□ Wednesday, 31 Jan 2007

Sotheby's Old Master Paintings Totals $110.9 Million
NEW YORK - Sotheby's two-day sale of Old Master Paintings in New York brought an unprecedented total of $110,993,240 (est. $58.2/100.5 million*), the highest total ever for a sale in this category worldwide1. The top selling lot was a rare, late work by Rembrandt, Saint James the Greater, from 1661, which sold for $25,800,000 to an anonymous buyer. More...

□ Tuesday, 30 Jan 2007

Christie's Increases Buyers' Commissions as Auction Sales Rise
Christie's International, the world's biggest art seller, will increase the commission that buyers pay for big-ticket art, following a move by rival Sotheby's on Jan. 12. More...

□ Sunday, 28 Jan 2007

Record for Hans Baldung Grien Set to $3.7M
NEW YORK.- Christie’s N.Y. held the Old Master and 19th Century Drawings auction sale with a total of $7,884,040 in sales. The top lot was the work by Hans Baldung Grien’s Head of a man, in three-quarter-profile to the left, black chalk, on light brown paper and sold for $3,712,000. This is a world auction record for the artist. More...

Rembrandt's Saint James the Greater Sells For $25.8M
NEW YORK. - Rembrandt van Rijn’s Saint James the Greater was sold for $25.8 million at Sotheby’s N.Y. Important Old Master Paintings auction. George Wachter, Vice Chairman and Co-Chairman of Sotheby’s More...

□ Wednesday, 24 Jan 2007

Artists ponder future of digital Mona Lisas
BERKELEY, California - The world's great art has long been chiseled into stone, painted onto canvas and set in architectural gems meant to last across the generations. More...

Louvre sets another attendance record in 2006
PARIS. - For the second year in a row, the Louvre Museum in Paris has set an attendance record, drawing more than eight million visitors to its historic halls. More...

New Record for Edward Hicks at $6,176,000
NEW YORK. - Christie’s sale of Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Prints & Decoys today totaled $19,963,560 and was 74% sold by lot, 93% sold by value. The sale was led by Edward Hicks’s last Peaceable Kingdom, which realized $6,176,000 More...

□ Sunday, 21 Jan 2007

Stan Douglas Receives $25,000 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA. - The recipient of the inaugural Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award is Vancouver artist Stan Douglas. The $25,000 prize for excellence in Canadian visual arts will be presented to Douglas today by Gerda Hnatyshyn, C.C., President and Chair of the Board of The Hnatyshyn Foundation, at a reception at the Vancouver Art Gallery. More...

Traditional January Sales at Bonhams
LONDON, ENGLAND.- On Tuesday 23 January, Bonhams Knightsbridge will offer an enticing alternative to the traditional January sales, with the potential for plenty of bargains. The entire auction of over 550 pictures and frames will be offered without estimates or reserves and with the instruction 'to sell'. More...

Evidence on Mona Lisa Model Found
FLORENCE, ITALY.- Giuseppe Pallanti, An Italian historian, said he found the last resting place of the woman portrayed in Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa. According to Pallanti, the woman died at age 63 in July 1542. More...

□ Thursday, 18 Jan 2007

Casting Blame for Looting in Trial of Getty Ex-Curator
ROME. — In a move that seemed to gratify prosecutors, lawyers for a former curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles who is on trial here asked on Wednesday that the court admit as evidence a letter in which the curator railed against her former employer. More...

Christie's Appoints Francis Wahlgren
NEW YORK. - Building on the strong business results of the International Books and Manuscripts Department, Christie's is pleased to announce the appointment of Francis Wahlgren as International Specialist Head of the Books and Manuscripts department, effective January 2007. More...

Early American Silver: 1670-1820 at Christie's
NEW YORK. - This January Christie’s presents Early American Silver: 1670-1820 -January 18. The sale of Early American Silver which opens the Americana sales at Christie’s on January 18 is exemplary in that is the first such dedicated sale to be staged at Christie’s in nearly fifteen years. More...

Surrealist Art To Be Featured at Sotheby's in February
LONDON, ENGLAND - Sotheby’s sale of Surrealist Art on the evening of Monday, February 5, 2007 will include 21 works that are together estimated to realise more than £9 million, making this one of the biggest such sales ever staged. More...

Can Museums Play In Today's Art Market?
IN 1961, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York rallied its supporters and snapped up an important Rembrandt painting at auction for $2.3 million. Los Angeles industrialist Norton Simon, then a fledgling collector, also planned to buy "Aristotle With a Bust of Homer," but he didn't have a chance. He was prepared to spend up to $1 million. Bidding opened at $1.5 million. More...