven P. Murphy says, “clients are driving this, the trend will continue.”

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