The glass negatives have tremendous documentary value—not only for the museum and the collection itself but also for the public. They provide a crucial visual record of significant artworks that were lost.
Curt Goldschmidt's fate is shared with many Jewish collectors and patrons. With this restitution, we honour Jewish collectors and remember victims of Nazi persecution.
"Until recently, there was no specific legislation addressing the forgery of artworks and collectibles. Instead, these cases fell under the 'smoother' general provisions of the criminal code concerning fraud and forgery, which required proof of a financial transaction in order for an offence to be established."
Unlike the United States, where tax is tacked on top of an item's retail price, in Europe, Value Added Tax (VAT) is already factored into the price tag. That means you won't pay an additional percentage when checking out. VAT varies from country to country in the EU-typically falling between 17% and 27%-and international travelers can claim the VAT back on items they're bringing back home.
Looking at old art gives me a sense of craftsmanship, of what can be achieved with paint. There is nothing comparable with Tefaf. The atmosphere of quality is unmatched. Contemporary art collectors are discovering value in historical works and the fair's curatorial standards, representing a potential shift in how different collector demographics engage with art across temporal boundaries.
In establishing the fair, a foundation (stichting in Dutch) seemed the most fitting legal entity for the purpose of creating an event 'run by dealers, for dealers... so that nobody had an advantage over anybody else.' That Tefaf operates as a not-for-profit differentiates it from other major art fair brands. There are no shareholders demanding a return, no owners to primp the thing for sale.
Stephen Friedman was overdue filing when he went into liquidation on 2 February, closing his London gallery immediately (his New York venue shuttered around the same date). At the time of writing, invoices remain unpaid and artists unable to retrieve works from storage companies. In a statement, Friedman says 'all matters are now subject to the administrator's consideration'.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote about the "inalienable" rights of man in the US Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, it's possible he lifted the term from the French. And long before it was ever used as an adjective to describe human rights, it defined royal property. To this day, "inalienability" remains a cornerstone of public collections in France-and many other countries-impacting museums and their ability to deaccession, including for purposes of restitution.
An analysis of two paintings in museums in the US and Italy by the 15th-century Flemish artist Jan van Eyck has raised a profound question: what if neither were by Van Eyck? Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, the name given to near-identical unsigned paintings hanging in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Royal Museums of Turin, represent two of the small number of surviving works by one of western art's greatest masters, revered for his naturalistic portraits and religious subjects.
Under the terms of Sotheby's new fee structure, buyer's premiums for lots sold in New York are increasing from 27% on lots priced at or above $1m to 28% for all works sold for hammer prices up to and including $2m (£1.5m in London). The medium tier buyer's premium will remain 22% of the hammer price, but will be applied to lots sold for between $2m and $8m (£1.5m and £6m in London);
