Previous Posts: June 2025
Richard Feigen's Collection at Dreweatts
June 30 2025
Picture: Dreweatts
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular readers will remember this Sotheby's New York sale of artworks from the collection of the dealer Richard Feigen (1930-2021) back in 2021. The Berkshire auction house Dreweatts will now be offering another batch from his collection, with works under £1,000 being offered without reserve. The auction will take place on 2nd July 2025.
Museum Entrances (ctd)
June 30 2025
Picture: artnet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Continuing on the theme of museum entrances, the Louvre has just launched a competition to redesign its entrance and a new dedicated room for Leonardo's Mona Lisa.
According to the article linked above:
[President] Macron believes that expanding the museum will allow it to welcome up to 12 million art lovers each year—a number first announced as a target back in 2014, before the pandemic saw figures around the world drop.
The plan to give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery where guests can better appreciate the relatively diminutive painting has been in discussion with the nation’s Ministry of Culture for some time.
The expansion project will be largely funded by admission proceeds—last raised in 2024—and sponsorships. Last fall, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati suggested charging a €5 ($5.40) surcharge to museum visitors from countries outside the EU. Macron confirmed in January that he would introduce such a fee.
Jo van Gogh-Bonger at the Van Gogh Museum
June 30 2025
Picture: Van Gogh Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam will be opening an exhibition entitled Captivated by Vincent. The Intimate Friendship of Jo van Gogh-Bonger and Isaac Israëls in September 2025.
According to their website:
To mark the centenary of Jo van Gogh-Bonger’s death (1862–1925), the Van Gogh Museum presents Captivated by Vincent. The Intimate Friendship of Jo van Gogh-Bonger and Isaac Israëls, a small-scale exhibition exploring her special relationship with the painter Isaac Israëls (1865–1934). Jo, who was married to Vincent van Gogh’s brother Theo, played a pivotal role in preserving and promoting Vincent’s legacy.
Between 1915 and 1920, Jo lent Israëls several of Van Gogh’s masterpieces – including Sunflowers, The Bedroom, and The Yellow House (The Street) – which Israëls then used as backdrops in at least seventeen of his own works. He even coined the verb "Vincenting” to describe this creative process.
The exhibition shows ten of these paintings, from Dutch museum and private collections. Two of the works with the Sunflowers are in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum. There is also a special drawn study on display, in which Van Gogh's works can be seen.
Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay causing 'Feeding Frenzy' in Shanghai
June 27 2025
Video: Shanghai Let's Meet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Chinadaily.com has reported on a 'Feeding Frenzy' at the Museum of Pudong in Shanghai's recently opened loan exhibition entitled Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
According to the article:
[The exhibition] is so popular that "even Van Gogh cannot squeeze into his own bedroom in Arles" [...]
People gather before the most recognizable key highlights, such as Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet, to take pictures and selfies.
"There is such a huge crowd in front of Van Gogh's bedroom that I don't think the artist himself could manage to get in there if he were alive today," says Da Yue, a user of the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote.
The show will run until 12th October 2025.
Goya Adoration (with export permit) makes €3.6m in Madrid
June 27 2025
Picture: heraldo.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Spanish press have reported on news that the following Goya Adoration of the Cross realised €3.6m at Magna Art auctions in Madrid last week. Notably, the painting has an export license to leave Spain (one of the toughest European countries in regards to the protection of cultural heritage, as it happens).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquire Manuel de Arellano portraits from Colnaghi
June 27 2025
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The dealers Colnaghi have announced the sale of two works by Manuel de Arellano (1662–1722) to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
To quote their Instagram post directly:
Conceived as a pair, these portraits of a Creole Woman from Guadalajara and a Creole Man from Mexico City are among the earliest known precursors to the Casta painting genre. By depicting his sitters in fictive oval frames, a format traditionally reserved for distinguished figures, de Arellano seeks to redefine and elevate the position of Creole families within Mexican society at a time of political upheaval. As the genera developed throughout the 18th century, Castas portraits became depictions not of actual individuals but of different racial types in the pluralistic colonial society. Their bold naturalism, sumptuous attire, and groundbreaking format tell a powerful story of social hierarchy, aspiration, and cultural hybridity in viceregal Mexico.
Restoration Projects at the San Gennaro dei Poveri
June 27 2025
Video: Pupi Campania
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Naples that the city's San Gennaro dei Poveri, an historic monastery / hospital complex, is in the process of a €100m restoration and conservation project. This includes the restoration of several of the site's historic works of art, which are being conducted on public view behind glass (as the beginning of the video above shows).
Tate Chairman announces £150m fund for acquisitions and new garden entrance
June 27 2025
Picture: The Times
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a thread from Bendor on 'X' regarding Tate Chairman Roland Rudd's recent interview in The Times, announcing a £150m fund to help with acquisitions (a very good thing) and a new garden entrance (less interesting). Bendor weighs up the increasing fascination that British galleries and museums have for fancy and expensive new entrances (which carry the aesthetic charms of a car park).
NGI acquire Jack B. Yeats 'The Dark Rosaleen'
June 27 2025
Picture: National Gallery of Ireland
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Ireland have announced their acquisition of Jack B. Yeats' The Dark Rosaleen, Croke Park (1921). It was acquired last year with assistance from the Irish government and a private donor.
According to the article linked above:
The title of this newly acquired work references ‘The Dark Rosaleen (Róisín Dubh)’, a 19th-century adaptation by James Clarence Mangan of an Elizabethan poem, later set to music. In 1921, the same year Yeats painted this picture, Thomas P. Whelan described The Dark Rosaleen as “a passionate address in verse to Ireland, written for a nation that still drank from the cup of sorrow.”
Though Singing ‘The Dark Rosaleen’, Croke Park does not explicitly reference the violent events at Croke Park on 21 November 1920, known as Bloody Sunday, its title, setting, and sombre tone evoke the tragedy and its consequences. On that day, during a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary, Auxiliaries Crown Forces opened fire on spectators, killing 14 civilians, and injuring 60 others.
As one of Yeats’s few overtly political works, this painting stands as a deeply personal response from a keenly sensitive individual to a seismic moment in Irish history. While it is unclear whether the scene represents a specific moment Yeats observed, an amalgamation of separate sketches, or a product of his imagination is unclear. However, sketchbooks in the Gallery’s Yeats archive containing multiple depictions of hurling matches at Croke Park indicate Yeats’s familiarity with the setting.
Hall of Constantine Conserved after 10-year Project
June 26 2025
Video: Musei Vaticani
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news that a 10-year project to conserve the Vatican's Hall of Constantine had been completed earlier this year. The work, undertaken by the Gabinetto di Ricerche Scientifiche under the directorship of Fabio Morresi, has focused on the study and conservation of these vast frescos undertaken by Raphael's workshop including collaborators such as Giulio Romano, Gianfrancesco Penni and others. Watch the video above to see some of the painstaking work undertaken as part of the campaign of restoration.
Zurbarán Exhibition at the National Gallery in 2026
June 26 2025
Picture: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have announced they will be staging an exhibition on Francisco de Zurbarán in 2026.
According to the gallery's website:
The first major monographic exhibition in the UK devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664), will open at the National Gallery next spring (2 May – 23 August 2026).
This exhibition is the first dedicated presentation of the artist’s paintings at the National Gallery since 1994 when the series of 'Jacob and his Twelve Sons' from Auckland Castle was shown in the Sunley Room. Several works by Zurbarán also featured in The Sacred Made Real, an exhibition held in 2009–10.
This exhibition of almost 50 paintings will span the chronological and iconographic breadth of the artist’s career. It will unite exceptional works from the collection of the National Gallery (including Saint Margaret of Antioch, A Cup of Water and a Rose and Juan de Zurbarán's Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket) with paintings from the Musée du Louvre ('Saint Bonaventure on His Bier' and 'Saint Apollonia') and the Art Institute of Chicago ('The Crucifixion', 'Saint Romanus of Antioch' and 'Saint Barulas' and Juan de Zurbarán’s 'Flowers and Fruit in a Chinese Bowl'), the two partner museums to which the exhibition will travel between October 2026 and June 2027.
Cleveland acquire last Giambologna Marble in Private Hands
June 26 2025
Picture: Cleveland Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Cleveland Museum of Art have announced their acquisition of Giambologna's Fata Morgana, the last marble by the artist to have remained in private hands.
According to their press release:
Giambologna only sculpted about a dozen works in marble, since his Medici patrons forbade him from accepting outside commissions without their explicit consent. Moreover, costly marble was primarily reserved for ducal and major public commissions. The Fata Morgana is among just three marble sculptures by the artist located outside of Italy (and one of only two in the United States), presenting visitors the rare opportunity to see the artist’s work within the wider context of the CMA’s exceptional Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque holdings. A tour de force, the Fata Morgana perfectly exemplifies the hallmarks of form and motion that distinguish Giambologna as one of the preeminent sculptors in the history of European art.
Xavier F. Salomon appointed Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
June 25 2025
Picture: gulbenkian.pt
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Congratulations to Xavier F. Salomon who has just been announced as the new director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. He will succeed António Filipe Pimentel who is due to retire next year. Click on the link above for the museum's press release, which provides a full overview of Salomon's career thus far.
New EU Cultural Property Laws
June 25 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Financial Times have published an article by Melanie Gerlis today on the EU's new Cultural Property Laws which will be coming into effect this week. Essentially, objects older than 200 years, worth more than €18,000 and that were created outside of the EU, will have to be accompanied by proof of their legal export before importing it into the EU. This would affect, let's say, the importing of objects like early British portraits for example - which many dealers know very rarely come with full provenances. The intention of this legislation is of course to stop the illegal trade of good such as stolen antiquities, but, it seems possible that other objects will now increasingly be caught up within its web. The article draws attention to the effect this will have on fairs such as TEFAF in Maastricht, with concerns that older art will gradually be cut-out due to increasing bureaucracy. However, it remains to be seen how individual countries will be adopting these laws in due course.
Titian (?) in the Dark
June 25 2025
Picture: AB
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I was visiting the Wallace Collection yesterday morning and came across their 'Ascribed to Titian' Venus and Cupid hanging in the Medieval & Renaissance galleries. The lighting of the glass cabinets below appears to have been updated recently, however, the painting is now sans any light whatsoever (I seem to remember it at least having a very old dedicated lamp back in the day).
Is it time AHN reignited Bendor's campaign from 2015 to encourage the museum to have the picture conserved?
Baroque Painting in Rome at Dickinson
June 24 2025
Picture: Dickinson & Lullo Pampoulides
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Over the next few days I'll try post as many of the exciting temporary selling exhibitions put on by the London art trade over the upcoming sale season. This summer Dickinson & Lullo Pampoulides have teamed up for a show entitled Drama Power & Seduction - Baroque Painting in Rome, which features pictures by Claude, Carlo Maratta through to Panini (pictured). Click on the link to see the PDF catalogue online.
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Do get in touch if there are any galleries that I shouldn't miss!
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Update - As promised, here are a few links to various catalogues / website links produced just for this season:
Guy Peppiatt - British Drawings and Watercolours including Welsh Views
The Limner Company - Studiolo Exhibition
Karen Taylor Fine Art - CONSTANCE FREDERICA GORDON-CUMMING (1837 – 1924) - A LADY OF ADVENTUROUS DISPOSITION
Trinity Fine Art - Focus on Titian
Italy slashes VAT on Art Sales from 22% to 5%
June 24 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that that the Italian Government have agreed to slash VAT on Art Sales from 22% to 5%. The initiative appears to be an attempt to encourage growth in the arts sector. However, as the article above makes clear, the 'strict legislation regulating the trade of cultural goods' remains very much in force (and thus not particularly helpful for the sale of valuable Old Masters, for example).
Attributed to Bouts Soars
June 24 2025
Picture: Ader
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The following picture catalogued as Attributed to Albrecht Bouts soared past its €60k - €80k estimate to achieve €403,000 (inc. commission) at Ader in Paris last week.
Christie's Provenance Grant
June 24 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's are inviting applications for their 2025 Grant for Nazi-era Provenance Research.
According to their website:
Christie’s is delighted to announce the third year of the Christie’s Grant for Nazi-era Provenance Research, supporting the next generation of provenance researchers in this field. The grant will be offered to four recipients (£5,000 each), to fund forward-thinking academic, post-graduate research into subjects related to Nazi-era provenance research and restitution.
In addition, Christie’s will offer two grants of £2,000 each to undergraduates who are studying the Nazi era and restitution-related topics, and who may be considering a future career or study in this area, with a view to deepening their interest in the subject.
Applications must be in by 30th June 2025.
The Dutch Americas - Art Histories of the Atlantic World
June 23 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The recently published The Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 2025, Volume 75, is dedicated to the subject of The Dutch Americas - Art Histories of the Atlantic World.
Here's a list of the contents for this volume:
