Titian Fails To Sell

A painting by the Italian master Titian failed to sell at auction Thursday, despite bidding that reached $6.5 million. Bidding for "Portrait of a Lady and Her Daughter" was less than the minimum price required. The Italian master began the painting, which is believed to show his daughter, Emilia, and one of his grand-daughters, but never completed it. After his death in 1576, one of his less-skilled pupils reworked the canvas to tell a biblical story. It was retitled "Tobias and the Angel" and ended up in the Barbarigo Collection in Venice. The girl in the painting was given a male hairstyle to become Tobias. The woman grew wings and became the Archangel Raphael. Titian's original work was uncovered by a restoration that took 20 years.
Irish Art

Aunt 's £26m Van Gogh Gift

An Italian man given a painting by his aunt 50 years ago has reportedly found out it's a £26 million Van Gogh masterpiece. The man, from Milan, who has spoken to media on condition that his identity is kept secret, said he only found out he had Van Gogh when a friend who is an art expert came round for dinner. The friend saw the painting hanging on the wall and immediately realised it was a Van Gogh. But the man has yet to reveal what the painting is other than to say it is "a painting of rural life". Italian daily newspaper Il Giorno has said it will publish an exclusive photo of the painting this week.
Irish Art

Found Titian to fetch $5m

A rediscovered Titian painting is expected to fetch more than £5m when it is auctioned in London. Portrait of a Lady and her Daughter was not seen for more than 400 years before it was found in a London garage. The picture, which will be sold by Christie's tomorrow, needed 20 years of restoration work before it was displayed in public in 2001. Titian never completed the work of art but it was reworked by one of his pupils after his death in 1576. It is thought to depict Titian's daughter Emilia with one of his granddaughters. Christie's deputy chairman Francis Russell said: "This remarkable and moving portrait is one of the most notable art discoveries of recent years." The world record auction price for a Titian is £7.48m for Venus and Adonis, which was sold in 1991.
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Irish Art


Shed Art Wins Turner

An artist has won the £25,000 Turner prize by dismantling a shed and putting it back together. Simon Starling’s art work, Shedboatshed (Mobile Architecture No 2), started life as a wooden shack in the Swiss town of Schweizerhalle. The 38-year-old Glaswegian took the shed apart, turned it into a boat and sailed it seven miles down the Rhine to Basel, where he rebuilt it. Bookies' favourite Starling said the work represented "the physical manifestation of a thought process". Curators at the Tate Britain, where Starling’s work is on show, said the work countered "the illusory nature of globalisation and capitalist exchange".
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Irish Art

Boss Art Award Spurns Painters

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced the finalists for its Hugo Boss Art Prize this week. The $50,000 art award, named for the German men's wear company that sponsors it, is given every two years to an artist whose work represents a significant development in contemporary art. This year's finalists are an international sampling of today's trendiest artists. The group is heavily tipped toward performance art - none of the finalists are painters.
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Irish Art

$12m Pollock Painting Stolen

Artworks by Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol have been stolen from a museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania in the early hours of Friday morning. The 1949 Pollock oil painting, Springs Winter, was on loan from a private collector and is estimated to be worth about $11.6 million (£6.7m). Thieves broke a glass door at the back of the Everhart Museum, officials said. Surveillance cameras were not working at the time of the robbery and police said they had no immediate leads.
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Irish Art

Hockney's Personal Art

For five decades David Hockney has immortalized his friends and family on canvas and on paper. Yet while his portraiture has been the subject of an art book, it has never been brought together for a dedicated show—until now. The National Portrait Gallery in London announced yesterday that it was working with the artist on an exhibition designed as a highlight of its 150th anniversary celebrations next year. The show, in the second half of 2006, will span fifty years of the Bradford-born artist's art -pictures of himself, his family and friends.
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Irish Art

Mary Cassatt Painting Record

The work Mother and Two Children, oil on canvas, 1906 by Mary Cassatt sold for $4,272,000 at Christie's Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture auction in New York. This is world auction record for an oil painting by Mary Cassatt.
The American modernist market has been gaining considerable strength in recent seasons. With the rapid growth in the postwar and contemporary market, collectors who traditionally have bought in this category are showing increased interest in American modernism, an essential precursor to the international post-war art movements. Christie’s auction offers such buyers an excellent opportunity to further develop their own collections in this field.
Irish Art