Category Archives: Art Market

A shredded Banksy…but still a Banksy?

Posted on: October 11, 2018 by Emily Gould

Following the excitement of the sale of the self-destructing Banksy last Friday night about which we reported on Monday, it has all gone rather quiet. We half-expected to hear more, perhaps from the aggrieved purchaser or maybe even from those ‘in the know’ to reassure us that it had all been one big hoax. Maybe […]

Banksy’s latest artwork: self-destruction

Posted on: October 8, 2018 by Alexander Herman

On Friday night in London, Sotheby’s auctioned off a ‘unique’ version of Banksy’s famous image of a young girl reaching for a red balloon. It was the last lot of the Contemporary Art auction in an important week for the London art market, with Frieze London having opened earlier that day. But just as the […]

Update on the US – China Trade War and its implications to the art world

Posted on: September 23, 2018 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

In a welcome development, it has been reported by the Art Newspaper earlier this week that Chinese art and antiques will no longer be subject to the increased tariffs we had discussed here in the ongoing trade war between the US and China. This is the result – at least in part – of the […]

The US – China Trade War… and why it matters for the art world

Posted on: September 6, 2018 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

In the latest of a series of controversial decisions for which the Trump administration has become renowned, the US Government has raised the stakes in the ongoing trade war with China with the result that 25% tariffs are now being applied on what is reported to be $16bn worth of imports on both sides. At […]

Crowdfunding allows Swiss to retain a Picasso

Posted on: August 2, 2018 by Hélène Deslauriers

In December 2017, a Swiss crowdfunding website, Qoqa, offered visitors to the site the opportunity to purchase a Picasso painting, Le Buste du Mousquetaire (1968).   For three months, a careful and efficient campaign was mounted, culminating in a victory, with sufficient funds raised to buy the Picasso. Le Buste du Mousquetaire now belongs to the Swiss people.  […]

The Fatimid jar dispute and the 1970 UNESCO Convention

Posted on: July 9, 2018 by Alexander Herman

An interesting case came down last month from the High Court in London in the matter of Jeddi v Sotheby’s. The case was brought by an Iranian antiquities dealer named Ali Jeddi against Sotheby’s UK for refusing to return his property, a 10th century Fatimid jar made of translucent quartz and finely decorated with images of […]

Addressing the challenges in international cultural property crime

Posted on: July 1, 2018 by Emily Gould

The 2018 Transatlantic Cultural Property Crime Symposium held on 28th and 29th June 2018 promised a varied and wide-ranging approach to current issues in heritage crime. It certainly did not disappoint on that score. The conference, organised jointly by Queen Mary University of London, Mount Saint Mary College, New York and the University of Maryland […]

Resolving art-related disputes: the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms

Posted on: June 19, 2018 by Emily Gould

This blog was posted by Emily Gould on behalf of the author, Alice Trioschi, representative for ADR Art & Cultural Heritage, National and International Arbitral Chamber of Milan It was reported earlier last month that the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI) and The Hague-based Authentication In Art (AIA) had announced the imminent opening of a new […]

Battles loom on the ivory front

Posted on: May 17, 2018 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

The controversy surrounding ivory and the restrictions imposed on its trade is certainly continuing to smoulder. As we reported a few weeks ago, the results of the UK Government’s consultation, and its proposals for a wide-ranging ban on ivory trade met with a mixed response. To add fuel to the fire, a dispute that has […]

Auction goes ahead for LaSalle collection

Posted on: May 2, 2018 by Hélène Deslauriers

On the 18th and 19thof April, Christie’s New York held an auction of top works from the LaSalle University art collection. LaSalle University, a Catholic university with its own museum, situated in an underprivileged area of Philadelphia, rather abruptly announced in January 2018 that it intended to deaccession a number of works to further its mission to […]