Art News

This week in Geneva, Sotheby’s auction of the Bourbon Parma family collection of royal jewels made auction history. Containing one hundred pieces, the auction realized $53.1 million, over seven times the pre-sale high estimate of $7 million. Among the collection were pieces that belonged to Queen Marie Antoinette. This auction of historic jewels broke the $50.3 million record established by the 1987 sale of jewels of the Duchess of Windsor.

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's "Indians Attacking a Wagon Train," presents a strikingly dynamic vision of the American frontier. Perhaps best known for his depictions of iconic moments in American history, such as "Washington Crossing the Delaware," Leutze celebrates themes of national identity, Manifest Destiny, and ultimately the American Dream.

Bonhams Fine Chinese Art Sale made over $5 million yesterday, part of their Asian Week Sales in London. The top sale was lot 153, a very rare, large Imperial underglaze blue and iron-red enamel ‘Nine Dragon’ Dish, of the Qianlong period (1736-1795). Estimated at $524,000-786,000, the Nine Dragon Dish sold for $703,490.

“Since I was seventeen, I thought I might be a star”, Basquiat wrote, and at the age of 22 he was thrust into the Contemporary Art spotlight. Join Michael Macaulay, Senior International Specialist, Contemporary Art, in an exploration of four works that highlight how Basquiat channeled the explosive energy of his early street art into the staggeringly intense canvases of his mature career.

With his homeland at the precipice of civil war, Joan Miró was experiencing an existential crisis. What did it mean to be a Spaniard in a country increasingly defined by division?

Christie’s online auction of The Collection of Melva Bucksbaum: Post-War and Contemporary Art, Photographs and Prints offered highlights from the visionary art parton's eclectic collection, ranging from established artists like Man Ray, Cindy Sherman and Agnes Martin, to young emerging artists.

Specialist Hala Khayat explains how post-independence optimism in the region generated a new form of Modernism that transcended borders.

When Elsa Koditschek was forced from her home and stripped of her possessions in 1940, Egon Schiele’s masterpiece City in Twilight was lost to her family as another casualty of the oppressive Nazi regime. However, after Sotheby’s research initiated a dialogue between her family and the work's present owners, the parties decided to jointly offer this magnificent painting in our Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale.

Christie's takes a look at the collective of experimental Gutai artists whose impact on contemporary art is still being fully recognized.

At Sotheby’s Collection of David Teiger auction in London on Friday, artist Jenny Saville set a new record for the most ever paid at auction for the work of a living female artist. Her 1992 self-portrait Propped sold for $12.4 million, far exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $3.9-5.2 million.