Paul Gauguin’s Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When will you Marry?) seems to have had its massive $300 million price tag confirmed by the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, which has currently taken the work on loan for a new exhibition.  “Nafea Faa Ipoipo was recently purchased by the Qatar Museums Authority from the Swiss collection of Rudolf Staechelin for more than $300m,” reads text released by the museum, further supporting its new place as the world’s most expensive piece of art. (more…)

Bloomberg profiles a pair of former Sotheby’s employees, Marlies Verhoeven and Daisy Peat, who are launching a start-up “offering uniquely privileged access to every aspect of the art world.”  The company, called The Cultivist, already boasts Marina Abramovic and Rashid Johnson as founding members, and includes an impressive list of museum memberships and VIP access to major art events as part of its annual $2,500 fee.  Offering counterpoint, the publication notes the dissonance between providing “access” and catering to collectors, a distinction that overshadows much of the “privilege” the art world is so often critiqued for. (more…)

Established artists and classic masterworks are increasingly finding themselves in the crosshairs of eager art flippers, Bloomberg reports, pointing in particular to a Francis Picabia that saw a massive 220% gain in price in less than six months.  “Because art is seen as an asset class, the more rapid turnover is considered encouraging. There’s a whole new generation of collectors who are playing the art market,” says Frances Beatty, VP at Richard L. Feigen & Co. (more…)

Marina Picasso is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as she prepares to sell off an extensive collection of her grandfather’s ceramics and paintings, a gesture she feels will help to heal a painful childhood. “Being Picasso’s granddaughter was very hard. I don’t snub the inheritance, not at all, I just want a lighter way to live and to be able to devote myself to my humanitarian work,” she says. “There is absolutely no hatred, no bitterness, no vengeance on my part.”  (more…)

The New York Times looks at the recent trend towards smaller and boutique art fairs, where collectors can experience specially selected works and a more nuanced buying experience. The article focuses particularly on London’s Art15 fair, where a focus on international buyers and new investors has defined it as a leader in the growing market. “We deliberately made it smaller,” says Art15 Director Kate Bryan. “We wanted to create a concentrated, boutique-style event. The demographic of London is changing all the time, and we wanted to respond to that.”  (more…)

CNBC is reporting that the mystery buyer of the record-setting Picasso canvas this month is still at large, refuting the New York Post’s reporting that former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani had purchased the work for a record-setting $179 million. (more…)

Coloring Book, a monumental new sculpture by Jeff Koons, has sold for €12 million euros at a Cannes charity auction that ultimately brought in more than €33 million to fund AIDS research through amFAR.    (more…)

The New York Post quotes an unnamed source disclosing that the mystery buyer of the record setting, $179 Million Pablo Picasso several weeks ago in New York is former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.  “The painting almost certainly will not go on public display in Qatar because of the nudity, even though it is a cubist work,” the source says. (more…)

Galeria Franco Noero, via Art Observed

The doors are open on Frieze New York, marking the early days of the summer art season with a major art event up the East River on Randall’s Island.  Returning for its fourth year, the fair has come into its own as a dedicated staple in the New York Art Calendar, and its presentation this year seems to echo it, with a stripped back tent design that seemed to stretch out much longer than in previous years, but distilled the experience down to only three rows of booths, with the occasional inlet allowing for an enjoyable wander through the space.  The VIP opening launched Wednesday morning for a quiet preview where a number of major collectors and celebrities strolled the aisles, among them Neil Patrick Harris, Mike Meyers, Uma Thurman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Richard Gere and François Pinault. (more…)

A piece in the Financial Times notes that the value of the global art market topped €51 billion last year, an astounding figure that comes as Christie’s topped a $1 billion in sales this week alone.  Featuring in-depth analysis, the article notes the U.S. and China as the top shareholders in market value, and as well as the interesting detail that most dealer inventory rarely moves in under 6 months, despite that current clamor for works on the market.    (more…)

In a single week, Christie’s has sold over $1 billion in art, a daunting feat that signals a new level for the global market perhaps never seen before.  “It’s a spectacle of excess at the highest level,” says Abigail Asher of Guggenheim Asher Associates Inc. “The last few years have been building up to this moment. A new class of buyer has entered the market and they’re prepared to pay staggering sums for trophy pictures.”   (more…)

Francis Bacon, Seated Woman (1961), via Phillips

The Phillips Contemporary Evening sale has concluded, bringing to a close a week full of fireworks and smashed records with a relatively lackluster sales event that saw several impressive sales, countered by a number of less than exceptional performances.  Of the sale’s 71 lots, 14 went unsold, and few others managed to surpass high estimates, bringing the final sales tally to a respectable $97,100,000.   (more…)

Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994), via Art Observed

Christie’s has concluded the first days of Frieze week in style tonight, continuing its impressive performance over the course of the Contemporary Auction week with a strong sale tallying $658,532,000.  Selling 72 of the 85 lots offered, the sale saw several major records fall during the course of the evening, signaling the intense enthusiasm for the contemporary market both in the U.S. and abroad. (more…)

Christopher Wool, Riot (1990), via Sotheby’s

Another night come and gone in New York, and another impressive evening auction in the books as Sotheby’s concludes its Contemporary and Post-War Evening Sale this Tuesday night with a final tally of $379,676,000, failing to top Christie’s impressive auction from one night prior despite some impressive sales records of its own.  The 65-lot sale saw 8 of the works go unsold, for a final sell-through rate of 87.7%, a hard figure considering last evening’s single unsold lot out of 35. (more…)

Bloomberg takes a look at the vast number of fairs and auctions taking place this month, and the growing move by these sellers to diversify as the art fair model matures.  “The best collectors don’t just buy contemporary art,” said Michael Plummer, whose New York-based consultancy Artvest Partners owns the Spring Masters fair. “They might have Renaissance painting and antiquities and modern art.” (more…)

Richard Tuttle, Aspect XII (2015), via Pace

As the New York art world returns home following the Biennale previews last week, the first days of the Frieze Art Fair are set to get underway.  Opening its doors to VIPs this Wednesday, May 13th, the fair brings a number of events, openings and exhibitions along with it, marking the last major fair week in the U.S. for several months, and penultimate major fair week internationally before the slow summer months. (more…)

Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes D’Alger (1955), via Art Observed

The crown for the most expensive artwork at auction has returned to the master, as Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes D’Alger lived up to its lofty expectations at auction this evening, as Christie’s “Looking Forward to the Past” exhibition kicked off Frieze Week (and a week of Contemporary Sales in New York) in grand style, tallying a massive $705,858,000 for a 35-lot offering that saw numerous records fall by the wayside, and only one lot going unsold, on the way to Picasso’s triumphant evening. (more…)

Bloomberg is reporting that Wang Zhongjun, the Chinese movie executive of Huayi Brothers Media Corp. is the buyer of Picasso’s Femme au Chignon dans un Fauteuili, which sold for $29.9 million at Sotheby’s this week.  The purchase is somewhat ironic, given that the sellers were members of Hollywood’s film production dynasty, the Goldwyn family.  “I first fell in love with the painting and then I fell in love with its story,” Wang said after the sale. “I can see not only Pablo Picasso’s genius, but also Samuel Goldwyn Sr.’s creative vision.” (more…)

A recent article in The New York Times reports on the state of photography in the secondary and auction markets, noting that, despite the popularity of the medium, sales for photography account for less than 2% of the global market.  “Many of these new buyers are looking for unique, high-quality trophy art which has been driving prices of postwar and contemporary art to new heights,” says Anders Petterson, the managing director of ArtTactic. “There has definitely been a trickle-down effect of this on the photo market. However, as most photographic works are selling in the lower- to medium-end of the price spectrum and often in larger editions, there isn’t the same allure of this market to many of these buyers.” (more…)

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the California Resale Royalties Act is unconstitutional, but has allowed the law to remain on the books if the objectionable portion of the law is removed, keeping the resale royalty provided the sales take place within California.  Some speculate as to wether this may prevent major auctions from happening in the State.   (more…)

Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1905), via Art Observed

The first night of the bustling spring auction week is underway, as Sotheby’s concluded a somewhat unsteady sale last night of Impressionist and Modernist masterpieces that achieved a final of $368,344,000, well over the auction house estimate of $270,000,000.  The final tally saw 14 of the 64 lots go unsold over the course of the evening, which will be the last major Impressionist and Modern sale of the first half of the year on U.S. soil. (more…)

Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1905), via Sotheby’s

As the art world prepares to jet en masse to Italy this week for the opening of the Biennale Previews, the auction houses are also preparing for their biggest stage of the spring season, with two weeks of major evening sales in both the Impressionist/Modern and Post-War/Contemporary categories set to take place in New York. (more…)

Bloomberg reports on dealer Yves Bouvier, whose arrest earlier this year over alleged price inflation in the $186 million sale of a Mark Rothko reflects the warnings offered earlier this year by economist Ariel Roubini: “There are a number of serious distortions in the art market that suggest that there is some shady behavior going on.  Price opacity in the art market leads to insider information, which makes insider trading in art far more likely.” (more…)

Another article on the Obama Presidency’s attack on 1031 “Like-Kind” Exchanges is on Bloomberg this week, focusing on collector Steven Edlis and his use of the loophole to acquire works he then donates.  “Stefan Edlis has been generous but many people who will take advantage of this will not be generous,”says critic Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art. (more…)