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The Headlines
CHA-CHING!On Monday night in New York,Sotheby’ssold 30 lotsfrom the fabled collection of New York real estate developersHarryandLinda Macklowefor $246.1 million,Angelica Villareports inARTnews. Added tothe $676.1 million that the house rang up last Novemberfrom sales of their art (all ordered by a court as part of a divorce settlement), their collection has generated a grand total of $922 million. That is the highest total ever recorded at auction for a single collection, according toSotheby’s, eclipsing the $835.1 million thatPeggyandDavid Rockefeller‘scollection brought atChristie’sin 2018, before accounting for inflation. Among the highlights were aMark Rothkothat made $48 million and aGerhard Richterthat brought $30.2 million. Big-league art sales continue in New York in the coming days.
Related Articles
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FAIR PLAY.New York City is getting a new art fair.Independent, which organizes one every spring in the city (itjust ranearlier this month), said that it will debutan event focused on art from the 20th centuryin September. Featuring 30 galleries, it will run September 8 to 11 at theBattery Maritime Building, at the same time that theArmory Showis taking place at theJavits Centerin Midtown. “It will be a place where people do research,” Independent’s director,Elizabeth Dee, toldAlex GreenbergerinARTnews. Meanwhile, a string of fairs are welcoming guests in the city this week, with the main attraction,Frieze New York, throwing open the doors of theShedon Wednesday to invited guests.ARTnewswill be there.
The Digest
THE WAR IN UKRAINE.A protest against the Russian invasion of Ukrainetook place over the weekendat the Venice branch of Russian businessmanLeonid Mikhelson’sV-A-C Foundation,Artnet Newsreports. And Ukrainian-bornLeonard Blavatnik’s donations to U.K. arts causes hasdrawn scrutinyfrom some, due to his alleged ties to Russian oligarchViktor Vekselberg, theGuardianreports. Blavatnik has not been sanctioned, and a spokesperson told the paper that “Sir Leonard and theBlavatnik Family Foundationbelieve that what is happening in Ukraine is heartbreaking and he condemns the ongoing violence.”
TheDerby Museum and Art Galleryin that English city has acquired a self-portrait by the 18th-century English painterJoseph Wright of Derbythanks in part to a law that allows donations ofartworkin place of paying inheritance tax. (Funds also had to be paid over to cover the full value of the piece.)[The Guardian]
The art-filled magazine theBelieveris once again owned by the independent publisherMcSweeney’s, which sold it in 2017 to theUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas. The school later sold it to a firm that put clickbait material on the site. McSweeney’s purchased the title thanks to donations and what it said was a “drastically reduced” price. [Associated Press]
Speaking of the lateDavidandPeggy Rockefeller, another billionaire art collector,Mitchell Rales, is tearing down their former home on Mount Desert Island in Maine, which was designed byPeggy, and it is expected that he will build a new summer home there.[Bangor Daily News]
A statue of British Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcherthat was just installed in her hometown of Grantham, England, was hit with eggs byJeremy Webster, the deputy director of theAttenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.[The Art Newspaper]
Cover art for the 1986 graphic novelBatman: The Dark Knight Returns, byFrank Miller, will hit the block next month atHeritage Auctionsin New York with an estimate of $2 million.[Bloomberg]
The Kicker
HEARING FROM THE OTHER SIDE.Noted art-world scammerAnna Delvey, whose life was explored in a recentNetflixminiseries, isgetting ready to unveilherlong-awaitedsolo show of drawings at thePublic Hotelin New York on Thursday,Page Sixreports. The works were all made while she was in custody;she is currently being held byImmigration and Customs Enforcement. “You’ve heard so many voices already, but this is the beginning of me telling my story, my narrative, from my perspective,” Delvey told the outlet.[Page Six]
