New exhibition features priceless private art collection never before displayed publicly

VANCOUVER, B.C.- Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection reveals for the first time one of the most important private art collections in Canada, a stunning group of works assembled over the past 25 years by Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa. Generously loaned to the Vancouver Art Gallery for this special exhibition, the Audains’ collection features a vast array of art – from exceptional 19th century masks by First Nations artists, to an outstanding set of paintings by Emily Carr that [...]

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Honorary Patrons Scheme Launched by Bryan Ferry

GATESHEAD.- Eight of the biggest names in art and music have pledged their support for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Antony Gormley, David Shrigley, Louise and Jane Wilson, Yoko Ono, Melvyn Bragg, Sting, Neil Tennant and Bryan Ferry have been unveiled as the first Honorary Patrons whose role will be to champion the Gateshead gallery. Legendary musician and lead singer of Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry will become the first Honorary Patron to appear at the gallery when he hosts a special [...]

Lawsuit Says Over $100 Million Art Collection is Largest Holocaust Art Claim

WASHINGTON, DC.- Heirs to the Herzog Collection, the largest private art collection in Hungary prior to World War II, filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia late yesterday to seek the return of artworks illegally held by Hungary since the Holocaust. The heirs are also demanding a full and transparent inventory of looted art from the Herzog Collection held by Hungary, marking the first time a request of this nature has ever been made [...]

Austrian Panel Recommends Restitution of Four Works of Art

VIENNA (AP).- A commission has recommended that four paintings contained in a vast Vienna art collection should be returned because they were either seized by the Nazis or given up against the will of their former Jewish owners, Austria’s Culture Ministry said Monday. The paintings — one by Egon Schiele and three by Anton Romako — belong to the Leopold Museum Private Foundation, which has been criticized by the Jewish community and others for allegedly containing works stolen by the [...]

Rudolf Leopold, Austrian Art Collector, Dies Today at 85

VIENNA (AP).- Rudolf Leopold, who assembled Austria’s largest private art collection, including works allegedly stolen by the Nazis, died Tuesday at the age of 85. Leopold died at a hospital in the Austrian capital after suffering multiple organ failure, said Klaus Pokorny, a spokesman for Vienna’s famous Leopold Museum. Leopold is credited with assembling the country’s largest and most important private art collection that includes more than 5,000 works by artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka. [...]

“The Art of the Steal” a battle of wills over priceless art collection

If there is such a thing as karma, the spirit of Dr. Albert C. Barnes is wrestling with it big time. While he was alive, the man often referred to as The Terrible Tempered Dr. Barnes inspired a thesaurus of unhappy adjectives: vitriolic, autocratic, vindictive, acrimonious, irascible, cantankerous, unscrupulous and more. He acquired what might be the 20th century’s greatest private art collection and then delighted in preventing people from seeing it. Even Jesus Christ, he supposedly said, wouldn’t be [...]

National Portrait Gallery Commissions New Painting of Prince William and Prince Harry

LONDON.- A new painted double portrait of Prince William and Prince Harry, by Nicky Philipps, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London goes on public display there for the first time today (Wednesday 6 January 2010). Painted from life, the portrait shows the Princes wearing the dress uniform of the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals), exactly as worn for The Queen’s Birthday Parade in 2008. The sittings for the portrait were arranged around the Princes’ Army careers and official [...]

A Selection from the David J. Azrieli Collection Opens at Tel Aviv Museum

TEL AVIV.- The Canadian architect and philanthropist David J. Azrieli is exhibiting his private collection at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The Azrieli collection started out in the 1970s as David Azrieli’s private art collection, but was mostly collected as the Azrieli Group collection. It holds approximately 350 works, mostly by 20th century. The exhibition is the first public presentation of this collection, which comprises mostly figurative works. Artur Markowicz, Chess Players 1926 Two apparently conflicting tenors inform the [...]