On Nov. 10 Christie's in New York will auction off an epic 15-ft. wide Jean-Michel Basquiat painting as part of its Post-War and Contemporary Art sale. The painting is expected to fetch up to $12 million. Brother Sausage (detail above), painted in 1983 and featured on the cover of Basquiat's catalogue raisonné, is a cartoon strip-like composition of six panels hinged together to form a narrative frieze of multiple drawings and Xeroxed overlays, each laden with themes of racial inequality and prejudice, wealth and corporate greed in a fame and consumer-obsessed American. Christie's notes the work is "steeped in Basquiat's signature style, raw energy and ingenious, loaded layering," exemplifying the artist at the pinnacle of his career. Also included in the auction are Andy Warhol's Tunafish Disaster, painted in 1963 and estimated at $6 - $8 million; and Jeff Koons' Large Vase of Flowers from 1991, estimated at $4 - $6 million.

[via JustLuxe]

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's first voyage up the Hudson River, the New York Historical Society has an exhibition of Hudson River School paintings running through March. In case you can't make it to the museum in person, they've also just published a book, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision, featuring works from their incredible collection. In the first half of the 19th century, a group of painters working in New York City developed a distinctly American vision of the landscape. Their powerful interpretations of American scenery, which came to be known as the Hudson River School, "tell the story of how landscape imagery can shape both national and cultural identity." The book showcases more than a hundred of these images, many in full-page reproductions that convey the original paintings' monumental scale, and features work by all the greatest artists of the group including Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey and Asher B. Durand.

Could the lovely lady at right be a work by Leonardo da Vinci? Antiques Trade Gazette has a fascinating piece that speculates that this small (13" x 9") picture on vellum mounted on an oak board could be a long-lost da Vinci. The portrait, listed as "German, early 19th century" sold for $19,000 at Christie's New York in 1998 to art dealer Kate Ganz who sold it for around the same amount to art connoisseur Peter Silverman in 2007. But now Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of History of Art at Oxford University has said that the painting might belong to the Renaissance master. Evidence gathered using a "multispectral" camera from Lumière Technology of Paris has found a fingerprint near the top left of the work. The fingerprint may be similar to a print on Leonardo's St Jerome in the Vatican. A palm print left on the neck in the painting may also reflect da Vinci's hands-on approach to shading. Analysis also shows the drawing and hatching were done by a left-handed artist, which da Vinci was. The lady's hair and costume would be appropriate for the time period.

Professor Kemp believes the lady in the picture may be Bianca Sforza, daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (1452-1508), and his mistress Bernardina de Corradis and dates to around 1496 when she was 13 or 14. Peter Silverman, who had been an underbidder in the 1998 Christie's sale had mentioned the work to Dr. Nicholas Turner, formerly Keeper of Prints & Drawings at the British Museum. He directed Silverman to Professor Kemp who is a da Vinci specialist. The portrait hasn't been shown in public since its reattribution and Kemp has written a book about the subject which has not yet been published. The painting's new value should be around £100 million. It is set to go on display next March at a show called And There Was Light: The Masters of the Renaissance Seen in a New Light to be held in the Eriksbergshallen, Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Art Price Global Index suggests that the art market started to turn at the middle of the year, but it's going to take the autumn art season to confirm whether this is a false positive or the start of a new trend. Maybe the slight improvements in economic conditions are leading to more art market confidence (and spending), or perhaps they're just sick to death of being in a slump.

Art prices increased by 4.97 percent at the end of the second quarter, according to the Art Price Global Index. This comes after the index fell a total of 30 percent from the start of 2008. The collective will of art collectors, dealers and auctioneers probably won't be enough to change the art world, but it could happen at the same time. The Art Market Confidence Index gained 20 points during the second quarter, supporting the notion that we're all ready for this to be over.

It was still a tough quarter for Post-War and Contemporary artwork, which saw prices drop nine percent and four percent, respectively. But, the rest of the art market has fared better, thanks in large part to the increase in the number of affordable works brought under the gavel. So far this year, 79 percent of pieces sold for less than €5,000, up from 73 percent in 2008. Paintings and multiples declined, as well, by 31 percent and 41 percent, respectively, since 2008. With 4 percent and 5 percent price drops in the second quarter of 2009, their prices have returned to 2004 levels.

But, the summer's pretty quiet for the art market. We won't be able to confirm a recovery until the fall auction season begins. Then, we'll know if wallets are ready to be opened and stay that way for a while.

In 1984, Michael Jackson and Andy Warhol were at the heights of their respective careers. The two pop artists have since passed, but their one collaboration is about to hit the auction block in a sale expected to figure in the millions.

This portrait of Jackson painted by Warhol, measuring 30 x 26 inches, is valued at half a million pounds sterling (nearly $850k), but is likely to fetch far more than that when it hits the block in the near future in a New York auction. Until then, it will be on display at the British Music Experience in London, where Michael was due to launch his comeback concert immediately prior to his untimely death.

[Source: Luxurylaunches.com]

Latest from the Angular Momentum Verre Eglomise Artisan Timepiece collection comes these beautiful enamel painted watches in four varieties with three cockatoo painted dials and one kingfisher. The dials are done in verre eglomise which is reverse enamel painting on a sapphire crystal. The paintings are done in reverse and by hand. Using the Angular Momentum Time Gallery watch case these watches are each done in 18k white gold and are between about 40mm - 41mm wide (which probably feels like a good size given the very thin bezel, and yes each is a slightly different size).

Diamonds decorate the thin bezels and lug structures, while each watch has an attached alligator strap. Inside the watch is an automatic mechanical movement. Time is read digitally (this is digital too) through the window placed at 12 or 6 o'clock. The rest of the dial is dedicated to the limited edition paintings. This is not the first time that Angular Momentum has presented enamel paintings of birds, but each new collection impresses me. Interestingly, this collection has three different images of cockatoo birds - each in a different pose - and a beautiful version with a kingfisher bird. I must admit not being sure what the namesake bird of an Indian beer has in common with a popular clever shoulder avian, but I like the watches. Prices are likely at least $25,000 - $30,000 each.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

The latest London market art auction was good for $32.7 million last night, as Christie's International moved lots from its Old Masters & 19th Century art category. The works ranged from late 14th century to late 19th century, with this newly created broad category intended to push "crossover" buying (from different periods) among collectors. Christie's is already celebrating the effectiveness of this plain, even though sales continue to be well below 2008 levels.

Sixty-three lots came under the gavel at the Christie's auction, and the house did hit its low estimate of $25 million. Only 24 percent of the lots were not purchased. Last year at this time, the same auction generated close to $50 million on 48 lots. And, the July 2007 Christie's Old Masters auction was good for around $80 million on 91 paintings. The two top paintings this year sold for below their estimates.

Despite Christie's self-proclaimed success for the Old Masters & 19th Century Art category, dealers aren't sold on it. A few claimed that the later work detracted from the pieces created earlier in this broad period.

The next sale comes today, as Sotheby's moves 200 pieces that currently belong to Johnson & Johnson heiress Barbara Piasecka Johnson. The auction is expected to yield $9.2 million in sales.

If you can't make it to "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this month you can still enjoy the great painter's works courtesy of art book imprint Skira Rizzoli. Francis Bacon, a comprehensive study of the seminal 20th-century painter (and oligarch favorite) "provides a radical reassessment of his major achievements and his enduring importance for the twenty-first century."

Bacon developed a way of portraying the human body that was unique in the history of painting - "usually in isolation, at moments of extreme tension or even pain, his figures distorted as if in a fantastical nightmare," as the authors note. In addition to 250 full-color plates, the book also reveals Bacon's inspirations, including magazine tear sheets, photographs, and imagery from films. The book, which will be published later this month, is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.

This sad little watercolor scene would not be of any real note except for the fact that the artist was Adolf Hitler. This is one of a series of pieces painted by Adolf Hitler that sold for over 100,000 euros this week through Mullock's Art Auctioneers in London. Richard Westwood-Brookes from Mullock's said that the pieces were only expected to sell for a few thousand, the piece above was estimated at £1000 to £1500. Hitler was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the early 1900s.

The beautiful painting shown above is now part of a dispute between Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum and JP Morgan Chase. The painting, Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde's The Bend in the Herengracht near the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in Amsterdam (1672), was purchased by the museum from Dutch businessman Louis Reijtenbagh last year. But it turns out that the painting is on a list of art that Reijtenbagh used as collateral to secure a loan. The bank got most of his art collection earlier this month and now wants this painting too. JP Morgan Chase filed a claim in a New York federal court to seize the painting saying that the businessman shouldn't have sold it to the museum if he was using it as loan collateral.

The painting is currently in Washington D.C. It is on loan to the National Gallery through May 3 as part of the exhibition "Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age."

A row of cars waiting for a green light was concealed by four large canvases proceeding across New York's busy Fifth Ave., creating the appearance of emptiness from W. 51st St to Central Park and beyond. Artist Nelson Diaz chose Palm Sunday to reveal his latest project, "The Isolated Christ," to the people of New York. The response to this unique mix of street art, performance art and oil on canvas was nothing short of astounding.

Five years in the making, The Isolated Christ is a four-part rendering of the most famous figure in one of Leonardo Da Vinci's most recognized works. Diaz "isolated" the image of Jesus Christ from the apostles in DaV inci's "The Last Supper" and plotted thousands of points on the image by hand. Then, using advanced calculus techniques, he fed the point into an equation that exposes "hidden" four dimensional space in the original image and used the results as the foundation for his signature perspective.

The result is four faces of DaVinci's Jesus, reflecting various situations. The final canvas – transcendence – offers an obscure, almost headless presentation, signifying the departure from the norm. The meaning is left to the viewer, with the religious assuming resurrection and the atheist likely to posit obsolescence. Diaz remains coy with his intention, believing that interpretation (like faith) is a personal affair.

With half a decade spent on the vision and production of The Isolated Christ (all four paintings were completed by hand – sans brushes, literally with his fingers), Diaz spent the last few months struggling with venue. He decided last summer to skip the traditional alternatives (such as art galleries) during his protest against the treatment of art as a commodity, during which he auctioned 10 paintings on eBay for the princely starting bid of $1 each.

"The old way of doing things is dead," he explained during several of our meetings. Deep-pocketed buyers writing checks for pieces they don't understand, he believed, would not be able to sustain itself ... a lesson to which the art market was treated last September. Diaz wanted a public setting. As with his eBay experiment, he wanted to return the aesthetic to everybody, not a self-proclaimed elite.

That left only one "gallery" from which to choose: the streets of Manhattan.

Often when paintings are stolen they never are seen again but this Caravaggio painting,Taking of Christ, or the Kiss of Judas , has been found. The painting had been stolen from the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in the Black Sea port of Odessa last July. Thieves bypassed the alarm system, removed a window pane and took the work from its frame, according to Art Daily. The finding of the painting was revealed by sources close to the Ministry of the Interior in Ukraine.

Two masterpiece paintings of Venice by artist Canaletto will soon find themselves up for sale as Christie's has announced they'll be part of the Important Old Master and British Pictures auction scheduled for December 2nd. The paintings are believed to have been commissioned back in 1738 and have been passed down through family generations ever since, so this is the first time in their centuries of existence that they'll be up for sale.

Canaletto is one of the most celebrated artists of the 18th century, with his works involving Venice being especially popular. The paintings will be on display at Christie's of London from Nov 29th thru Dec 2nd.

I'm no art critic, which is perhaps why I'm a little mystified by the astronomical sale of Le Bassin aux Nympheas by Claude Monet for £40,921,250, ($80,451,178) at a recent sale at Christie's London. This new sale obliterates the record set at Christie's New York in May by Monet's "Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil" which went for $41.181 million.

Le Bassin aux Nymphéas was fought for by three bidders, two on the telephone and one woman at the front of the room. The Guardian reports that at one point the woman bidder asked for more time but she eventually had the winning bid. The painting is one of Monet's large-scale Nymphéas which led to his Grandes décorations, the frieze now in the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. Dated 1919, when Monet signed the picture and sold it with three sister-works, Le bassin aux nymphéas is one of the tiny handful of pictures from this period that he sold.

As the Guardian article mentioned, quoting art expert Charles Dupplin, right now the art market is an interesting spot. Records are being smashed all over the place while the middle section of the market appears to be sagging. This mimics in some ways the state of the entire luxury market which has remained robust at the ultra high end but has shown serious weakness in the lower and middle ranges.

Earlier this week I mentioned the contemporary art auctions and the high price commanded by American artist Richard Prince for one of his paintings. Now art lovers can check out Prince's latest works at the Eden Rock Hotel Gallery in St Barths from December 18, 2007 - February 28, 2008. The exhibition is a partnership with the Gagosian Gallery and will showcase new paintings as part of his "Eden Rock" or "Deathlands" series. This is just the first of a series of exhibitions by high profile artists planned at the Eden Rock Hotel Gallery. Winter season rates for 2008 start at 665€, based on double occupancy and include breakfast, airport transfers and taxes. In the gallery below check out a few teasers of what the completed paintings look like.