14th Century Fresco Restored in Florence
December 12 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that a 14th century fresco by Master of the Rinuccini Chapel in church of Sant'Ambrogio, Florence, has been restored. The project was undertaken by Cristina Napolitano and supported financially by the Friends of Florence.
Fondazione Perugia acquire Perugino Pair
December 12 2025
Picture: Dorotheum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fondazione Perugia have unveiled their latest acquisitions at the Palazzo Baldeschi in Perugia, a diptych of Christ crowned with thorns and The Virgin given to Perugino. The pair were purchased at the Dorotheum last October where they made €842,799 (inc. commission) over their €600k - €800k estimate.
Flemish Caravaggism at Colnaghi Brussels
December 11 2025
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The dealers Colnaghi opened a new selling exhibition at their Brussels branch yesterday entitled Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Flemish Caravaggism. It will run until 30th January 2026.
According to their website:
The exhibition brings together works by minds such as Matthias Stom, Hendrick de Somer, Abraham Janssens, and Jan van Dalem; artists whose careers unfolded across Rome, Naples, Antwerp, and Brussels. Among the works on view is a representative cross-section of Flemish engagements with Caravaggio. Matthias Stom’s Mocking of Christ, with its pared-back nocturnal intensity; Hendrick de Somer’s Neapolitan David with the Head of Goliath, which reflects the city’s shift from Ribera’s stark naturalism toward a softer, more chromatic idiom. Abraham Janssens’s Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, however, signals the classicising turn of an artist who had been among the earliest Flemish painters to confront Caravaggio in Rome. A newly identified Bacchus by Jan van Dalem, a rare example from an exceptionally small oeuvre, demonstrates his independence from mainstream stylistic currents.
Vatican loans Barocci to Turin
December 11 2025
Video: Il Sole 24 ORE
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Vatican have lent Federico Barocci's Madonna delle ciliegie to the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin for a special exhibition over the Christmas period. You'll have to be quick to see it, as the painting will only be on display there until 11th January 2026.
Norwegian Bank Foundation acquires $9.2m Beckmann
December 11 2025
Picture: DNB Savings Bank Foundation
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has kindly been in touch with news that the DNB Savings Bank Foundation has acquired Max Beckmann's Der Wels. It will now go on permanent loan to The National Museum in Oslo. The picture realised $9.2m over its $5m - $7m estimate at the Sotheby's New York The Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection Evening Auction back in November.
Old Masters Soar in Australia
December 11 2025
Picture: Leonard Joel
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Australia that a sale of Old Masters from the Robert Compton Jones Collection in Woollahra, New South Wales, produced some rather impressive results on Monday. Paintings given and attributed to the likes of Jacopo di Cione, Neri di Bicci, The Master of Frankfurt, Francesco Guardi and Matthias Stomer performed well against their estimates. Click on the link above to view the sale.
Earliest Tattoo in Western European Painting?
December 10 2025
Picture: Amsterdam Museum via CODART
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from CODART at the end of last month that the condition report of a painting attributed to Wallerant Vaillant in the Amsterdam Museum may have led to the discovery of 'the earliest known depiction of a tattoo in Western European painting'.
According to the article:
During an inspection of a seventeenth-century painting in the Amsterdam Museum collection, a tattoo was discovered on the wrist of a prominent Amsterdam merchant. The painting, a 1674 portrait of the College of the Chief Commissioners of the Wharves attributed to Wallerant Vaillant (1623–1677), was undergoing a routine condition check when restorer Liesbeth Abraham noticed the mark on the inside of one subject’s wrist.
Click on the link above to read the full story.
National Gallery seeking £375m to Buy Modern Art & Create Endowment Fund
December 10 2025
Picture: artnews.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Following on from news that The National Gallery in London has raised £375m for the building of a new extension, more news has emerged that it will be seeking an additional £375m (yet to be raised) which will be 'earmarked for post-1900 acquisitions and to create an endowment fund to cover the operating expenses for the new wing.' The total cost of Project Domani is expected to be around the equivalent of $1bn.
Beale Sleeper Soars
December 10 2025
Picture: Capitolium
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Social media was awash yesterday with news that the following Mary Beale head study catalogued as 'Artist of the 17th - 18th Century' soared past its €500 - €700 estimate to achieve €78,000 (hammer) at Capitolium in Italy yesterday.
Curiously, a similar head study, catalogued as 'Attributed to' Beale, failed to find a bid within its £15k - 25k estimate at Sloane Street Auctions last week (having previously sold as a 'sleeper' for £16,380 at Chiswick Auctions earlier in the year).
MET acquires Købke
December 10 2025
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news (which has been picked up here by La Tribune de l'art) that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has acquired Christen Købke's portrait of his sister Sophie Købke.
According to the museum's website:
Christen Købke was one of eleven siblings. He portrayed his elder sister Sophie in the parlor of the Kastellet, the fortress of Copenhagen, where their father served as overseer of the bakery. The casual refinement of Sophie’s middle-class respectability is of a piece with the up-to-date Biedermeier style of the setting. This painting served a dual function: first, as an independent portrait and, second, as the model for the far larger portrait of another sister, Conradine Feilberg (private collection).
Cataloguing Turner's Sketchbooks Ends
December 10 2025
Video: Paul Mellon Centre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A collaborative project to catalogue JMW Turner's sketchbooks has just ended. This mammoth task, shared between Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre, has seen the cataloguing of 37,000 drawings, sketches and watercolours by the artist. Click here to access the website which allows visitors to have for themselves!
Louvre Reopens Renovated Italian & Spanish Galleries
December 9 2025
Picture: Louvre_Réouverture salles de peintures italiennes et espagnoles 17 et 18e S rénovées © 2025 Musée du Louvre - Nicolas Bousser-jpg
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris has shared news that it has reopened their newly renovated Italian & Spanish 17th - 18th century paintings gallery. The renovation took one year to complete and features a new arrangement and hang of the pictures alongside the regilding picture frames.
Stomer Restored
December 9 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Matthias Stomer Nativity, which was rediscovered in Genoa earlier this year, has been restored. The campaign of conservation was undertaken by Elena Parenti and the picture will go on public display for at least two years.
ArtUK wins National Lottery Heritage Funding
December 9 2025
Picture: artuk.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
ArtUK, the online home of the nation's catalogue of art, has won preliminary funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to work on a new phase of project work. Most excitingly and relevant for this blog, this will include 'plan[ning] a transformative programme around digitally sharing images of the UK's national collection of art, leading the museum sector towards making more of their public domain images freely available, and making vital investments in our digital infrastructure.'
According to the article linked above:
The ultimate programme will support public collections across the UK to adopt open access for images of public domain artworks – or in other words, artworks that are no longer protected by copyright and where no new rights can be asserted in the digital image surrogates.
Here are the main focuses of their plan:
1. Build the required digital infrastructure
2. Encourage and facilitate a major shift towards open image licensing by UK museums
3. Encourage creative re-use by audiences
4. Encourage community engagement across the project
AHN wishes the project all the very best!
Rubens Conserved
December 9 2025
Picture: codart
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via CODART (the international network of curators of Dutch and Flemish art) that the Jupiter and Callisto by Rubens at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe has been conserved. The campaign undertaken by conservators Hessen Kassel Heritage took one year to complete and has since been put on display in a new hang.
Former Nuns and Antique Dealer Arrested in Raid
December 8 2025
Picture: eldiario.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that authorities have arrested two former nuns and an antiques dealer who are accused of the attempted theft and sale of 30 artworks from the Monastery of Belorado in Orduña. Click on the link to see photos of the recovered artworks.
Anton Raphael Mengs at the Prado
December 8 2025
Video: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid have recently opened their Anton Raphael Mengs exhibition. It will run until 1st March 2026.
According to their website:
Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) brings together a total of 159 works, including 64 paintings, 14 examples of the decorative arts, and 81 drawings, prints and studies on paper, allowing visitors to explore both the artist’s role as court painter and muralist as well as his intellectual and theoretical dimension. The works have been loaned from 25 international and 9 Spanish institutions and 10 private collections, reflecting the European reach of Mengs’s influence and the richness of his legacy.
Giuseppe Bottani acquired in Mantua
December 8 2025
Picture: gazzettadimantova.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Mantua that the city's Ducal Palace has acquired Giuseppe Bottani's (1717-1784) The Death of Dido. The work will be redisplayed to the public in January once the painting finishes undergoing restoration.
Classical Collapse in Naples and Milan
December 8 2025
Picture: NICOLA SAMORÌ / capodimonte.cultura.gov.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan and the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples have just opened a new exhibition of works by the contemporary artist Nicola Samorì entitled Classical Collapse. As the name suggests, the show features many Old Master motifs which have been defaced by contemporary sculptural (plastic vs. pictorial, apparently) interventions. Click on the link to see more (beware, some of works may be shocking to lovers of painting).
The exhibtions will run until January and March 2026 respectively.
Duke of Norfolk purchases Duke of Norfolk at Sotheby's
December 5 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Arundel Castle, the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, have announced the acquisition (on Instagram) of Hans Eworth's portrait of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1538–1578) in the recent Sotheby's London Old Masters sale. The picture, formerly in the Rothschild Collection and kept at Waddesdon Manor, realised £3,212,000 over its £2m - £3m estimate.
