There is an almost eerie quality to this one of a kind custom made statue depicting Napoleon Bonaparte as he enters Cario during his campaign in Egypt. The small statue was made by famed French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme as a smaller version of a larger bronze statue. It was made around 1897. The statue is done in an ancient style known as “chryselephantine.” The inner part of the statue is wood, while it is overlaid with gold and ivory. Ivory is used for Napoleon’s face to simulate a more realistic flesh like look. The statue is about 16 and a half inches high.
Gerome, the artist, favored such older Roman and Greek sculpting techniques. The original bronze statue was bought by the French government for public display. This work is an amazing historical reference as well as example of neo-classic revival in the 19th century that has since never been better. Price is $198,000 at Rau Antiques. Learn more here.
Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.
Renowned Italian sculptor and painter Mimmo Paladino has become the first person to turn a private jet into a work of art with the installation of a customized Piaggio P.180 Avanti II aircraft at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
Dubbed the “Cacciatore di Stelle” (Star Hunter), Paladino’s plane (above) will be on display in the famed luxury shopping mecca through April 28. Paladino decorated the turboprop with ancestral symbols, constellations and geometrical designs in homage to the skies in which it travels.
The plane is part of an exhibition of Paladino’s work hosted by Milan’s historic Palazzo Reale, including more than 50 of his artworks from the ’70s to the present day. The P.180 Avanti was chosen for the project as an expression of “Italian genius in design and engineering.”
Louvre, hyperphoto by Jean-Francois Rauzier, Waterhouse & Dodd
Is it all about money or art? The answer is probably both but if you’re in the Art 101 category, you can catapult up to PhD level at The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
TEFAF is the most sophisticated, highly vetted, and elegant art fair anywhere. All true, but it is also a place where the minute the doors swing open to VIP guests, there’s a stampede to the jewelry booths where for the most part glitz not glamour dominates.
Collectors, museum curators often accompanied by their trustees, and general connoisseurs attend to browse, to see and be seen, and to bring home treasures. This year, some 73,000 visitors attended. Most are Dutch, followed by Germans and Belgians, English, French, Italians, Americans and an impressively growing numbers of Russians and Chinese. Among a handful of Arab sheiks, most prominent this year was Sheikh Saud al-Thani, the art-hungry collector who is a cousin of the ruling Emir of Qatar. He surely arrived on one of the 154 private jets that landed on the tarmac of the tiny Maastricht-Aachen airport.
Van Gelder Antique Indian Jewelry
At the blue chip opening one of the first pieces to be snapped up was by a Russian collector: a billowing tapestry made of beaten red and gold bottle tops by the Ganaian artist El Anatsui. The price was $965,532. You can see his aesthetically beautiful “Earth and Heaven” sculpture installed in the African art galleries at the Met. In another gallery in the modern section, a well-heeled collector bought Spanish artist Joan Miro’s sculpture, “Oiseau Lunaire,” or moon bird, a wooden surreal, bird-like figure for $5 million. A bronze version of a moon bird by Miro is in the Nasher Sculptural Center in Dallas. That same day, March 18, Russian TV didn’t waste a minute filming at the booth of Van Gelder Indian Jewelry which showcased some fabulous South Sea pearls and antique jewelry.
Tickets to the private first day are distributed to dealers who then invite their most important clients. The next day, all are welcome at a tab of €50 or about $75.
Now if you don’t fit into the curator or collector category, what would draw you to TEFAF? Without a doubt, it is a remarkable learning experience for anyone who loves art. As Michelin says, it’s worth the voyage, merely to see some 5,000 years of impeccable art, exquisitely presented. It could be that some TEFAF director handed down guidelines to the presenting dealers insisting that they treat every inquiry with respect. You won’t find any condescending brush offs here.
Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, Rembrandt
One item that drew large crowds was a fragment of an Egyptian water clock depicting Alexander the Great from about 332 BC at Belgium’s Harmakhis Galerie. Old Dutch masters, especially a portrait by Rembrandt, “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo” from 1658 and Renoir’s “Woman Picking Flowers,” depicting Camille Monet in a field of flowers also gained a lot of attention. A major attraction was a Helmut Newton solo exhibition of 40 photos from London’s Hamiltons Gallery. Other standouts were Joana Vasconselos sensual feminine crocheted canvases at Haunch of Venison, Secessionist furniture at Kolomon Moser, beautiful Chinese textiles from Jacqueline Simcox in London. Only a BMW art car designed by Jeff Koons looked as if it had driven in by mistake.
TEFAF, first organized in 1975, invites 260 dealers from 16 countries all of whom undergo tremendous scrutiny to assure the quality, condition, and authenticity of their objects. About 100 dealers apparently are on a waiting list hoping to make it another year. Think of it as an art melting pot presented in an aura of gentility. It’s the most promising, sophisticated, and enjoyable fair for specialists and the general public.
Commuters passing through the busy Zurich Bahnhof over the course of a week in February got a special treat. There Volvo set up its latest S60 luxury sedan against a white backdrop as an “art car” project, and invited ten graffiti artists to share their vision. The process was captured by camera at 10-second intervals to make a three-minute time-lapse video you can watch after the jump.
In 1811, just a year after they were married, Pierre Nicolas Perrier and Rose Adélaїde Jouët released the first bottling of Perrier-Jouët champagne. Even at 200 it is among the youngest of the champagne brands that make Americans giddy: Moët-Chandon (makers of Dom Perignon), Veuve Clicquot and Roederer (makers of Cristal) are 18th century institutions.
When it comes to taste and quality, though, Perrier-Jouët can easily go bubble-for-bubble with its older compatriots. And when it came to celebrating its two-hundredth year, if you ask the house itself, it might have outdone them. Luxist attended the event in Paris, where we’re told, “To celebrate its Bicentennary, Perrier-Jouët is initiating a conversation with time.”
It is a conversation that begins with the Perrier-Jouët Bi-Centenaire sculpture and that will last nearly 100 years. And it involves lots and lots of champagne…
His latest “masterpiece,” however is rather abominable — the world’s ugliest Ferrari. And he claims it’s worth $1 million.
We don’t think Gartel, whose work is in the permanent collection of Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, set out to make the luxury car unattractive. He transformed a $300,000 Ferrari F430 Scuderia into a moving canvas using every color imaginable in a nightmarish combination, apparently commissioned by “art social network,” Artfellas.
Check out a video of the emetic supercar above, but be forewarned — Ferrari lovers might cry, and the rest of you will probably need a bucket.
When we first reported back in May that Pablo Picasso’s 1932 painting Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust (above) had sold for a record-breaking $106.5 million at Christie’s we heard whispers that the buyer was a certain Russian oligarch known for his eye-popping acquisitions: Roman Abramovich. Now that the world’s most expensive painting has been lent to the UK’s Tate Modern museum by the unnamed “private collector” who bought it (as my colleague Deidre Woollard reported), a strong indication that the owner is based in London where Abramovich spends most of his time, we’re hearing them louder. [cont’d]
There were breaks in the rain, but the day ended with small rivers flowing through the gutters in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. It was the last day of Armory week in New York City, an event consisting of art fairs all over the city, ranging from colossal reputations and incredible valuations to emerging artists eager for their first tastes of success and notoriety. I was on my way to the Verge show, itself spread out over several locations.
If you want to find something unique or unusual, Verge is the place to go. You’ll have to sift through a lot of good efforts (as opposed to successful results), but the one piece that blows your mind is worth it. I found it at 20 Jay Street: “The Flood,” by Ahron Weiner.
There is nothing conventional about Weiner’s photography, except, perhaps, for the fact that he uses a camera. After that, he’s truly exploring new territory. “The Flood” is part of a larger effort that tells the stories of the Old Testament through rehabilitated advertising images.
Okay, that’s a lot to digest. So, let’s step through the concept.
If you ever see a tall (by my standards, at least) man with long blond hair chipping through the advertising posters on Manhattan scaffolds, there’s a good chance it’s Weiner. These posters are slapped up all over the city, with the new simply covering up the old … and so on. It’s endless. Weiner goes in the opposite direction. He peels away at the layers, looking for a story to emerge. Starting with what strikes him as an interesting advertisement, he pulls to see what lies beneath.
Last July we watched in amazement as a J.M.W. Turner painting, “Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino” sold at auction Sotheby’s London for over $45 million, setting a new record for the artist. Six bidders pursued the painting driving the price well above pre-sale expectations. The price beat the old record set in April 2006 at Christie’s in New York when an 1841 view of Venice, “Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio,” sold for $35.9 million but the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles took home the prize. Now the painting is finally going on display at the Getty but what happened in the interim is also interesting.
The Daily Mail reports that the British government postponed export of the work until last month in order to see if enough money could be raised to keep the painting from leaving the country. “Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino” was painted in 1839 and is his final painting of Rome, a culmination of all of the studies that he made during his two visits to the Italian capital. Before the most recent sale, the painting had only appeared on the open market once in the 171 years since it was painted. It was offered for sale by a descendant of the 5th Earl of Rosebery; the 5th Earl of Rosebery had bought the painting in 1878, while on honeymoon with his wife Hannah Rothschild. The painting was most recently displayed at the National Gallery of Scotland where it was on long-term loan.
Los Angeles museums have a small wealth of J.M.W. Turner works, the Getty now has two painting and two water colors. There are also Turners at the Huntington and the LACMA.
Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust stunned the world when it sold at Christie’s New York last May for $106.5 million. Now the Telegraph reports that the most expensive painting ever sold at auction is on display for the first time in the UK at the Tate Modern. The painting was done in 1932 during Picasso’s very fruitful year when he did a series of paintings of his mistress and muse Marie-Therese Walter. Picasso first saw young Marie-Thérèse on the streets of Paris in 1927, when she was just seventeen years old. Because of her age and the status of his marriage to Olga Khokhlova the relationship was kept quiet for several years. This painting was part of a colorful explosion of works painted in January 1932 in anticipation of the major retrospective that he was planning. The Steve-Wynn-owned painting Le Reve is from this period as is La Lecture which sold for over $40 million earlier this year. The painting has been lent to the gallery by a private collector and will have pride of place in the new Pablo Picasso room in the Poetry and Dream wing on Level 3 of the building.
California’s famous fashion designing sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy of the couture line Rodarte may not have gotten the film credit for the costumes in “Black Swan” but the talented designers are getting their own moment in the sun as the tutus go on display as part of their first West Coast solo exhibition “Rodarte: States of Matter,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The movie’s intricate tutus are displayed as art and are filled with resin sculptures that show the form of the pieces but don’t distract in the way that full mannequins might. Hung from wires, the tutus slowly spin for an effect that is both ethereal and eerie. The tutus and other elaborate Rodarte dresses are surrounded by fluorescent light tubes in red, black and white which gives the exhibit a bold contrast. There are six tutus that Academy-Award winner for Best Actress Natalie Portman wore in “Black Swan” on display along with a variety of dramatic black and white Rodarte couture creations. The AP reports that the Mulleavys did extensive research on ballet costumes which also ended up informing their runway collections during the seasons that they were working on the movie.
Think of the Armory Show on Piers 92 and 94 in New York as the momentary center of the art fair universe with satellite shows orbiting around it. The show was a lot of work - some 274 galleries from 31 countries competing for attention.
Before you climb the museum stairs to see “Vienna 1900: Style and Identity” head for the Neue Museum’s Cafe Sabarsky, a dead ringer for an old-world Viennese cafe. With its Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos inspired decor, this cafe is a best bet for great coffee and strudels as well as catching the vibe of the exhibition’s, turn-of-the-century Vienna. The museum’s 1914 building, an Upper East Side landmark, is steps away from Central Park at 1048 Fifth Avenue at 86th Street. (The museum’s name means “new gallery.”)
It could definitely be argued that the most expensive item associated with Michael Jackson hasn’t sold yet. Plenty of items tied to his career and his life remain off the market as his family continues to sort out the complicated legacy the singer left behind. In the end, it may turn out that the California real estate associated with him including Neverland Ranch or the home he was renting at the time of his death could be the most expensive Michael Jackson collectibles (depending of course on how you stretch that term).
Jackson’s role in the collectible world is a complicated one. There are hundreds of Michael Jackson collectibles on the market at any given moment. Items associated with him and his career have value but also to be considered are the pieces that he inspired. Jackson was a muse for some of the world’s top selling artists. In my research on the many associated Michael Jackson collectibles on the market I found that the most valuable pieces are mostly the works he inspired. This isn’t a comprehensive list but it gives a look at some of the most expensive pieces associated with Jackson.
The PULSE New York fair has it all — sculpture, photography, mixed-media, painting. The layout this year with 63 booths is much more manageable territory at the Metropolitan Pavilion than at the other fairs dominating Manhattan this week. In fact, PULSE is the one fair not to miss. It is friendly, not at all imposing, a nice mix of hedge-fund deep pockets and young people, some even changing babies on cardboard arty currogated stools. Most important though is that the works are fresh and new. There’s lots to buy at a wide range of prices and people on opening day were not hesitating to add to their collections.
Madonna, Julia Roberts, Michele Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger, Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford - all of them owe their fame in some measure to the late Herb Ritts, the renowned photographer whose portraits for the likes of Vanity Fair, Vogue and various fashion houses in the ’80s and ’90s helped turn many of his subjects into icons. A new book by Charles Churchward, Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour, is a lavish scrapbook / oral history looking at both Ritts’ life, legacy and work. Along with some of the well known celebrity and supermodel poses the book’s 200 images include intimate portraits, images of extravagant Hollywood parties, travels to exotic locales, and other unforgettable moments from an extraordinary career, many from Ritts’ personal archive and previously unpublished. Richard Gere provides an introduction and there are scores of interviews from Ritts’ friends including Annie Leibovitz, Elton John, kd lang, Helena Christensen, L’Wren Scott and more.
Artist Ryan McGinness is installing his latest work Women: The Blacklight Paintings as well as a set of vinyl installations at The Shop and Le Bain in The Standard, New York presented by Country Club. The work is the follow-up to last December’s installation during Art Basel Miami and will be followed by another showing this spring in Los Angeles.
The playful and colorful works take you back to the early 1980s, consisting of fluorescent paint that glows under a black light. The graphic vinyl installations are on view at The Standard, New York Shop and 18th floor club Le Bain during Armory Week through March 6. The overall effect combines a Picasso-esque adoration of the female form with the energy of Keith Haring pieces.
The Standard always combines art with commerce and 300 Limited edition signed and numbered Blacklight posters are for sale for $200 each. One silkscreened print edition of the Blacklight Nudie Cards, printed in fluorescent inks and in an edition of 52 plus five artist’s proofs for $5,500 is available through The Standard Shop in New York. The Blacklight Nudie Cards are custom designed classic poker playing cards that will be released in LA in the Spring and available across all Standards. For more information check out an interview with McGinness at The Standard website.
A brilliant new book, Paris Between the Wars, 1919-1939: Art, Life & Culture by Vincent Bouvet and Gérard Durozoi from The Vendome Press explores the myriad cultural forces which collided in the City of Light during the two decades between World Wars I and II. Over those 20 years artists and intellectuals flocked to Paris from around the world, resulting in a crucible of creativity that wrought great achievements in fashion, graphic design, architecture, literature, fine arts, theater and more. Illustrated with hundreds of paintings, drawings, archival photographs, advertising posters, film stills, and plans, the book travels between the bohemian charms of Montparnasse, which attracted artists such as Picasso, Chagall, and Giacometti, and the vibrant café culture which provided a forum and hunting ground for Dadaists, Surrealists and expatriate writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
Last fall we saw video renderings of the plans for the new Soumaya museum planned by Mexico’s richest man Carlos Slim. The new branch of the museum named for his late wife is the the second one that he has created. The six-story museum was designed by his son-in-law Fernando Romero. The modern and shiny aluminum structure is composed of over 16,000 tiles. The building has five stories of exhibition space totaling 183,000 square feet with six halls. The AP shot some photos as the museum prepared for its inauguration on March 1 by Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon.
The world of online art collecting is expanding rapidly at all price points. The major auction houses and galleries have smart phone and tablet apps for easy access and a bunch of new start-ups have flourished appealing to younger or less wealthy collectors looking for a new way to buy art that feels fresher and less intimidating. The latest is Artsicle which launches this week. Venture Beat reports that the New-York-City-based start-up not only sells art but provides rentals for those in the New York area in a try-before-you-buy arrangement. Price points are low and the artists are ones that haven’t hit the mainstream yet. Many pieces are in the $500-to$1,500 range with rentals costing $50 per month.
Other art start-ups which have launched recently include Art.sy; Exhibition A, which uses a fast sale format to sell prints; and the VIP online art fair which had galleries around the world participating in an online mimicry of destination art fairs earlier this winter.
Napoleon Entering Cairo Statue Available At Rau Antiques originally appeared on Luxist on Sat, 14 May 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It could definitely be argued that the most expensive item associated with 
The world of online art collecting is expanding rapidly at all price points. The major auction houses and galleries have smart phone and tablet apps for easy access and a bunch of new start-ups have flourished appealing to younger or less wealthy collectors looking for a new way to buy art that feels fresher and less intimidating. The latest is 
