Missing Painting Found by New York City Doorman

NEW YORK (AP).- A doorman who works across from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art found a painting outside his building and kept it for weeks, then realized it was a missing work at the center of a bizarre legal web and turned it in to investigators this week, an official said. “Portrait of a Girl,” painted in the mid-1800s by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, vanished in late July after a middleman showing the work to a prospective buyer at a Manhattan [...]

Co-Owner of Painting Missing in New York ID’d as a Thief

NEW YORK (AP).- First it was a curious tale of a $1.3 million painting a middleman said he drunkenly lost while trying to help a friend sell it. Now the story has gotten stranger still: A part owner of the canvas identified its co-owner as an admitted art thief, her lawyer said. Kristyn Trudgeon sued the middleman in New York earlier this week. But attorney Max Di Fabio said she was withdrawing the lawsuit after realizing Wednesday upon seeing a [...]

Sotheby’s Sale of 19th Century European Paintings in London Realises 10,858,075 Pounds

LONDON.- Sotheby’s sale of 19th Century European Paintings in London today realised £10,858,075 / €13,027,566 – within the pre-sale estimate of £9,870,000-14,564,000 / €11,842,070-17,473,952, and obtaining sell through rates of 71.3% by lot and 78.9% by value. Public institutions pitted themselves against private collectors and trade, driving prices over estimate in many instances. One of the finest figure paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ever to have appeared on the market was purchased by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva for [...]

Painting by Corot Purchased by Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva

LONDON.- Today at Sotheby’s in London, in the sale of 19th Century European Paintings, one of the finest figure paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ever to have appeared on the market was purchased by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva for £1,609,250 / CHF 2,740,717, exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of £1.2 million. Jeune femme à la fontaine enjoyed an exceptional early provenance before it was requisitioned during the Nazi period, and was recently restituted to the heirs of its [...]

Sotheby’s To Offer a Restituted Painting by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

LONDON.- On Wednesday, June 2, 2010, Sotheby’s London will offer for sale one of the finest figure paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) ever to have appeared on the market. Estimated at £800,000-1,200,000, “Jeune femme à la fontaine” enjoyed an exceptional early provenance before it was requisitioned during the Nazi period. It has now been restituted to the heirs of its erstwhile owners and will be one of the centrepieces of Sotheby’s forthcoming sale of 19th Century Paintings. Jeune femme à [...]