The art market may be buoyant in the West this spring, especially at the auction houses (we'll see more this week and next), but it's still winter in Beijing's art galleries. Beijing is the center of China's art market -- of the 1,560 galleries in the country, 742 are in Beijing -- according to a recent article in China Daily. The English-language newspaper, supported by the Chinese government, said that "fewer than 7 percent of the national total were able to make ends meet in 2012," and attributed the comment to Cheng Xindong, director of … [Read more...]

You can't make this up. Some lucky person who purchased a pretty white bowl at a tag sale in 2007 for "no more than $3" has now sold it for $2.23 million. It happened at Sotheby's this morning. Apparently, after displaying it in their home for a few years, the owners -- names undisclosed, naturally -- got curious and took it to Chinese art experts. They recognized it as a Northern Song dynasty specimen. It ended up in the Sotheby's sale with an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. labeled "Rare And Important 'Ding' Bowl Northern Song … [Read more...]

Chelsea, meet Cork Street. Just as that London gallery district is under threat from developers, Chelsea, too, is having its difficulties this winter. And not a double whammy, but a triple whammy. First, Sandy hit last fall. Many galleries have cleaned up and are back in business, but many also took hits to their inventory. Where works could be salvaged, there were conservation costs. All along, partly because of the success of the High Line, developers have had their eyes on properties down there, and many of those who haven't built … [Read more...]

For some time now, London art dealers have been trying to save their Cork Street galleries from developers. It all started last summer, when a parcel of land was sold to a developer who wants to construct luxury apartments there. Then, another landowner decided to follow suit. Many galleries would be forced to move. I learned about it when someone started a petition to the Westminster Council on Change.org. As I write this, about 13,250 people have signed it, and there's a website called Save Cork Street, and protesters held a rally last … [Read more...]

Did you know that Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 terrorists, tried to sell looted Afghani artifacts to buy an airplane? That some 20,000 to 30,000 works of art are stolen each year in Italy alone? That art theft ranks after only drugs and arms as the third highest grossing illegal trade? Noah Charney, right, the art historian who founded the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art, knows all that and more. Recently a talk he gave at a TED conference, badly titled "How To Steal from the Louvre," was posted on the ARCA … [Read more...]

Here's an interesting turn of events. Hauser & Wirth, a gallery that represents such artists as Martin Creed, Diana Thater, Ron Mueck, Roni Horn, the estates of Eva Hesse and others, etc., etc. is adding a new venue: on the edge of Bruton. That's in Somerset, the UK, and as the Guardian recently put it, "eight miles south of Shepton Mallet, convenient for the A303 and Bristol-Weymouth railway line." Yes, this is Hauser & Wirth, which currently has galleries in Zuruch, London and New York. The move is akin to the Museum of … [Read more...]