Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Art Market

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Art Theft

  • 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 noah_charney“How To Steal from the Louvre,” was posted on the ARCA blogsite.

I say it was badly titled because art mavens like you probably know that the man who stole the Mona Lisa a century ago was ill-informed about the painting’s provenance, and not your typical art thief. Is there a typical art thief? Charney says much art theft takes place because the perpetrator believes the fiction, film and media representations of the demand for stolen art — that there are a lot of Dr. No’s out there ready to buy that Picasso. Not so, Charney says — there are only abut two dozen of them around the world “that we know of.”

Rather, stolen art — even minimally valuable stolen art — finds its way into the barter/trade system of drugs and arms. That, he poses, is why it’s even more critical to stop than if there were more Dr. No types.

 

Hauser & Wirth Takes A Strange But Welcome Turn

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.

Hauser & Wirth Somerset Artists impression, Aerial ViewThat’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 Modern Art deciding it needs a branch in, say, La Jolla. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“This is a beautiful part of the world and also a very creative part of the world,” said Alice Workman, who will be in charge of Hauser & Wirth Somerset. It will consist of a gallery and arts centre which “will serve the local community and town but also act on a national and international level”….

Somerset does not have any significant contemporary art galleries, said Workman. “We’ve got a great arts scene in Bath and Bristol but they are a good hour away.”

Hauser & Wirth say they expect about 40,000 visitors a year to this outpost.

I like the move — it’s bold, has potential to draw more people to art, and aims to inspire the gallery’s artists, some of whom have already used the property as a retreat. It dates to 1760 and was originally a “model farm,” with “a cowshed, a piggery, stables, barns, a farmhouse and land – but most of it is in a terrible state of disrepair with some buildings not safe to enter.”

It needs work, obviously, with the opening set for summer, 2014. Could it be a model?

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Guardian

 

Did Tobias Meyer Really Say This?

TobiasMeyerI have to think that even Andy Warhol — maybe especially Andy Warhol — would laugh at a comment made recently by Tobias Meyer (ar right), the worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s recently. To wit:

“It has the intensity of a great Warhol or a great Bacon.”

The “it” under discussion was the Raphael drawing sold by Sotheby’s on behalf of Chatsworth on Dec. 5. Head of An Apostle fetched nearly $47.9 million after intense bidding. It’s an amazing piece of work that at least one expert I know thinks is Raphael’s best drawing in private hands. And maybe his best drawing ever.

What was Meyer thinking?

Elsewhere in the video, Sotheby’s experts Gregory Rubinstein and Christiana Romalli talk about Raphael’s career and laud this drawing properly as the “most intensely moving, powerful and wonderful drawing” Sotheby’s has ever handled. I wonder what they thought of Meyer’s comment. And I wonder who made the video and actually decided to use that quote.

Meyer goes on to say: “This is the greatest drawing by one of the greatest artists in the world.” Good recovery. But it hard for me to believe that he would make the comparison between Raphael and Warhol or Bacon — more so because Meyer not only thinks it, but said it — out loud, on a recording. There’s no room to deny it. See the video for yourself here (the second one, “Raphael: Renaissance Masters from Chatsworth.”

I asked the aforementioned anonymous, highly respected expert if we should laugh or cry. “Both,” he replied.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Telegraph

 

Raphael — That Old Master — Can Still Exceed Living Artist Record

When I wrote about Getty Museum’s purchase yesterday of Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies, by Lieven van Lathem, at Sotheby’s, I’d forgotten that a magnificent Raphael drawing was in the same sale. It scored a record in British pounds – £29.7 million or $47,869,045. That is almost three times the low estimate (which of course does not include the premium) of £10 million and double the high, £15 million.

The work, Head of an Apostle, came from Chatsworth and according to various analysts is probably headed to Russia. “The buyer was not identified but the winning bid went to a member of Sotheby’s staff who often represents Russian clients,” wrote The Independent. It also reported:

… the 16th century “Head of an Apostle”, a study for Raphael’s last painting “Transfiguration” which is on display at the Vatican Museum in Rome. When the artist died in 1520, his body was laid out in state in his studio with the Transfiguration hanging at his head.

…According to Sotheby’s, only two other Raphael drawings of the same calibre have been auctioned in the last 50 years – in 2009, Raphael’s black chalk “Head of a Muse” sold for 29.2 million pounds at Christie’s in London.

In dollar terms, that picture narrowly trumped Head of an Apostle due to fluctuating exchange rates, but since both were sold in pounds in London, Sotheby’s is claiming the crown.

Sotheby’s reported that four bidders in the salesroom and on the phone vied for 17 minutes for the drawing. The total sale brought £58,061,500 (or $93,513,852) against a presale estimate of £35.6-52.9 million. Seven additional records were set in the evening sale, and it was 74.5% sold by lot and 86.8% by value, Nine works fetched more than £1 million and 11 works sold for more than $1 million. “Of the lots sold, half achieved prices over their pre-sale high estimate.”

ArtFixDaily, meanwhile, also reported that the rival drawing, Head of a Muse, was purchases by Leon Black for £29,161,250 million pounds (then reportedly $47,941,095) at Christie’s in London three years ago.

That was good night. Regular followers know that I like the work of Gerard Richter, but I am still pleased that Raphael beat out his recent record, set in London in October, for the most expensive work by a living artist — an abstract work for £21.3 million or  $34.2 million.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sotheby’s

November New York Auctions: Reading The Tea Leaves

ArtTactic is out with an analysis of the recent auctions in New York, and the situation remains troubling in many ways — which is to say that the numbers continue to suggest that an increasing number of buyers are in the market for art as an investment, not collectors. Long-term, the presence of speculators is not good for those who simply love art or for museums.

According to the new report,

The Evening sales across Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury raised $764,600,000 (excluding buyer’s premium) against a pre-sale estimates of $642,450,000 to $911,800,000. This was 15% higher than the last art market peak in May 2008….with only 12% of the lots going unsold.

ArtTactic sees a “widening” of the market — more players at the high end, because:

A total of 35 works (excluding premium) sold above $5 million last week, compared to 24 in November 2011. If we look at even higher price levels, a total of 14 works sold above $20 million, compared to 3 works in November last year. As a result the average auction price came in at $4,964,935 across the three auction houses, which is a 9% increase from May 2012, but 64% higher than November 2011.

Meanwhile, because great Impressionist and Modern art works are hard to find, the focus has moved increasingly to contemporary art, made after World War II — “which raised more than twice the total of the Impressionist and Modern sales.”

Museums will have to depend even more on cultivating collectors if they want art of the era. Perhaps they usually do, you might argue, but contemporary art collectors nowadays seem to be far more demanding of museums than collectors of other kinds of art.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sotheby’s