art news stories on Newser

Museum Keeps Burning Art to Protest Italy Budget Cuts

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 22 May 2012 01:41:00 CDT

It's an incendiary protest. More than a month after an Italian museum director first burned art to protest budget cuts, Antonio Manfredi is still regularly incinerating works at his Casoria Contemporary Art Museum. "This is war for the arts," Manfredi explains. "We want the institutions in Italy and around the...

Young Van Gogh Watercolor Unveiled

Matt Cantor — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:03:05 CDT

For the first time in five years, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has added a new piece to its collection—and it looks a little different from your standard Vincent van Gogh. This one is an 1882 watercolor whose tones are much darker than those the artist later adopted....

5 Priciest Artworks Ever Auctioned

Matt Cantor — Sun, 06 May 2012 08:38:43 CDT

Following the record-breaking sale of Edvard Munch's The Scream , the Guardian takes a look at the other biggest sales of art at auction. The top five: Edvard Munch, The Scream , $119.9 million. Pablo Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust , $106.5 million. Alberto Giacometti, L'homme qui Marche I , $105....

Munch's The Scream Fetches Record $120M

John Johnson — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:26:18 CDT

The experts thought Edvard Munch's The Scream would bring in a princely sum, but not this much: $119.9 million. That's the most ever paid for a painting at auction, reports the New York Times . (The previous record was $106.5 million for a Picasso, notes AP .) No word...

Edvard Munch's Factory Murals Head for Sale

Matt Cantor — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:38:38 CDT

The painter of The Scream was also an interior decorator of sorts: Edvard Munch painted a set of murals long displayed in the dining hall of an Oslo factory. Now, that canteen—currently owned by Kraft Foods—could be on its way to a sale, paintings included. Officials plan to...

Whoops: Photogs Shatter $300K Sculpture

Matt Cantor — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:13:05 CDT

A treasured Nigerian sculpture survived for 2,600 years—until photographers dropped it during a shoot last year, irreparably shattering it, according to a lawsuit. Plaintiff Corice Amran says photographers visited her in May to photograph her piece of Nok artwork for Art + Auction ; they decided to move the...

To Protest Budget Cuts, Museum Torches Art

Kevin Spak — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:11:26 CDT

An Italian art museum is so mad about the budget cuts coming its way that it has begun burning art works in protest. The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum's eccentric director, Antonio Manfredi, set fire to a painting by French Artist Severine Bourguignon yesterday, the BBC reports, and let it burn...

Swede Minister Blasted for 'Racist Cake' Stunt

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:31:00 CDT

A Swedish culture minister is under attack for gleefully cutting into a cake made to look like a racist caricature of a black African woman. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth defended the cake-cutting event, part of an art installation at Stockholm's modern art museum that was intended to highlight the issue of...

Kinkade Paintings Selling for $150K

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:41:10 CDT

Galleries that sell the work of Thomas Kinkade are reporting a surge in sales following the popular painter's death at age 54 —a surge so big that outlets across the country say they're calling in extra help to handle unprecedented demand from customers placing orders in person, on the phone,...