Russian Avant-Garde Works and Their Provenance Problems: No one doubts the authenticity of the $70m Malevich Christie’s announced this morning. The painting hung for decades in the Stedelijk Museum before it was restituted. That makes it a rare work amongst the art bedeviled by the tragic history of the Russian revolution. Much of Russia’s art was driven underground by Soviet cultural prohibitions, Catherine Hickley explained recently in the New York Times:

• [T]he market for Russian avant-garde art began to develop in the 1970s and flowered with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many legitimate works began to surface — often unaccompanied by provenance documentation. Forgers took note, and took advantage of the murky situation, in part because the stakes in this market have grown so high. […] “Ask 10 different art historians the same question and you get 10 different answers,” said the judge [in a recent authenticity case], Ingeborg Bäumer-Kurandt. “Behind the experts there are diverse vested interests influencing how these paintings are evaluated.” …

Art Basel Hong Kong’s $19.5m Warhol:  Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina jumped on the news that Steve Wynn is selling three works in New York’s May sales, a two Picassos and a Warhol. In the process, she uncovered a major sale from Art Basel in Hong Kong we previously missed. Given the size of the sale, there’s a good chance it was completed in Hong Kong rather than initiated there:

• “Wynn, 76, one of the top U.S. collectors of modern and contemporary art, had already parted with Warhol’s 1981 “Superman.” The painting was exhibited by Acquavella Galleries at Art Basel Hong Kong. The asking price was $19.5 million and the work sold during the fair, according to the New York gallery, which declined to identify the consignor. “Superman” fetched $14.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2015.” …

Someday Soon You’ll Know How to Pronounce Wojciech Fangor’s Name: Heather James Fine Art is opening a New York gallery on East 75th street with an exhibition of Wojciech Fangor’s influential but overlooked work. Fangor’s market has been bubbling along at the edges of Contemporary art world in recent years. He’s considered an important peer of Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely but also a precursor of painters like Ugo Rondinone:

• “Challenging and re-inventing ideas about pictorial space, the 11 large-scale paintings on view relate to Color Field painting and Op Art, and reflect Fangor’s distinctive use of saturated color and blurred silhouettes to create striking abstract forms and mesmerizing optical illusions. 2 Paintings such as Pink and Black Spindle, 1960, and Red Moons 2, 1961, feature bold abstract shapes accentuated by dispersed, edgeless transitions between colors, which create an illusion of movement. In Green Points, 1961, and #3, 1963, pointillism magnifies the effect of the oscillating picture plane — drawing the viewer’s focus either towards the transition of colors, or to the spaces magnified by dots. Representing fine examples of Fangor’s signature concentric circle paintings, #29, 1963, and #6, 1963, feature incandescent configurations of pulsating contours.” …

Trump Tower Fire Takes an Art Dealer: The New York Times has the back story on Todd Brassner who died in this past weekend’s fire at Trump Tower. Brassner had become something of prisoner to his apartment both because of his inability to sell the place and his obsessive collecting habits. Several art world participants have been talking this week about their encounters with Andy Warhol through Brassner:

• Todd Brassner, who died in a fire at Trump Tower on Saturday, […] was an art dealer with health problems and a 2015 bankruptcy that listed his apartment as the location of more than $3 million worth of artwork and other collectibles, including a 1975 portrait of Mr. Brassner painted by Andy Warhol. … Mr. Brassner, 67, lived alone amid a collection of about 100 vintage electric guitars, 40 guitar amplifiers dating to the 1930s, 150 ukuleles and artwork by Robert Indiana, Mati Klarwein, Jack Kerouac and others. …

What London’s Sales Can Tell Us About the Health of the Contemporary Art Market: AMMpro members (and those taking a free trial) can read the eye-opening numbers on where the dynamic activity is in the Contemporary art market from our report based upon the lot-by-lot details.