The Herald in Scotland reports on the possible sale of 27 Old Master paintings from the Duke of Sutherland’s Bridgewater collection that have been on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland. The pictures might be worth £1 billion on the open market. The Duke wants £100 million for two of the pictures to leave the others on loan for an additional 21 years.

Gallery director Nicholas Perry says: “As it stands, there is no country the size of Scotland that has a greater collection of art. The NGS is great because it has that group of masterpieces. Its loss would be a disaster for Scotland and the United Kingdom.”

A spokesman for the duke said: “The Bridgewater Collection has grown in value to the point where it is prudent to review the holding in terms of the balance of the family’s overall assets. It does now seem sensible to consider the sale of some part of this collection, and the duke and his family would very much hope that it could be acquired by the nation.”

In a situation like this, it is hard not to think about what Tyler Green and Richard Lacayo might say.

£100m Race to Keep Old Masters in National Gallery (The Herald)

Except that they both died recently.

Two very different, which is not to say inimical, critics died in the last two weeks. Each was extraordinarily talented but I doubt either had interest in the other. Manny Farber was an oddball artist with a quirky interest in genre film and a talent for phrase making; John Russell was a fluid and erudite enthusiast with a broad and seemingly endless range.

John Russell (New York Times)

Manny Farber (New York Times)

Roberta Smith gives public art a big thumbs up in the New York Times, remarking that it has gone from an embarrassing backwater to a vibrant leader:

At the time many of the most talented emerging sculptors were making anything but sculpture. Ephemeral installations, earthworks and permanent site-specific works were in vogue, and soon the very phrase “public sculpture” had been replaced by public art, an amorphous new category in which art could be almost anything: LED signs, billboards, slide or video projections, guerrilla actions, suites of waterfalls.

But over the past 15 years public sculpture — that is, static, often figurative objects of varying sizes in outdoor public spaces — has become one of contemporary art’s more exciting areas of endeavor and certainly its most dramatically improved one.

Public Art: Eye Sore to Eye Candy (New York Times)

Felix Salmon passes judgment on Seven Days in the Art World

We generally don’t agree with Felix Salmon’s rote assumption that Contemporary art is a bubble. But there are two good reasons to start to worry: Greed and the Magazine cover signal. Two old saws about markets seem to be coming together this Fall. The first is the idea that magazine covers (or, in this case, a book) are the signal of a top. When a subject appears on a magazine cover, it’s not news to anyone anymore. Does Thornton’s book signal the top for Contemporary Art? (Video after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

August is a tough time for art bloggers. Just look at Tyler Green’s bully campaign against the University of Iowa Regent, Michael Gartner. The sheer volume of posts is too great for us to link to all of them. But among the one-sided interviews (”Are you unconditionally opposed . . . ?”) and links to supportive editorials, there’s an interesting philosophical issue. Felix Salmon tries to get at one side of it here as he tries to suggest that perhaps the interests of the painting and the stature of the artist might be better served if it were in a world-class institution. (Ideas  for solving the impasse after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Can Graffiti Art Ever Be Tamed?

The New York Times re-does the NY Sun story on the Angel Ortiz tagging the reconstruct Keith Haring commemorative mural just put up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Which reminds us of this Time magazine story (from whence this lovely Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters photo hails) from a few weeks ago that neatly summarizes the career of and controversy around graffiti-star-of-the-moment Banksy (For those of you with Banksy on the brain, Gawker shares your obsession.) But these glamorous and relatively glitzy stories are a far cry from the real graffiti battles like the one taking place in New Orleans that reminds us of New York’s own graffiti wars dating back to the 1970s. Samo, Samo. Read the rest of this entry »

“Aggregate auction sales to date of $3.4 billion are up 14%…we expect a stronger third quarter than last year.”

–CEO Bill Ruprecht says.

· Contemporary Art up at $1,021.7 million, best ever · Impressionist and Modern Art up at $816.2 million, best ever. · Sotheby’s sold 503 $1 million lots (391 in 2007) · Sotheby’s sold 90 $5 million lots (57 in 2007) · Sotheby’s sold 34 $10 million lots (20 in 2007) · Sotheby’s sold 10 $20 million lots (9 in 2007). Notes from the earnings call after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

How Does This Man Control the Australian Art Market?

Rod Menzies is under fire in Australia for his business practices. As the owner of two of the countries largest auction houses, with a 60% market share and turnover of A$60 million versus Sotheby’s A$51.4 million, the charges are no laughing matter. Though the complaints will be familiar to anyone who has followed the auction business where present and former owners like Bernard Arnault, Alfred Taubman and Francois Pinault are also often frequent buyers and sellers of art. Here’s how the The Age puts it: Read the rest of this entry »

Felix Salmon, Sarah Thornton and David Galenson All Try to Make Sense of the Art World

Only in the world of blogs is it considered a compliment to argue with someone incessantly. But such is the nature of the medium, so let’s dive right in. Our friend Felix Salmon has caught the art bug bad. Over the weekend he started reading Sarah Thornton’s much-anticipated Seven Days in the Art World and found good fodder for posting in Thornton’s comment that art must maintain a motive higher than mere profit to defend its position above other cultural forms. Felix objects to this: Read the rest of this entry »

Orientalism begins its ascent

The Orientalist painting market has been gaining velocity and visibility. The Wall Street Journal gives us a very brief precis of the action here. We gave you a little taste here. For a slightly more detailed explanation of what’s driving these collectors, allow me to quote myself from this New York Sun story in April: Read the rest of this entry »