July-August 2010

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Look back over two vibrant years of Apollo: browse every issue from January 2006 to the present day.

1. £7m Picasso sketchbook stolen from Museum in Paris:

A sketchbook containing 32 sketches by the Pablo Picasso was stolen from the Picasso Museum in Paris on Tuesday. It was stored in a glass cabinet that had no alarm system and a flimsy lock, which was broken during the theft. The French press have reported that the museum’s security is notoriously ‘feeble’.
- Independent article

2. Art Basel attracts a more frugal crowd:

While attendance remains high, collectors, both seasoned and new, are spending more carefully at this year’s Art Basel, the world’s leading contemporary art fair. One of the highlights of this year’s fair is Andy Warhol's Big Retrospective Painting which is 11 metres wide and priced at €53m (£45m), but remains unsold.
- New York Times article

3. Greek Culture Minister would "refuse loan" of Elgin Marbles:

The Elgin marbles will not return home for the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens next weekend, as the Greek government fears that the contracts signed for even a short-term loan would ‘legalise their snatching’ by Lord Elgin in 1801/02. Instead, copies have been made for the new museum.
- BBC article

4. Sotheby's Russian Art sale fetches £17.65m, down 50% on last year:

A few exciting works ensured that the sale reached its pre-sale estimate, which was between £15m and £22m (compared to between £29m and £41m last year, when the sale collected £39.7m). Jo Vickery, head of the Russian Art department, said that buyers were ‘more selective than ever’ this year.
- BBC article

5. Top Tory sold art given to state school by Hockney's teacher:

Dr. Richard Evans, an advisor to David Cameron on education, is being asked about the whereabouts of 15 hugely valuable paintings given to Copeland Community School, Wembley, where he is deputy headteacher. He was suspended along with the headteacher, Sir Alan Davies, last month amid suspicion that they shared bonuses of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The paintings were given to the school by Mary Fedden, a 93 year old Royal Academician who taught David Hockney while at the Royal Academy.
- Guardian article

6. Pinchuk Revealed as Stakeholder of Hirst’s Diamond Skull:

It has been revealed that Damien Hirst’s diamond encrusted skull, For the Love of God, valued at £50m, is part owned by Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk. The other owners are Hirst, his business manager, Frank Dunphy, and Jay Jopling of the White Cube gallery in London.
- Art Info article

7. Picasso's Musketeers expected to be most expensive lots of summer:

Two paintings by Picasso, created by the artist after he had read Dumas’s classic The Three Musketeers while recovering from an ulcer operation aged 84, are up for sale and are tipped to be the most expensive pieces at auction this summer. Both works are called Homme à l'épée, with the painting at Sotheby’s (estimate £6m-£8m) having been painted a day before the one at Christie’s (estimate £5m-£7m) in 1969.
- Telegraph article

8. House Subcommittee sets 2010 budget at $170m each NEA and NEH at Obama’s behest:

The House Appropriation Subcommittee on the Interior in the USA has approved a 2010 budget of $170m (£104m) each for the National Endowments for Arts and Humanities respectively. Obama requested that their budgets be increased from the current figure of $155m (£95m) to at least £161m (£98.5m). Next year’s budget is still short of the record high of $176m in 1992 under George H.W. Bush, but Norm Dicks, the Democrat chairman of the subcommittee, suggested that the figure had to be raised ‘in increments that were sustainable with our Republican friends’.
- New York Times article

9. Stolen Italian treasures worth $5m–$10m found in bungalow near Philadelphia:

Over 1,600 ancient artefacts discovered by police in the house of antique shop owner John Sisto have been shown for the first time by the FBI. The items are believed to have been stolen from private collections in Italy and then shipped to Berwyn, Illinois, over the course of at least 20 years.
- NBC article

10. Gormley’s plan for Trafalgar Square's 'Fourth Plinth' passed by council:

British landscape artist and sculptor Antony Gormley’s plans for Trafalgar Square’s vacant fourth plinth, which is dedicated to the temporary display of modern art, were granted planning permission yesterday. Westminster councillor Robert Davis said that while ‘most people would have reservations’ about the piece, but that ‘the debate on its artistic merits is for others to have.’ The project, called One and Other, will last for 100 days from 6 July and feature 2,400 randomly selected members of the public who will be encouraged to do ‘anything legal’ on the plinth for one hour each.
- BBC article

APPOINTMENTS/PRIZES

11. Venice Biennale announces awards:

The 53rd Biennale has announced its awards. The Golden Lion for best National Participation was awarded to the USA. The Golden Lion for the Best artist of the ‘Making Worlds’ exhibition went to Tobias Rehberger of Germany, and the Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist in the same exhibition went to Nathalie Djurberg of Sweden.
- Venice Biennale website article

12. Google and Guggenheim announce Art Competition:

On Monday – Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday – these two huge names have teamed up to announce a competition to design a shelter using Google Earth and SketchUp software. Both amateurs and professionals are encouraged to enter their shelter designs for 100-square-foot living and workspace, which can be designed for anywhere in the world. The public will be able to vote for the winner on the Guggenheim website from a group of finalists selected by students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
- New York Times article
- Guggenheim website competition page

13. VMFA’s curator elected President of the Association of Art Museum Curators:

John Ravenal, Chief Curator of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, was yesterday announced as the President of the Association of Art Museum Directors. He will take over the post, which has a two-year term, from T.M. Shackelford of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- Richmond Times-Dispatch article

14. New Curator for Museum of Latin American Art, FL:

Cecilia Fajardo-Hill has been appointed Chief Curator at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, Florida. Previously she was the director and chief curator of the Cisneros Fontanals Arts Foundation and the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection in Miami.
- LA Times article

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