Hong Kong's particular and seductive Metabolist city planning is an ode to consumption as a great totalizer of culture, and to contemporary art as merely a niche commodity form among many others.
This first edition book of Shakespearean poems was published by Kelmscott Press, the private press founded by the English designer and author William Morris in 1891. This example is covered in an opulent, bejewelled binding from the renowned London bookbinders Sangorski and Sutcliffe. The decoration, set with mother-of-pearl and more than 100 precious stones, takes inspiration from the sonnets inside.
A Rembrandt drawing of a young lion has become artist's most valuable work on paper to sell at auction after it realized a breathtaking $18 million at Sotheby's New York on February 4. The work, Young Lion Resting (ca. 1638-43), which carried a $15 million to $20 million estimate, smashed Rembrandt's $3.7 million auction record for a drawing. Ahead of the sale, it went on view Paris, London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Diriyah, as Sotheby's deepens its presence in Saudi Arabia after staging its first-ever auction in the country last year.
The piece, known as "Tagging Robot," was by an art-shipping firm that extracted an entire section of brick wall from the building at Stillwell and Neptune avenues and transported it to a brewery in Bridgeport, Conn. The Ruocco family, six siblings who own the building, said the sale fetched less than $500,000, with the buyer also covering roughly $75,000 in removal and transport costs.
Jeff Koons is a hit-or-miss artist whose sculptures always give viewers something to talk about. The same isn't true of his paintings, none of which have ever become memorable because there is nothing particularly arresting about them. This doesn't mean that painting is dead, just that his are. A lot of the discourse around his sculptures gets unnecessarily heated, with (often White) critics arguing over whether or not they critique capitalism or celebrate consumerism,
One recent weekday morning, the British painter Peter Doig arrived at a bonded warehouse-a cavernous brick building-about a mile south of the River Thames, but not subject to the import taxes of the United Kingdom. He buzzed through security and entered a windowless white room, where he settled in for a long day. Awaiting him were a series of etching prints that had been brought over from the United States to be signed by Doig before being put up for sale.
Much of the macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainty has not gone away, and there is now the added threat that the artificial intelligence (AI) stock market bubble looks ready to burst. Within the art market, the shift in taste towards lower-priced art (plus a few trophies) seems here to stay as collectors nurse the reality that their "investments" in art have not paid off these past ten years or so.
The contraction of the global art market stretched well into 2025, with the challenging macro environment cited as a key reason behind the closures of several prominent businesses. Middle market powerhouses Blum (with locations in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo) and Clearing (New York, Los Angeles) both shut shop, while stalwart New York dealerships Sperone Westwater, Tilton and Kasmin also announced their closures.
First it was the November evening sales in New York, and this week it was the Miami fairs. It so happens that our Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia is a Miami native who knows the city beyond this once-a-year escapade for art worlders. She was there this week to cut through the BS and see through gimmicks ranging from a revolving library on the beach to Beeple's robodogs of famous men.
A new positive mood at Frieze London. Impressive eight-figure sales at Art Basel Paris. Auctions 30% up at Christie's in London. A record-breaking €90m sale at Sotheby's in Paris. Maurizio Cattelan's $10m gold toilet headlining a much-improved offering at November's marquee sales in New York. For many involved in the business of selling art, this autumn's key trading moments represented a long-awaited upturn in a market that for more than two years has seen sales stifled by geopolitical volatility.
To VIP or not to VIP? The art market is currently caught between two competing dynamics. On one hand, the longtime ultra-wealthy are demanding increasingly exclusive treatment now that it seems everyone (with money) can enjoy the finer things in life. On the other hand, the next wave of the rich, notably younger generations and women, is eschewing the old-school trappings of exclusivity in favour of a more socially-minded approach to luxury.
The proposed tax, which came from the country's left-wing Social Democrats party, would have taxed all inheritances and gifts of more than 50 million Swiss Francs, or about $62.3 million, at a rate of 50 percent. Ahead of the vote, Swiss billionaire Peter Spuhler told Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger that his family would struggle to pay an inheritance tax as their wealth is tied up in several companies, including train manufacturer Stadler Rail, which he founded. Spuhler threatened to leave the country if the tax passed.
You're a painter who blew up after a group show at a blue-chip gallery that is now clamoring to sign you. You've been on the roster at a small gallery that has been deeply committed to your career. Now you can jump ship, but will it turn you into a jerk? Take this quiz to find out if you should level up to the big leagues or stick with the scrappy farm team.
And now he has set a world record at auction. On Monday afternoon (24 November) in Paris, Artcurial sold Reni's early-17th-century, oil-on-canvas work, David and Goliath, for €12.39m (including fees), breaking the artist's previous auction record by a considerable sum. The work's pre-sale estimate was just €2m-€4m and its buyer, according to the auction house, was a private European collector.
