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A €120 million Caravaggio painting was forgotten in a Toulouse attic.
It all started because of (or rather, thanks to) a water leak in the attic of a country house, not far from Toulouse. After rummaging through that forgotten place, they discovered an ancient painting: in Paris, they're certain it's a Caravaggio. The discovery was made in April 2014 and then kept secret. Experts from the Eric Turquin company subsequently analyzed the painting: they found it beyond doubt, authentic. They will present it to the press today. It depicts Judith and Holofernes and is similar to another Caravaggio canvas, displayed at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome (Palazzo Barberini). This time, however, the woman, who manages to thwart the threat of an Assyrian invasion of the Holy Land by beheading the enemy general, is dressed in black (and not white, as in the previously known painting) and has a disturbing, frontal gaze. According to French experts, the newly discovered painting dates back to 1604-1605, while the previously known one was created in 1599. Further investigations are still ongoing, but its authenticity is confirmed by another piece: the copy of this painting (the version with Judith dressed in black) made by Louis Finson, a Flemish painter, in the early 17th century. This painting is now owned by Banca Intesa San Paolo and is displayed at Palazzo Zevallos in Naples. Lanson's will included a Caravaggio painting of Judith and Holofernes. But how did the painting end up in that attic in deepest France? An ancestor of the family that owned the house followed Napoleon to Italy as an officer. The painting would have remained there forever, completely forgotten. "And today it is in an exceptional state of preservation," assure Eric Turquin's experts. The French state is taking the matter seriously. It has declared the canvas a "national treasure," with a thirty-month ban on exporting it. The Louvre is already making arrangements to purchase it. Funds are lacking (its estimated value is €120 million), but the Parisian museum has begun seeking private sponsors.
Origin of the market and origin of collecting
The origins of the art market and the history of collecting date back centuries to classical antiquity. It is well known that ancient Greece was characterized by a great flourishing of the arts, but this was essentially linked to state commissions of works for the city, the polis . But since what interests us most is collecting in its private rather than public form, we must immediately leap forward and refer to classical Rome , because it is there that the taste for collecting and antiques originated. In particular, what we observe is the development, in late antiquity (around 200 BC), within the context of relations between Rome and Greece , of a significant demand for Greek statues by the Roman ruling classes. Thus, spurred by collectors' demand, the industry of replicas of Greek statuary masterpieces from the previous two centuries began to develop (which would create, in the centuries to come, no small number of problems for archaeologists who would find themselves having to distinguish between the small number of original pieces and the enormous quantity of copies discovered). This trade in art objects, of which we find evidence in some documents of Latin literature, such as the letters of Cicero, led to the birth of some infamous collections of which we have news, such as that of Caesar, Pompey, Sulla, Brutus, Lucullus and others. At the same time, the first figure of expert, intermediary and exporter appears, as well as the first price lists, which had the function of regulating this type of transaction. During the Middle Ages, with the advent of Christianity, artistic production was entirely managed by the Church's commissions, and artist-craftsmen, completely dependent on this monopoly, were active exclusively in monastic workshops, convent workshops, and on the construction sites of large churches. In this situation, it is obvious that the art trade declined enormously (although collecting did not disappear entirely) and flourished again only towards the second half of the 14th century , to fully reassert itself during the Renaissance. We will now focus on examining this period in more depth [1] , because it heralds one of the moments of greatest fertility in artistic production and the collecting connected to it. Therefore, let us try to understand roughly what were the conditions that determined this phenomenon. In the late Middle Ages, artistic production was linked to two new types of demand : on the one hand, that of the emerging urban bourgeoisie , and on the other, that of the manorial aristocracy. Let's analyze them one at a time. The resurgence of cities and the development of the monetary economy, combined with the purchasing power of the bourgeoisie, which established itself as a private clientele for artistic products, brought the secular element back into art. The emergence of this new demand allowed artists to break free from the ecclesiastical monopoly, which kept them tied to construction sites, and to establish themselves in the cities as independent masters, working in workshops . Around 1300, this concentration of artists in the cities saw the birth of guilds , autonomous organizations (which had already existed for centuries within other professions), which essentially served to combat the threat of competition. These guilds, in turn, evidently tended to assume a monopolistic character. The requests, which at a certain point arrived in the hundreds and thousands, from the nascent bourgeoisie and which corresponded, on the one hand, to their taste and purchasing power, and on the other, to the production capacity of these artisanal industries, the workshops. They also brought about a change in style, which became less solemn, lighter and more refined, more dynamic and lively, even in the use of different materials. Thus, the demand itself would lead to a conception of the painting as a wall ornament, and of the statue as a decorative object. It is important to note that the production of these guilds did not yet reach a high artistic level, but remained at the level of craftsmanship, that is, of trade. However, the important thing was that the artisans in question achieved a high level of autonomy , in this transition from the construction site to the workshop as an artisanal enterprise, which nevertheless represents a first step towards the future state of freedom of the modern artist. What purpose does it serve us to historically reconstruct the artist's conquest of freedom, and his progressive liberation from various types of monopolies? It is essential to us, and essential to our reflection on the relationship between art, economy, society, and culture that underpins collecting, the market, and art as a system. Let us therefore focus our attention on a fact inextricably linked to the origins of the developing contemporary art collecting movement, and that is the beginning of the social transformation of artists . Until this point, in fact, there was no distinction between artist and craftsman, and this was primarily because painting was included among the "mechanical arts," in which manual skill prevailed, considered opposite and inferior to the "liberal arts," based on thought. This distinction, which originated in Greek culture, was reiterated by medieval culture: while the "liberal arts," which included poetry, music, and philosophy, were immaterial activities, pure exercise of the mind, and were therefore considered "free," "material" activities, requiring a certain physical manipulation of this or that material, and therefore "mechanical" or "servile," were considered unworthy of free men. This is why artists occupied a low social status until the 14th century. It was with the rise of courts and lordships that artists began to occupy a different social position from that of artisans. At a certain point, artists began to be considered inventors and engineers , creators, unlike artisans who were instead executors (responding exclusively to market conditions). This recognition underpinned the phenomenon whereby artists were incorporated into the courts and, within the great families of the aristocracy and clergy, into a relationship of belonging to the family itself, which granted them unprecedented privileges. It should be noted that this was not a sudden and immediate change, but rather a long and gradual process. Many of these artists within the courts were still, in effect, treated on a par with specialized craftsmen, whose compensation depended largely on the quality and value of the materials used. What is interesting, however, is that some of them, instead, achieved a very different position, which represented evidence of the great change underway, and therefore it is to them that we are referring. Artists like Simone Martini and Giotto lived and worked at courts, which, in addition to guaranteeing them freedom from material needs (providing them with food, lodging, and a fixed annual salary), and the privilege of participating in court life, allowed them to acquire a high status within the noble hierarchy, granted by their patron (for example, Simone Martini was knighted at the Neapolitan court of Robert of Anjou). These privileged artists enjoyed the protection of the king or lord, to whom they owed, in exchange, sworn loyalty and the obligation to request specific authorization if they wished to work for another family. The bond between artists and their patrons was very strong, so emancipation was not yet complete, as there was still no autonomy from the court, which in effect constituted another type of monopoly, alternative to that of the contemporary city guilds (even though the latter were far more oppressive than the court, because they were conservative, while the court favored originality and innovation). However, the great change linked to courtly patronage was the social affirmation of the artist from a member of the "mechanical arts" to a representative of the "liberal arts." The great change was that manual art was recognized as a virtue, rewarded for quality rather than quantity (unlike artisans, who were paid for the quantity of work performed; we have already said that the salaries paid by kings and lords to artists were annual, and therefore independent of the quantity of work performed). The age of courts and lordships was the age of the triumph of patronage, and the fifteenth century was full of the names of artists who were well-known and appreciated by the societies in which they lived. The model of bonds changed and was gradually superseded with the general increase in wealth, which saw the artist's continued social ascent. This corresponded to an ever-increasing freedom during the Renaissance, when the concept of true "genius" matured. The artist thus definitively emancipated himself both from the status of a specialized craftsman in the guilds tied to the more commercial market, and from the condition of subservience to his lord and patron. Sixteenth-century artists were no longer drawn to court life. Artists like Michelangelo and Titian were no longer subject to the constraints of courtly bureaucracy. The sixteenth century marked the birth of modern collecting, in which everything was interconnected: the full recognition of artists brought with it the attribution of high value to their works, compared by critics to those of antiquity. It is no coincidence that this same period also saw the birth of art historiography, in Giorgio Vasari's famous work of 1550, which narrates the lives of the most important artists from Cimabue to Michelangelo. Among the most important collectors of the Renaissance we find Cosimo 'de Medici, his son Piero the Elder, his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent, Cardinal Pietro Barbo (later Pope Paul II), the very famous Pope Julius II, Cardinal Piccolomini and others. I hope that at this point it is clear how the economic and political transformations (from a certain point onwards above all the formation of a mercantile and entrepreneurial class, and the affirmation of cities as commercial centres) go hand in hand with the social transformation of the artist, the transformation of the style and conception of art , as well as the development of collecting . To complete the discussion, let's add just a few details about the sixteenth-century market, such as the practice of selling through agents and brokers and the establishment of commercial enterprises with fixed locations for private transactions, a precursor to modern galleries (especially in Venice and Flanders). During the same period, we see the first exhibitions organized by artists' guilds, and we see the growth of the practice of reselling works, which in the seventeenth century would take the form of auctions (in England and then in France). It can therefore be said that between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the market took on all the characteristics of modernity. The Baroque age was the period of the triumph of patronage, and Rome, with the excessive power of the popes, was its capital. In the 18th century, the art market and collecting grew and consolidated further, becoming a phenomenon of enormous significance in the 19th century, with the rise of industrialization. This period saw a flourishing of antique galleries and auction houses throughout Europe and America, as well as the formation of public museums and frequent exhibitions, all of which contributed to the dissemination and popularization of art. The collector no longer coincides with the ancient figure of the aristocratic patron, but is replaced by the capitalist and businessperson of the modern bourgeoisie, who conceives the acquisition of works of art also as an investment and a possible source of speculation. [1] For this study we refer to A. HAUSER, Social History of Art , first volume, Einaudi, 1955 and W. SANTAGATA, Symbol and Commodity , Il Mulino, 1998
Modigliani world record
A painting by Amedeo Modigliani sold for $170.4 million (€158.4 million) at Christie's in New York. The work, a nude of a woman reclining on a bed, is titled "Nu Couche" (Reclining Nude with Open Arms or Red Nude), and was auctioned for the first time in a thrilling sale with continuous bidding that lasted for nine intense minutes. The painting is part of a series of large nudes created for Leopold Zborowski, a Polish artist active in Paris, one of the most important modern art dealers, who in turn was portrayed by Amedeo Modigliani himself. The work caused such a scandal in 1917 that the police had to intervene to disperse the crowd that had gathered behind the window of gallery owner Bertehe Weill to admire it when it was first exhibited in Paris.
Roy Lichtenstein - Records at Christie's
Christie's had a record-breaking night in New York, selling Augusto Modigliani's "Nu Coche" for $170.4 million. It also broke all previous records for Roy Lichtenstein, the king of pop art. His work, "The Nurse," with its distinctive comic-book-like features depicting a nurse, sold for $95.365 million.
Record-breaking Modigliani Nude
A $100 million Modigliani is coming to the auction market. The painting "Nu couché" (Reclining Nude), executed by the Livorno-born artist in 1917-18, will be sold on November 9th at Christie's in New York. The work will be the centerpiece of the "The Artist Muse" sale and is set to break the previous record of $70.725 million set in 2014 at Sotheby's in New York for a sculpture—a 73-centimeter-high stone "Tête"—which started at $30 million. "Nu couché" is part of a series of large nudes created by Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) for his magnate, Léopold Zboroswki. The work was exhibited almost a century ago in Modigliani's first and only solo exhibition—which included around thirty paintings, including a series of nudes—at the Berthe Weill Gallery in Paris. The exhibition caused a great scandal.
The rebirth of Schifano
For several years now, the art world has been quietly reevaluating Mario Schifano's work. Mr. Larry Gagosian appears to have combed Rome for the most interesting historical works, and he's not alone. The catalogue raisonné is in progress, and finally, a renewed appreciation for the work of the eclectic Roman artist is bringing order and rigor. If you own a work from the 60s, a "Palm", an "Esso", a TV from the 70s, this could be the right time (provided that the work in question has the documents in order) You can consult the official archive here: http://www.marioschifano.it/ As is known, legal proceedings have been initiated in the courts of Rome and Milan to clarify the confusion of attributions that has arisen since Schifano's death in 1998 between the Foundation and the Archive. Therefore, collectors reading this and interested in selling a work by Schifano should know that to initiate the request for an Authentication and Archiving Opinion, they must submit the documentation and materials listed in the Regulations to the Mario Schifano Archive, exclusively by mail and in paper format . The Committee, after examining the submitted material, reserves the right to request a direct analysis of the work if this is not sufficient to formulate an Authentication Opinion. In this case, the Archive will schedule an appointment with the collector or applicant. The committee's members include Achille Bonito Oliva, Marco Meneguzzo, Rinaldo Rossi, and Laura Cherubini. Recent news is the entry into the scientific committee of Giorgio Marconi , a historic Milanese gallery owner who has worked closely with Schifano since 1965 (the year the gallery opened). Here now, for those who would like to delve deeper, some brief historical-biographical information. Mario Schifano (Homs, Libya, 1934 - 1998, Rome) made his debut with the 1960 exhibition at the Salita in Rome, presented by Pierre Restany : Five Roman Painters: Angeli, Festa, Lo Savio, Schifano, Uncini. He attracted critical attention with his monochrome paintings that suggested a screen that would later accommodate numbers, letters, road signs, and the Esso and Coca-Cola logos. He signed an exclusive contract with Ileana Sonnabend. In 1962, he made his first trip to the United States, intrigued by artists such as Dine and Kline, and frequented Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Rothko, Andy Warhol, and Gregory Corso. He exhibited at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in the exhibition "The New Realists." His solo exhibitions were held in Rome, Paris, and Milan, and he returned to the United States. The artist gained critical acclaim with awards such as the Lissone Prize (Lissone, 1961), the Fiorino Prize, and La Nuova Figurazione (Florence, 1963). In 1963, he broke off his partnership with Ileana Sonnabend , who was disconcerted by the change in his artistic production, so far removed from his early works. His works feature references to Italian art history, including the first Anemic Landscapes, which he presented at the Venice Biennale, where he was invited in 1964, followed by works dedicated to Futurism. His first black-and-white short films, almost always silent, date back to this period. He began his exclusive collaboration with Giorgio Marconi, which lasted until the end of 1970. He participated in international group exhibitions such as the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1964, the 1965 Biennials of San Marino and São Paulo in Brazil, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. In 1966-67, he conceived the series "Oxygen, Oxygen," "Tuttestelle," "Oasis," and "Compagni, Compagni." In 1967-1969, he presented the feature film Anna Carini Seen in August by Butterflies at Studio Marconi in Milan, followed by the film trilogy Satellite (Human, Non-Human, Transplant, and Consumption and Death by Franco Brocani). He participated in a group exhibition at Galleria La Salita, where he didn't exhibit paintings but instead projected stills of the Vietnam War. It was precisely his interest in contemporary history and his civic engagement that led him to experience such an ideological and identity crisis that he declared his intention to abandon painting. In 1970, together with Tonino Guerra, Carlo Ponti's screenwriter, he went to America for the last time, to carry out location scouting for the film, Laboratorio umano, which was never made. Upon returning to Italy, tired of the slow pace of filmmaking, he began the TV Landscapes series, transferring television images to canvas using photographic emulsion. Initially, he reworked photographs taken in the United States (which would later give rise to works such as The Pentagon, Medal of Honor, Nuclear Era, the Transplant Rooms in Houston, NASA, and Alamo Gordo from the Los Alamos Archives), then the wealth of images broadcast daily and incessantly by television stations. He was not interested in TV culture, but in the culture that develops from the television image. He travels to Laos and Thailand, and later to Africa. In developing his works, the artist prefers the use of industrially produced colours for their ability to retain their initial brilliance and dry quickly, allowing him to paint the image in the rapid instant of its appearance and a more extensive production of works. In 1971 he exhibited at the exhibition Vitality of the negative in Italian art 1960-70, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva; his solo exhibitions were opened in Rome, Parma, Turin and Naples, in 1973 he participated in the X Quadriennale of Rome and in Contemporanea, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva . In 1974, the Palazzo della Pilotta (Salone delle Scuderie) in Parma hosted Schifano's first major retrospective, curated by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, which allowed the full breadth of his work to be explored. An ideological and existential crisis forced him into periods of isolation in his studio, where he created "d'après" reinterpretations of Magritte, De Chirico, Boccioni, Cézanne, and Picabia. He revisited his own works from the 1960s in the "Synthetic from the Inventory" series. In 1976, he was present at the exhibition Europa/America, l'astrazione determinate 1960-76 held at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Bologna. In 1978, he returned to the Venice Biennale with the series "Al mare" and "Quadri equestri," works painted with extreme grace and lightness, exemplifying a newfound creative freshness. Invited to Arte e critica 1980 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, in 1981 he participated in the Identité italienne exhibition held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. From that period were created the series entitled "Architecture," "Cosmetics," "Biplanes," and "Botanical Gardens." His works appeared in the Avanguardia/Transavanguardia exhibition at the Mura Aureliane in 1982. Marco Meneguzzo curated a solo exhibition of his work at the Loggia Lombardesca in Ravenna. He conceived a series of large-scale paintings, including Bicycles and Dancers. He was also featured at the Venice Biennale. In 1984, he was invited back to the Venice Biennale, and at the same time, Alain Cueff presented the "Naturale sconosciuto" (Unknown Natural) series at the Piombi, revealing his particular attention to nature. This gave rise to the water lilies, the wheat fields, the waves... the sand paintings in the desert for the exhibition in Jordan; even the canvases donated to Gibellina after the earthquake stemmed from this new, seemingly unstoppable impulse. In 1985, in Florence's Piazza Santissima Annunziata, he painted The Chimera, a monumental work measuring four by ten meters, in front of six thousand people, inaugurating the exhibition on the Etruscans. He married Monica De Bei, with whom he had a son, Marco, and his painting became more intense and rich in inspiration. In 1988, the Adrien Maeght Gallery in Paris opened his solo exhibition, "Le secret de la jeunesse éternelle: un Faust dionysiaque." A passionate cycling enthusiast, he is the only Italian to design the yellow jersey for the Tour de France twice. In 1990, after a decade of intense, vibrant, and sumptuous painting, where he produced many of his most moving works (Estroverso da Mazzoli in Modena), he inaugurated the reopening of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome with Divulgare dalla “vulgata” di Dante, referring to the language of television, a collection of exceptionally large works elaborated with the first digital technologies. The reproduced images combine the dimension of the unconscious with the reality filtered daily by television; the works represent new satellite visions, environmental emergencies, and war; few artists have delved as deeply into the recent conflicts in the Middle East as he has. His commitment has extended to creating works in support of the campaigns of Greenpeace, UNHCR, and many volunteer associations. In 1994 he participated in the exhibition The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York ; in 1996 he exhibited in Spain and Latin America in the show entitled Musa elettricia, a tribute to television understood as an inexhaustible flow of images. The works of these years testify to his interest in science and technology. Stet commissioned him to design the integrated image of the company. Schifano immediately grasped the possibilities of the Internet, which, with its unlimited access, extended the expressive possibilities of the visual arts, and the innovation of optical fibers that speeded up communication, so much so that he dedicated a work to it that became its symbol. During one of his trips to Brazil he organized a happening in the favela of Rio de Janeiro, painting a shack white as a protest against the mayor's order to paint all the favelas green to make them uniform and “invisible”. He died in Rome on January 26, 1998. Quotes (Source IlSole24ore): Since 1995, 2,668 works have been auctioned. The sales rate is 69%. Prices have been rising since 2004, with peaks of $350,000 recorded in 2007 for large-format mixed media on canvas from the 1960s. The artist's market trades very frequently, especially in Italy and Austria, and his prices are uniquely aligned with those of international auctions. The price increase is penalized by the lack of a general catalogue, more than ten years after the artist's death, and by the irreconcilable disagreement between the former Mario Schifano Foundation (now the Multistudio Foundation) and the Mario Schifano Archive established by his heirs. Numerous fakes continue to circulate. In Italy, on 11 March 2008, a work entitled Campo di pane (1984), enamel on canvas, 140 x 210 cm, was sold for €46,000 at Finante Milano. In the gallery, mixed techniques and polaroids from the 80s and 90s are priced from €5,000 to €20,000. Top price : $353,773 for New York City '65 the reverse through the museum (2 parts) (1965), mixed media and enamel on canvas, 220 x 300 cm, sold at Dorotheum Vienna, 29 November 2005.
Diego Palpizi - Intimamente me - online onvenditaquadri.it
Diego Palpizi places his characters, mainly naked women's bodies, creating a stage with a completely imaginary background, the space for an event, confirming that every surrealism has a potential beyond contingencies, but that then the right iconographic tension is needed, an added value where art assumes the ethical responsibility of beauty.
Christie's, London, auctions Cézanne's Provence
Christie's London auctioned a record Wednesday, February 4th: Paul Cézanne's masterpiece "View of L'Estaque and the Château d'If," one of his most dramatic landscapes of Provence, is set for a remarkable event. This is the first time the work has been offered on the art market in nearly 80 years, with an estimate of £8-12 million. In 1936, the painting was purchased by English art patron Samuel Courtauld, founder of the prestigious Courtauld Gallery and Institute of Art in London. Since then, the work has remained in Courtauld's private collection, sold only for a few major international exhibitions. "View of L'Estaque and the Château d'If" was painted between 1883 and 1885 and is considered one of Cézanne's masterpieces. It immortalizes the small port of L'Estaque and a small seaside resort in his native Provence, where the artist repeatedly sought inspiration.
Picasso's Granddaughter Sells 7 Works: "He Was Cruel, I Want to Forget Him"
Marina has decided to get rid of it for the modest sum of 241 million Euros In the background, a very difficult family history, between Pablo's absence and his suicidal brother Bearing that surname must not be easy, if that surname is undisputedly synonymous with contemporary art: but that is not the reason why Marina Picasso, Pablo's granddaughter and sole heir, struggles to live with the memory of her celebrated grandfather. 241 million euros No, the reason she decided to sell seven of the 400 Picasso works she owns, as well as the La Californie residence, where the painter lived with his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, is to distance herself from a painful past, from a man who "drove everyone around him to despair," as she has repeatedly said. Some gossips might argue that these sales are actually driven by far more venal impulses: for example, the 1909 "Woman with a Mandolin" is worth 50 million euros, while the 1921-22 "Maternity" is worth 45 million. Interesting figures. The paintings will be sold at an auction house in Geneva. «Grand Pere» But the 64-year-old granddaughter, as she wrote in 2001 in a biographical volume simply titled "Grand Pere" (Grandfather), actually has her fair share of reasons to detest the man so many revered: daughter of Paulo, son of his first wife, the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, and sister of Pablito, she was never accepted by the egocentric, cold, and detached painter. He never welcomed his grandchildren into his other house in Mougins, grandchildren of whom he didn't even own a photograph, placing between himself and them the terrible Jacqueline, a priestess of the Picasso cult who would reply to the little ones: "Your Highness isn't here" or "The sun is resting." She didn't even allow the children to attend the painter's funeral in 1973. His brother died from it An emotional bombshell that would have destroyed anyone. While Marina survived, so to speak, by suffering from anorexia, her brother did not: ingesting liters of bleach "to erase the weight of this inheritance," he died two months after Picasso's passing. A terrible family affair, therefore: this is also why Marine did not attend the celebrations marking the fortieth anniversary of the painter's death in 2013. "I don't feel particularly emotional," she said at the time. "The further I distance myself from what I experienced as a young man, the happier I am." And indeed, if you look closely, these are wounds that no million-dollar auction can heal.