Gerhard Richter, Skizze zu Parkstück, 1971. Photo Philips.

oil on paper; 60.8 x 85.7 cm. (23 7/8 x 33 3/4 in.). Signed and dated 'Richter Okt, 71' lower right. Estimate£60,000 - 80,000

PROVENANCE: Leo Koenig Inc., New York.

Philips. CONTEMPORARY ART DAY LONDON DAY SALE 11 FEBRUARY 2014 2PM - www.phillips.com

Gerhard Richter (B. 1932), Abstraktes Bild, 1992. Photo Sotheby's.

signed, dated 1992 and numbered 773-4 on the reverse; oil on canvas; 52 by 62cm.; 20 by 24in. Estimation 200,000 — 300,000 GBP

Provenance: Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Connecticut
Karl Hutter Fine Art, Los Angeles

Litterature: Dietmar Elger, Ed., Gerhard Richter, Catalogue Raisonne 1962-1993, Vol. III, Bonn 1993, p. 195, no. 773-4, illustrated in colour

Over the course of 1992, Gerhard Richter introduced a new formal element to his highly distinctive and visually powerful Abstrakte Bilder. Whereas the earlier manifestations of his chromatically complex abstract paintings often had no definable structure - largely due to the chance-based methods that Richter employs to create them - the introduction of the grid marks an important shift in Richter’s practice.

This series of paintings, made in preparation for Documenta IX in Kassel, coincided with a period of personal turbulence after the artist's separation from his wife Isa Genzken. Richter’s interest in the grid, which is exceptionally well-defined in the present work, could therefore be seen as a reaction to the sense of chaos that the artist expressed in his personal notes of the same year. Like Mondrian’s Neoplasticism, which Hans Ulrich Obrist discusses in an interview about this series, Richter’s abstract paintings of this period function as models that allow him to gain control over his reality. Confirming this interpretation, the artist stated: “this is something that came up in an interview with Buchloh: the idea that Mondrian’s paintings might be understood as social models of a non-hierarchical, egalitarian world. Perhaps that was what prompted me to see my own abstract pictures as models, not of an egalitarian world but of a varied and constantly changing one” (the artist in 1993 quoted in: Dietmar Elger and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Eds., Gerhard Richter: Text, Cologne 2009, p. 300).

The sumptuous horizontal and vertical lines of the present Abstraktes Bild are, as Richter astutely remarked, not the rigid abstraction of Mondrian, but the more varied and changing approach of his complex and multi-faceted practice. Despite the fact that the grid brings structure to the painting, it simultaneously obscures what lies behind its layered surface, which is only sparsely revealed through the density of oscillating horizontals and verticals that recede into the background. Even though Richter has here allowed himself to regain control over his work through a formal device, the magnificent chance qualities of his previous explorations are still present: combustions of colour and the lush surface of his signature squeegee are abundant. This fortuitousness is deeply embedded in the structure of the painting, as the lines of the grid were created through the removal of layers of paint with the squeegee, revealing a rich texture that the artist could not have anticipated. This makes the present work a superb example of Richter’s highly original exploration of the grid, through the sophisticated interplay of intentionality and chance that makes his ongoing investigation into the nature of painting one of the most influential practices of our time.

Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Day Auction. London | 13 févr. 2014 - www.sothebys.com

Gerhard Richter (B. 1932), Untitled (17.5.84). Photo Sotheby's.

signed, titled and dated 17 Mai 84; watercolour on paper; 24.5 by 33cm.; 9 3/4 by 13in. Estimation 60,000 — 80,000 GBP

Provenance: Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
Private Collection
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Contemporary Art, 29 June 1995, Lot 259
Private Collection, USA
Simon Lee Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Day Auction. London | 13 févr. 2014 - www.sothebys.com

Gerhard Richter (B.1932), Cage Grid. Photo Sotheby's.

signed and numbered 4/4 on the reverse; giclée print on paper mounted on aluminium; 75 by 75cm.; 29 1/2 by 29 1/2 in. Executed in 2011, this work is number 4 from an edition of 4, plus 2 artist's proofs. Estimation 20,000 — 30,000 GBP

This work will be included in the forthcoming Gerhard Richter, Editions 1965-2013: Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Hubertus Butin and Stefan Gronert, under number 152 (L).

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Exposition: Beirut, Beirut Art Centre, Gerhard Richter: Beirut, 2012, p. 139, another example exhibited and illustrated in colour

Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Day Auction. London | 13 févr. 2014 - www.sothebys.com

Thierry Vendome, Broche-pendentif Bagatelle. Or jaune, opale et corail peau d'ange.

Thierry Vendome, Boucles d'oreilles Bagatelle. Or jaune, opale et corail peau d'ange.

Thierry Vendome, Bague Iceberg. Or blanc, opale.

Thierry Vendome, Bague Écume. Or blanc, coulée de pâte de verre, opales.

Thierry Vendome, Bague Corde. Or noir, opale.

Thierry Vendome, Collier Cascade. Or, opales, turquoise. 

Jean-Joseph Carriès (French, 1855–1894), Flask with face. Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, ca. 1890. Glazed stoneware. H. 15 1/2 in.; wt. confirmed: 9.5 lb. (39.4 cm, 4.3 kg). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013

NEW YORK, NY.- Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910) celebrates the recent acquisition of Mr. Ellison’s European art pottery collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The majority of the 40 works on display are examples of French pottery and porcelain, and they are shown with comparative examples drawn from the Museum’s holdings of Asian art, European sculpture and decorative arts, Greek and Roman art, and European paintings to illustrate sources of inspiration. 

French ceramics from Mr. Ellison’s collection of European art pottery collection include vases made by potters in the years around 1900 that pushed the boundaries of the medium and were technically experimental and aesthetically ambitious. Works by master ceramicists Ernest Chaplet, Auguste Delaherche, Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat, and Jean Carriès are highlights of the installation. The installation also includes the monumental Vase des Binelles by Hector Guimard (who is most well-known for his Art Nouveau Métro stations throughout Paris) and an extremely rare ceramic vessel by Paul Gauguin, the first by the artist to enter the Metropolitan Museum’s collection. 

Determined that pottery vessels should be regarded as true works of art, avant–garde ceramicists in France in the last decades of the 19th century transformed their craft into an intellectual and emotional endeavor. The pioneers of this revival were Jean Carriès, Ernest Chaplet, Théodore Deck, and Auguste Delaherche. These revolutionary artist-potters embraced artisanal traditions while pursuing lost techniques through exhaustive experimentation. Reacting to what they viewed as excessive and improper use of ornament, they celebrated the simplicity and sincerity of their medium, following the tenets of the Art Nouveau style taking place in Europe. Based on the principles of the British Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau artists sought to reform the decorative arts by emphasizing uniqueness and a return to craftsmanship. Artist-potters found inspiration in Asian ceramics, particularly Japanese stoneware (a hard, dense type of pottery), as well as in the forms, glazes, and techniques of Chinese porcelain and pottery. They also looked to European traditions such as the rustic salt-glazed stoneware of the 16th and 17th centuries and Gothic sculpture and architecture. In the process they created works of ceramic art that were entirely modern and new. 

Robert A. Ellison Jr. has been collecting pottery since the 1960s. His collection of American art pottery came to the Metropolitan Museum as a promised gift in 2009 and is currently on view in the American Wing. For his collection of outstanding European ceramics, Mr. Ellison has sought the highest-quality examples—typically on a monumental scale—by the greatest artist-potters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to tell the narrative of the art pottery movement in Europe, especially France. In June 2013 the Metropolitan Museum acquired 76 examples of European art pottery from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, 54 of which were generously donated. These Continental and British ceramics, dating from 1867 to the 1930s, were acquired jointly by the departments of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts and Modern and Contemporary Art. The arrival of these works from The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of European Art Pottery represents another ceramics milestone in the Metropolitan Museum’s history. 

The installation is organized by Elizabeth Sullivan, Research Associate, with the support of Jeffrey Munger, Curator, both of the Metropolitan Museum’s European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department. 

Auguste Delaherche, Tall Vase. French (Paris), ca. 1893-94. Stoneware, 29 7/16 × 11 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013. 

Pierre-Adriene Dalpayrat (French, 1844–1910), Vase with Face. Maker: Alphone Voisin-Delacroix (Swiss, 1857–1893) French (Bourg), 1892-93. Stoneware, 25 1/2 × 16 7/8 × 16 in., 36 lb. (64.8 × 42.9 × 40.6 cm, 16.3 kg). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013.

Ernest Chaplet (French, Sèvres 1835–1909 Choisy-le-Roi), Vase. Choisy-le-Roi, ca. 1891. Porcelain, brass; confirmed: 20 11/16 × 9 3/4 × 9 3/4 in., 18 lb. (52.5 × 24.8 × 24.8 cm, 8.2 kg). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013.

Joseph-Théodore Deck (French, 1823–1891), Charger with birds. French, Paris, ca. 1885–90. Earthenware. Overall (confirmed): 2 3/4 × 23 7/8 × 23 7/8 in. (7 × 60.6 × 60.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Gift of Robert A. Ellison Jr., 2013

Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands ), Vessel with Women and Goats. French, Paris, ca. 1887–89. Stoneware, confirmed, irregular diameter: 7 7/8 × 4 5/8 × 4 3/8 in., 2.2 lb. (20 × 11.7 × 11.1 cm, 1 kg). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013

Constantin Brancusi, Tête d’enfant endormi, 1906-1907. Plaster, coloured dark brown, 10.8 x 13.6 x 15.2 cm. Private collection.

ROTTERDAM.- A previously unknown sculpture by Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) can be seen in ‘Brancusi, Rosso, Man Ray - Framing Sculpture’, the exhibition opening at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen on Saturday. The museum is especially delighted by the arrival of ‘Tête d’enfant endormie’ (Head of a Sleeping Child, 1906-07). This early sculpture is an important key work in Brancusi’s development of his famous ‘ovoid’. 

The exhibition, which features more than forty sculptures by Constantin Brancusi, Medardo Rosso and Man Ray and a hundred vintage photographs taken by them, runs in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen for three months from 8 February. The plaster sculpture was purchased at a sale by a French private collector. Leading expert Friedrich Teja Bach has recently confirmed that it is a version of the ‘head of a sleeping child’. Curators Francesco Stocchi and Peter van der Coelen remarked, ‘It is unusual for a previously unknown work by Brancusi to turn up at a sale. Works by Brancusi are rare and almost all of them are in prominent museum collections like those of the Centre Pompidou, the Tate and MoMA.’ 

The Road to Abstraction

The child’s head with natural features is in the tradition of the contemporary Impressionists Auguste Rodin and Medardo Rosso. At the same time, this early work is a starting point in Brancusi’s journey towards a more abstract style, which culminated in an entirely smooth oval form, devoid of any facial features. This process can also be seen in the photographs taken by Brancusi himself, in which he pictured ‘Tête d’enfant endormie’ in his studio with ‘Le Nouveau-Ne II’, a work he made ten years later. The exhibition in Rotterdam examines the artistic practices and development of Brancusi, Rosso and Man Ray by showing the sculptures alongside the photographs they took of them. 

Painted Bronze

Brancusi’s oeuvre contains a number of recurring subjects, which the artist executed in a variety of materials, including plaster, marble and bronze. This allowed Brancusi to explore various effects, such as the reflection of light. The signed ‘Tête d’enfant endormie’ is an early version in the series. It is unusual that Brancusi painted the plaster, making it look like bronze. 

New world record price for a bronze sculpture by Salvador Dali set at Bonhams Impressionist and Modern Art sale. Photo: Bonhams.

LONDON.- Bonhams Impressionist and Modern Art sale yesterday (4th February) has set a new world record for a Salvador Dali bronze sculpture among a number of outstanding results. A frenzy of international interest from the packed saleroom, online and on the telephones drove seven of the top ten lots to double, or even triple, their estimates. A great buzz from the telephone bidders set the tone: 

Elephant de Triomphe by Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989) triumphed today as it sold for a staggering £446,500 setting a new world record price for a bronze by the artist. The previous record (£313,000) was blown out of the water by the colossal cast bronze emerald elephant which stands at almost 3metres in height. Elephants were used by Dalí as a symbol of the future recurring atop mosquito-like legs in many of his paintings. A golden angel lands on the elephant’s jewelled saddle – a shining fanfare promising a future with great fortune. 

Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989), Eléphant de triomphe. Photo: Bonhams

inscribed 'Dali' and numbered '4/8' (on the side of the base); bronze with green and brown patina, 265cm (104 5/16in) (height). Concieved in 1975 and first cast in 1984. This work was cast at a later date by Perseo foundry in a numbered edition of eight plus four épreuves d'artisteand two épreuves de fonderie. Sold for £446,500 (€536,529) 

PROVENANCE: Important Private Collection, Switzerland

EXHIBITED: London, County Hall Gallery, The Dalí Universe, 2000-2010. 
Lavardens, Chateau Lavardens, L'Univers de Dalí, 2004. 
Mexico City, Soumaya Museum, Game and Desire, 2008.
Bahrain, Opera Gallery, Awaken your imagination in Bahrain, 2011.
Dubai, Opera Gallery, Treasures of Dali, 2011.
Cannes, Galeries Bartoux, 2011. 
Florence, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, The Dalí Universe Florence, 2013.

LITERATURE: R. & N. Descharnes, Dalí: The Hard and the Soft, Sculptures & Objects, catalogue raisonné of Dalí Sculpture, Paris, 2004, p. 252, fig. 651 (another cast illustrated).
B. Levi, et al., Dalí in the Third Dimension, The Stratton Foundation Collection, Turin, 2010 pp. 154-155 (another cast illustrated).
Awaken your imagination in Bahrain, exh. cat., Dubai, Opera Gallery, 2011, p. 18 (another cast illustrated). 
The Dalí Universe Florence, exh. cat., Florence, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, 2013, pp. 52-53 (another cast illustrated)

The elephant first appeared in Dalí's work in the 1944 painting Rêve causé par le vol d'une abeille autour d'une grenade, une seconde avant l'éveil in which a tall mammoth on delicately elongated legs walks sedately and gracefully through the background, seemingly distant from the violent dream playing out in the foreground. The elephant carries an obelisk on its back in an elegant reimagining of Bernini's Pulcino della Minerva which stands in front of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

The majestic mammal was then embodied as a Dalínian symbol in the 1946 canvas La Tentation de saint Antoine (fig. 1) in which the legs of the processing elephants appear ever more lengthened and fragile in striking contrast to their strong bodies and the burdens they carry. With their heads in the clouds yet their feet on the ground, Robert Descharnes identifies the elephants as a link between the physical world and the spiritual: 

'[La Tentation de saint Antoine] is of great importance in Dalí's work. It marks the point in his creative life when intermediates between heaven and earth became important – in this case, the elephants with their spindly legs' (R. Descharnes and G. Neret,Salvador Dalí 1904-1898, The Paintings, Part I,Cologne, 2001, p. 411).

This bridge between heaven and earth can be linked to Dalí's persistent exploration of the spiritual, and his quest for eternal life. His very experimentation with the medium of sculpture, holograms and the third dimension would, Dalí believed, allow him to move into the fourth dimension and from there into immortality.

Despite the many religious subjects he painted, the artist remained characteristically evasive when asked ''If you would meet Jesus Christ, what would you say?''Nothing,' replied Dalí, 'because I don't know him.' [...] When asked if he believed in God, his answer was always nuanced: 'Not too much, no. At the beginning, I didn't believe in anything; my father was an atheist and a free thinker, and that influenced me a lot throughout my life. What has happened is that because I meet frequently with scientists, I know that sciences prove each time more, naturally, the immortality of the soul and existence of God. For me, however, grace still has not touched me'' (R. and N. Descharnes, Dalí, The Hard and the Soft: Spells for the Magic of Form; Sculptures and Objects, Azay-le-Rideau, 2004, p. 92). 

By 1948, the celestial elephants form the main focus of Les Eléphants. Still bowed and bearing obelisks, the mammals stand either side of an otherwise sparse landscape and anticipate the later Eléphant de triomphe in which the pachyderm stands proud as the subject, his load not now an obelisk but rather a jubilant herald whose trumpet is echoed by the elephant's exultantly raised trunk.

In the present work, Dalí subverts our long-held associations of strength and power with the elephant by placing the mammal on incongruously long, spindly and insubstantial limbs. The bony legs with pronounced joints are smooth in contrast to the striations and folds of the elephant's body and remind the viewer of the crutches which appear in so many of the artist's compositions.

Dalí explained in his 1942 autobiography that he first conceived of the crutch as a means of 'making society people come to my support. It was childishly simple. I was going to succeed by having them come and lean on me [...] I inaugurated the 'pathetic crutch', the prop of the first crime of my childhood, as the all-powerful and exclusivist post-war symbol – crutches to support the monstrous development of certain atmospheric-cephalic skulls, crutches immobilise the ecstasy of certain attitudes of rare elegance, crutches to make architectural and durable the fugitive pose of the choreographic leap, to pin the ephemeral butterfly of the dancer with pins that would make her poised for eternity. Crutches, crutches, crutches, crutches.' (S. Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, New York, 1942, pp. 260-261.)

Crutches morph into stilts in a sketch which illustrates a later page of Dalí's autobiography. Inscribed 'Vertical Infantry, as against horizontal infantry; means of winning a battle by the unexpected use of stilts of the Landes country', the pen and ink drawing from 1940 depicts towering figures on stilts brandishing spears and effortlessly defeating the insignificant figures below them. Imbued with associations of stability and strength, it is easy to see how the Dalínian crutch may have morphed into a stilt and then into the very legs of the elephant in the present work. No longer leaning on or merely attached to these supports, the mammal's own limbs are spindly stilts of towering presence and might.

Elevated then both physically and spiritually, Dalí's elephant becomes a symbol of hope. The trumpeter who rests so lightly on the mammal's back has been identified by Benjamin Levi as a 'flying angel', a motif which also figures large in Dalí's oeuvre. Announcing the dawn of a new and wealthy era (indicated by the bejewelled saddle), Eléphant de triomphe trumpets 'success and prosperity. Dalí's elephant exemplifies every individual's hope for abundance and good fortune in the future' (B. Levi et al, Dalí in the Third Dimension – The Stratton Foundation Collection, Turin, 2010, p. 155).

Another highlight in the sale was Almen im Marz, Alfons Walde’s wintery work showing an Austrian chalet in the snow which sold for £278,500 – triple its estimates. Bids flew in a continuous stream as multiple telephone bidders and bidders in the room pulled the auctioneer’s attention in all directions. 

Other top lots were two works by Joan Miro (Spanish, 1893-1983). Femme, étoile, which translates as ‘Woman, Star’, realised £212,500. Femme, oiseau, étoile (Woman, bird, star) was another work in high demand from bidders in the room. A lengthy stand off between two telephones took the final price to £91,300 – three times higher than its estimates. 

A necklace by the surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray (American, 1890-1976) La jolie Pendant realised an incredible £47,000 after an impressive battle between three persistent parties. 

“Wave” by Mark Schneider (Long Beach, California) won the highest honor awarded to a design. "Wave" also won the Fashion Award.

 “Obi” by Stanislav Drokin (Ukraine) won the Luster Award for “most marketable” of all the entries in the competition. This design will have the most overall appeal for the retail marketplace.

 “Midnight Comet” by Darryl Alexander (Gilbert Arizona) won the Designer's Award for the entry that takes pearls to the far corners of the imagination and beyond.

“Big Wave” by Philip Bouasse (Montreal Canada) won the Brilliance Award for the entry that best illustrates the spectrum of pearl colors in the most beautiful way.

 “Lunar Eclipse” by Hsiao Ching Lee (Taipei City, Taiwan) won the Orient Award for the entry that would inspire a new found affinity in someone for cultured pearls.

"Lily Pearl” Chi Huynh (Galatea: Jewelry by Artist of San Dimas, California) won the Visionary Award for the entry that re-defines the iconic pearl strand and shifts the perception of cultured pearls for today’s buyer.

Two entries won the Wedding Day Pearls Award for entries that created a "fantasy wedding" theme with pearls: “Wedding Bouquet” by Dilly Kirby (Elizabeth Blair Fine Pearls of Harbor Springs, Michigan) and“Rough Diamonds” by Lee Wiser McIntosh (Katura Design of Atlanta, Georgia).

The Kissing Coppers’ is estimated between $500,000 and $700,000. The original street work is 89x65x3.5 inches, stencil and spray paint on emulsion base and aluminum substrate. 

MIAMI, FL.- Having established itself as the leading fine art auction house in Florida since opening in 2011, Fine Art Auctions Miami will unveil iconic works to the world, including Banksy’s iconic Kissing Coppers lot, and give voice to strong messages at the Street Art Exhibition and Auction during Presidents Day Weekend. FAAM is the first major auction house in the world to host a specialized street art exhibition and auction highlighting only the world’s most recognized street artists. 

From Friday, February 14 through Tuesday, February 18 in Midtown/Wynwood Miami at LMNT, FAAM hosts the most important street art auction sale, featuring a five-day exhibition and live happenings that will be open to the public. On Tuesday, February 18, FAAM will end the exhibition with an auction sale highlighted by Banksy’s Kissing Coppers, Brighton 2005. UK celebrity artist, Bambi’s first public mural in the US located in the Design District will be auctioned to benefit The Arts & Business Council of Miami. The original wall work will be on display through the weekend and will be auctioned off Tuesday along with works by Speedy Graphito, Bambi, Basquiat, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, Retna, Lady Aiko, Faile, SEEN, Kenny Scharf. 

“Street art is a narrative art rooted within our every day lives,” says FAAM President Frederic Thut. “This street art auction will not only show iconic works from leading artists like Banksy but also will feature work from local artists from Wynwood Miami.” 

The second annual Street Art Exhibition and Auction will be comprised of close to 60 lots from some of the most important street artists. Throughout the exhibition, live happenings will be taking place by local street artists KAZILLA, HOX, ABSTRK, TREK6, Jeff Dekal, Ruben Ubiera and Diana Contreras. Internationally acclaimed street artist Speedy Graphito will have a special pop-up exhibition of his latest works while he paints live. Over the weekend BARNES Intentional Luxury Real Estate, Whitewall Magazine, Van Cleef & Arpels and Sandow Media Group will all host private events in celebration of the Exhibition and Auction. 

Seven years after its creation, Banksy’s famed Kissing Coppers will be on view for the first time and up for auction at FAAM’s Street Art Exhibition. Not only a symbol of equality but also an image of the true meaning of relationships, the picture shows two English policemen in a sensual kiss. First painted in 2004 in Brighton, England on the side of the Prince Albert Pub, the Kissing Coppers’ is estimated between $500,000 and $700,000. The original street work is 89x65x3.5 inches, stencil and spray paint on emulsion base and aluminum substrate. 

Coupe en porcelaine “bleu de Huê”, marque Nôi Phu, Chine pour le Vietnam, XIXe. Photo Sarl Hôtel des Ventes de Coutances

à décor de deux lettrés sur un promontoire regardant un homme dans les rapides, poème, diamètre : 14 cm (cerclé métal). ESTIMATION 120 €-150 €

Maître Eric BOUREAU et Sarl Hôtel des Ventes de Coutances. Samedi 8 février à 14h00 à Coutances. 62, rue Gambetta, 50200 Coutances. Tél. : 02 33 19 01 80 - Fax : 02 33 19 01 81 - eboureau@wanadoo.fr

Buste de jeune vietnamien en ivoire, Fin XIXe siècle. Photo Sarl Hôtel des Ventes de Coutances

socle en bois sculpté et ajouré– H. 11,5 cm. Estimation 200 €

Maître Eric BOUREAU et Sarl Hôtel des Ventes de Coutances. Samedi 8 février à 14h00 à Coutances. 62, rue Gambetta, 50200 Coutances. Tél. : 02 33 19 01 80 - Fax : 02 33 19 01 81 - eboureau@wanadoo.fr

Panneau en soie brodée d'un faisan royal et d'oiseaux, Vietnam, vers 1900. Photo Sarl Hôtel des Ventes de Coutances

signé, encadré; 130x156 cm. Estimation 150 € 200 €

Maître Eric BOUREAU et Sarl Hôtel des Ventes de Coutances. Samedi 8 février à 14h00 à Coutances. 62, rue Gambetta, 50200 Coutances. Tél. : 02 33 19 01 80 - Fax : 02 33 19 01 81 - eboureau@wanadoo.fr

Sur mon bureau, un sablier "&k amsterdam" acheté aujourd'hui chez "isarie", 21 rue debelleyme, 75003 Paris où j'ai trouvéégalement des globes avec un socle noir et miroir circulaire (deux tailles différentes) ainsi que ces verres en bambou de couleur céladon du Longquan à 4 € pièce!

Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, Saint Francis in Meditation from the San Pietro Romano Carpineto (left) and friom the Rome’s Capuchin church (right).

WILLIAMSBURG, VA.- Visitors going to the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary will have a rare opportunity to view three famous paintings by, or attributed to, Caravaggio and take sides in an intense debate among the world’s leading authorities on Italian paintings. 

Two nearly identical versions of Caravaggio’s Saint Francis in Meditation have left experts divided. Despite years of debate, experts are in disagreement as to which one of these two beautiful paintings was created first … and by whom. Which one is the original? Could they both be by the great Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio? 

The two paintings on special loan from Rome’s Capuchin church and from the town of Carpineto Romano are being shown side by side, affording a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Williamsburg audience to compare them. The exhibition is completed by another of Caravaggio’s best-known compositions, the Fortune Teller, on loan from the Pinacoteca Capitoline in Rome. Although disputed by the experts until as recently as 1985, this painting is now recognized as a milestone in Caravaggio’s representation of daily life, not to mention a characteristic example of his style shortly after his arrival in Rome in the early 1590s. 

At the end of the 1500s, in the same years that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Caravaggio painted Saint Francis in solitary dialogue with a skull. Caravaggio’s conception of the theme was so arresting that a profusion of copies were made, both during his lifetime and long afterwards. The two competing paintings in this exhibition encapsulate the problems faced by scholars in attributing, dating and interpreting the works of the revolutionary realist, Caravaggio. 

Michelangelo Merisi (Milan 1571 - 1610 Port’Ercole) was known by the name of Caravaggio, the rural town in Lombardy where his family lived and worked. As an apprentice in Milan, Caravaggio ignored his contemporaries and looked instead to the Renaissance masters, Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione and Titian, who inspired him to illustrate the Bible stories as contemporary events in recognizable settings. Perhaps Caravaggio’s greatest innovation was to portray his friends and models in his canvases, as if the ancient stories had been enacted by ordinary people under the brilliant sun of Italy. 

“It was right here at the Muscarelle Museum in 2013 -- the Year of Italian Culture in the United States -- that we organized two major exhibitions: one on Michelangelo and the other on Mattia Preti,” commented His Excellency Claudio Bisogniero, Italy’s ambassador to the United States. “This rare exhibit of Caravaggio’s genius demonstrates that the year has left behind a precious legacy in terms of new high-level partnerships between Italian and U.S. cultural institutions -- and the journey of discovery of Italy’s treasures continues in 2014.” 

“Caravaggio Connoisseurship: Saint Francis in Meditation and the Capitoline Fortune Teller” includes a didactic section in which explanatory texts and photographic enlargements present the cases for the differing points of view, equipping visitors to see the works with the eyes of a connoisseur and judge for themselves. An online poll will be set up in the gallery to register every visitor’s vote. 

Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, Saint Francis in Meditation from the San Pietro Romano Carpineto.

Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, Saint Francis in Meditation from the Rome’s Capuchin church.

Fernand Léger, Contraste de formes. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

VENICE.- In the early 1970s the authenticity of a painting that had been acquired by the American collector Peggy Guggenheim as by Fernand Léger was made questionable when a friend, Douglas Cooper, an expert on Léger, expressed his doubts. It is now a certainty that the painting is a fake thanks to a team from the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), who analysed the canvas using carbon 14 dating. 

After decades in which scholars, connoisseurs and experts had failed to reach a definitive conclusion about the status of the painting, which has never been exhibited nor catalogued since the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation assumed responsibility for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the enigma has now been solved using a particle accelerator. The researchers measured the radiocarbon content in a minute fragment of unpainted canvas of the work, believed to be part of the Contraste de Formes series produced by Léger between 1913 and 1914. They then plotted their results against the so-called “bomb peak” curve. This comparison, used for the first time to ascertain the authenticity of a painting, demonstrated with absolute certainty that the canvas support was produced after 1959, at least four years later than Léger’s death (1955). 

The research was conducted at the laboratory for the environment and cultural heritage (LABEC) in Florence, in partnership with the INFN’s Ferrara division and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, within the scope of the activities of the INFN dedicated to the study and diagnostics of cultural heritage. The study has been published in The European Physical Journal Plus (EPJ Plus). 

The bomb peak

During the Cold War, after 1955, a series of nuclear tests were conducted. One of the secondary effects of these was an enormous increase in the level of radiocarbon (C-14) in the earth’s atmosphere. These levels peaked towards the mid-sixties (1963-1965) and then fell again with the signing of various international treaties banning nuclear weapons tests (the first Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963). Scientists call this phenomenon the “bomb peak”. As the level of radiocarbon in the atmosphere increased, it also increased at a corresponding rate in all living organisms, including the cotton and linen plants used to make canvases for artwork. 

The analysis

Experts from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice obtained a small sample from a folded, unpainted edge of the canvas of the painting in question and sent it to the LABEC in Florence where it was analysed using accelerator mass spectrometry. Physicists measured the level of radiocarbon to establish the date of the canvas (i.e. when the crops used to make the canvas were harvested). This was done by comparing the level of radiocarbon in the fabric with those over the bomb peak period. The analysis revealed a much higher radiocarbon content than there would have been had the work been an original. There is absolutely no doubt that the canvas was not made before 1959: four years after the death of Léger, who therefore cannot be the author of the painting. 

“This is the first time radiocarbon dating has been used to reveal a forgery in contemporary art, by comparing levels of that isotope in the atmosphere during the bomb peak period.” Piero Mandò, head of the Florence division of the INFN, went on to explain: “After 1955 the level of radiocarbon in the atmosphere, and thus in living organisms, almost doubled in about 10 years. It is due to this rapid change that works from those years can be dated extremely accurately. In this case, it has allowed us to discover that the canvas support could not have been produced before 1959. The work cannot therefore be one of Léger’s original series of Contrastes de forms. Nor is it a later copy by the artist, since Léger died in 1955.” 

Philip Rylands, director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, expressed his gratitude, also on behalf of Paul Schwartzbaum, former conservator of the museum, to Professor Petrucci and the team of INFN-Labec for the success of their research: “After about forty years of doubt surrounding the authenticity of this painting, I am relieved that thanks to the application of innovative scientific techniques, the cloud of uncertainty has at last been lifted and Douglas Cooper’s connoisseurship vindicated.”