Posted on: August 30, 2018 by Hélène Deslauriers
After more than a year of press coverage, protests and condemnation of the Berkshire Museum Board of Trustees, the Berkshire Museum’s deaccession of 40 works from its collection is nearing completion. In addition, the Board of Trustees finally came to an agreement with the Attorney-General of Massachusetts. Here are the salient points: The Attorney General is […]
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 […]
Posted on: April 27, 2018 by Alexander Herman
The National Gallery of Canada, as reported earlier, had plans to sell one of its two major works by Marc Chagall, La Tour Eiffel, at auction at Christies in New York on 15 May, with an estimate of $6 million to $ 9 million. This led to much uproar in the Canadian press and amongst the […]
Posted on: April 18, 2018 by Alexander Herman
As reported earlier this month, the National Gallery of Canada has plans to sell a painting from its collection by artist Marc Chagall at Christie’s in New York on 15 May. The funds will be used to acquire a work by Jacques-Louis David, which was confirmed this week by the Gallery. The Chagall piece on […]
Posted on: November 13, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers
The Sotheby’s sale of the Berkshire Museum’s artworks, scheduled for the 13th of November, has now been put on hold following the Massachusetts Appeal Court’s decision reversing the previous judgment by the Superior Court, which had cleared the way for the sale. On Friday the 10th of November, the Court of Appeals granted the Attorney […]
Posted on: November 9, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers
Judge John J. Agostini of the Pittsfield Superior Court gave his decision on Tuesday in the widely publicised deaccession case brought by the sons of Rockwell and others against the Berkshire Museum. As a brief reminder, the Berkshire Museum’s financial situation had been bleak for many years and wealthy donors had all but disappeared. The […]
Posted on: November 3, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers
On 1st November, Judge John Agostini, presiding over the Pittsfield Court remarked that people “don’t often see a large crowd here,” but a large crowd had indeed gathered that day. As previously discussed, the case before him involved two separate hearings for preliminary restraining orders against the Berkshire Museum and its Trustees to stop the sale of a […]
Posted on: October 25, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers
Following our recent post on the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, legal action has now been taken by Norman Rockwell’s heirs against the Museum in relation to the upcoming auction sale of works from the collection. On 20th October, Norman Rockwell’s sons, Thomas, Jarvis and Peter Rockwell, along with other museum members and donors, filed a […]
Posted on: October 11, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers
A storm has been brewing since the summer in the quiet town of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The town’s Berkshire Museum announced in July that it intended to put up 40 works of art for sale at Sotheby’s over a period ranging from November 2017 to March 2018. The Museum justified its decision by its dire financial […]
Posted on: October 27, 2015 by Alexander Herman
This is a short update on our piece from this summer about the export ban placed on the £15 million Sekhemka statue. While it may have seemed doubtful that a UK entity would be willing (or, more importantly, able) to buy the statue and keep it in the country, there does now appear to be interest in doing so. […]