Italian art cops on Monday found a stolen masterpiece by Russian artist Marc Chagall in the Turin home of famed former Italian soccer player Roberto Bottega. The ex-Italy and Juventus striker, nicknamed Bobby Gol for his finishing instincts, bought the work in good faith from a Bologna gallery in 2003, a few months after it was stolen from a US yacht moored off the northeastern resort of Savona, police said.

It appears that the work was stolen by two Romanian crew members on the yacht who conspired with a gallery owner from Bologna.  The piece by Chagall was titled Le Nu au Bouquet and purchased by the wealthy American at a gallery in New York in 1988.  He decided to place it on his yacht and then subsequently passed away.  It is unclear whether he passed away before or after the work was stolen.  The work was then replaced by a forgery which was later discovered by an heir to the yacht owner when he went to Italy to settle his inheritance of the yacht.

The thieves were able to obtain a certificate of authenticity from the Chagall Foundation after stealing the work so it appears that Bottega purchased the stolen Chagall in good faith for 1.2 million euros in 2003.

Keun Young Park In Between 2013 January 17 – February 23 at Accola Griefen

In a bombshell release based on new scientific data the Guardian has reported,

New tests on a painting billed as the original version of the Mona Lisa have produced fresh proof that it is the work of Leonardo, a Swiss-based art foundation has said.

The tests on his 15th century portrait were carried out by a specialist in “sacred geometry” and by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the wake of the Geneva unveiling of the painting, the Isleworth Mona Lisa, last September.

“When we add these new findings to the wealth of scientific and physical studies we already have, I believe anyone will find the evidence of a Leonardo attribution overwhelming,” said David Feldman, vice-president of the foundation…

The Zurich institute carried out a carbon-dating test on the canvas of its painting and found that it was almost certainly manufactured between 1410 and 1455, refuting claims that it was a late 16th century copy.

With the analysis of the paint determining that the paint is actually older than the Mona Lisa in the Louvre long thought to be the original, the Swiss version represents a reverse portrait of Dorian Grey where the sitter has officially become younger.

One interesting aspect of the emergance of the earlier work is a new twist in the life of the mysterious Mona Lisa believed to have been Lisa Gherardini.  It was believed that the portrait in the Louvre was commissioned by the wealthy silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.  He was the husband of Lisa Gherardini and was believed to have commissioned the work after the birth of their second child.  Perhaps the Isleworth Mona Lisa was commissioned by someone else before their marriage or Giocondo’s tribute to his wife was based on an earlier portrait by Leonardo of another woman.

However, this does not seem to be an open and shut case as many skeptics are still not convinced.  Stay tuned.

De Haan, Autoportrait (circa 1889-91)

The Washington Post has reported that Romanian police have three Romanian suspects in custody accused of involvement in the $100 million art heist in Rotterdam last October.  Two individuals were caught on the security camera exiting out the back door of the exhibition Avante-Gardes at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Holland early in the morning making off with seven artworks by prominent artists such as Picasso, Gauguin, and Monet that were part of the Triton collection which was celebrating its twentieth anniversary.

Unfortunately, as of this report the paintings remain unrecovered.  The investigation remains ongoing and in a brief statement Rotterdam Police spokeswoman Yvette van den Heerik commented, “Three people have been arrested, but unfortunately we have not got back the paintings”.

Rivera who was the lover of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo was well know for his socially charged murals along with his tumultuous relationship with Kahlo.  The painting El Albañil (The Bricklayer) of 1904 turns out to be an early painting done by Rivera while he was still a student at the Bellas Artes academy in Mexico City.  Appraiser Colleene Fesko states,

My understanding of the painting’s history is that it was painted in 1904 by Diego Rivera. And at that point, Diego Rivera, who was arguably one of the most important Latin American 20th century artists, was only 18 years old. And this was only, I think, three or four paintings by the artist that are known from that early time. It’s a wonderful period, early 20th century painting. But it also gives hints of his mural style, his technique. And even more so, in a way, his subject matter, which were the workers of Mexico. A really terrific image. The painting is oil on canvas. It’s signed and dated lower right, Diego Rivera, 1904. And what’s interesting about the signature is it’s a very young man’s signature. It’s one of his school signatures rather than the more formal, mature signature that we’ll see later…

The research that we found in the authentication process of it is that it had been missing. In the records in Mexico City, it was unknown. Where’s the painting? Where is El Albañil? Which is the laborer. It was an important painting for him in 1904 and then disappeared from 1930 to roughly 1995 or ’96, when it was exhibited and authenticated. Now they have done some restoration on it.

Given the last two sentences, it does appear that the “discovery” could not have been that much of a surprise as the restoration, attribution, and exhibition of the work had already taken place in the 1990s as the painting was exhibited in the show Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and in 1998 at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art.  Interestingly enough, it was Nelson Rockefeller who comissioned Diego Rivera to do a mural for Rockefeller Center in 1932.  The mural Man at the Crossroads contained a portrait of Lenin which the Rockefeller’s could not tolerate, so when Rivera refused to paint over the image, the mural was destroyed.

In a statement by Antiques Roadshow, they admitted that the man was well aware that it was indeed an original Rivera; he believed it was only worth half the appraised value and was merely seeking more information.

Watch Interview: 1904 Diego Rivera “El Albañil” Oil Painting on PBS. See more from Antiques Roadshow.

In the early hours of 11 May 1987, a burglar smashed his way into the museum with a sledgehammer, escaping with Henri Matisse’s Le Jardin (“The Garden”) just moments before museum security arrived on the scene…

According to reports at the time, several attempts were made to ransom the painting or sell it back to the museum for exorbitant sums. For the next two decades, the trail apparently went cold and the whereabouts of the painting remained a mystery.

The article explains that a few weeks ago, art dealer Charles Roberts in Essex, UK was doing his due diligence against the the Art Loss Register after being offered the Matisse by a Polish collector.  The work in question popped up on the database as being stolen and Christopher A. Marinello, an art recovery specialist and lawyer working with the Art Loss Register in London was notified and negotiated the return of the painting.

Marinello has stated that he hopes the Matisse will be returned to Stockholm in a few weeks.

The departures come on the heels of Mr. de Pury’s sale of his remaining interest in the company to Mercury Group, the Russian-owned retail giant that bought a controlling share in 2008.

“During the wonderful and exciting years I had the privilege to spend at Phillips de Pury + Company the firm has become a major taste maker in contemporary art, design and photography,’’ Mr. de Pury said the statement. “I embark on new adventures comfortable with the knowledge that the company is in an excellent position and has been going from strength to strength.’’

Simon de Pury has served as chairman and chief auctioneer for the company for the past twelve years.  Recently he had become very much the embodiment of the company with his foray into Bravo’s reality show Work of Art.  Work of Art attempted to replicate the success of the reality television show Project Runway which just completed its tenth season.  The fashion show featured model Heidi Klum as one of the panel of judges with Tim Gunn serving as the mentor to the aspiring designers who were expected to complete weekly fashion based challenges in weekly episodes.  Simon de Pury assumed the mentor role of Tim Gunn in the art based offshoot by critiquing and mentoring the participating artists with frequent tie-ins and plugs for the Phillips de Pury brand, however critics found the show’s format a bit too restricting  for the more esoteric artistic process.

While Vogel ominously describes the Phillips as “the struggling boutique auction house”, Artlyst produces a rosier interpretation stating, “2012 has been one of the most lucrative years ever for the auction house Phillips de Pury & Company. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise to anyone that Simon de Pury has decided to step down as Chairman (effective 21 December).”  With his departure, Phillips will drop the “de Pury” from its name effective January 2013.  Artlyst provides a brief history of the storied firm,

Phillips was founded in 1796 in London. It was bought out by Bonham’s (another 18th century UK based auction comany) in the 1990s. They then sold the brand on to the small Luxembourg based de Pury & Company auctioneers. It has been known as Phillips de Pury & Company for the last eight years. In January 2013 the firm will revert back to its original name of PHILLIPS. In February, the Company will expand its presence at its premier New York location at 450 Park Avenue by taking significant additional gallery and office space. Phillips will continue in its goal of providing the best auction experience for the sale of 20th- and 21st -Century Art and of offering the most exciting catalogues, exhibitions, marketing and digital media in the industry.

Interestingly enough, the artlyst article also contradicts Vogel in citing an emailed statement from the acquiring Mercury Group stating,

Phillips’s founder and chairman, Simon de Pury, retains a stake in the company as part of what the e-mailed news release calls “a strategic partnership.”

Mr Hirst’s company, Science Ltd, said that “Larry Gagosian and Damien have reached an amicable decision to part company”, adding that the artist would continue his relationship with a second gallery, White Cube, in London.

Gagosian issued a statement, saying: “It has been a great honour to work with Damien over the last 17 years culminating with the worldwide showing of the Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 at all 11 Gagosian galleries this year . . . We wish him conti­nued success for the future.”

Hirst and Jay Joplin of White Cube have had a long term friendship so the move is more of a return to an old relationship rather than a new venture.  Perhaps Larry Gagosian known for his business savvy is just executing his traditional modus operandi of “buy high, sell higher”.  Although their have been many premature rumors of Hirst’s market demise, the drum has been beating a little louder as of late as Hari Kunzru of the Guardian recently pointed out,

This year may come to be seen as the high-water mark of Hirst’s cultural power. On 4 April, a retrospective of his work opens at Tate Modern in London. In January, an exhibition of his “pharmaceutical paintings”, canvases of varying sizes covered in uniform coloured dots, opened in all the Gagosian Gallery’s 11 locations around the world. These are major shows, intended to underscore the status of an artist who, at least in the UK, seems to need no help in reaching an audience. The most interesting thing about them is the hints they drop about the new rules of the art world, and about the artist’s future reputation, which is not as secure as it might appear…

If I were Larry Gagosian (usually cited in power lists as the contemporary art world’s most important player) and I wanted to help my top client shore up the value of a body of work that was losing its lustre as its fashionable 90s aesthetic began to look tired, and the penny started to drop among collectors that at every other dinner party they went to they saw something on the wall that looked awfully similar to the something on their own wall, what would I do?

Brett Murray at Goodman Gallery

Another major theme at Art Basel Miami 2012 was the prevalence of text based works. Barbara Kruger carried the day by commanding space in multiple booths with single words or simple sentences blurring the line between art and literature. Unlike my previous observation of the dominance of simple rectangular works obeying no international borders, text based works seemed to be primarily a US or New York specialty. With 99 of the exhibiting 257 galleries coming from the United States, it is safe to say that at least one quarter of all exhibiting US galleries had a text based work. While other regions added a little extra in the way of collage or images such as Gilbert and George’s recent London Pictures which contained headlines and images, most of the text based works at US galleries contained clichéd catch phrases such as Tavares Strachen’s You Belong Here at Anthony Meier or words loosely based on new age slogans such as Hank Willis Thomas’s Give US Our Own Future at Jack Shainman or Sam Durant’s Dream More Work Less at Blum & Poe .  All of these works were executed in 2012 and their inclusion shows a shift in the plate tectonics of the contemporary art world.  No longer is it replete with opaque inside jokes and esoterica, haiku are out and buzz words are now de rigueur.
Slideshow. Scroll down for individual works

Alighero Boetti at Massimo De Carlo

Barbara Kruger at L & M

Barbara Kruger at L & M

Claire Fontaine? at Galerie Chantal Crousel

Felipe Arturo at La Central

Tracey Emin at Lehmann Maupin

Kay Rosen at Sikkema Jenkins

Cosima von Bonin at Petzel

Jenny Holtzer at Sprüth Magers

Janice Kerbel at i8

Ignacio Uriarte at Nogueras Blanchard

Lawrence Wiener at Christina Guerra

Dominique Golzalez-Foerster at 303

Farhad Moshiri at Galerie Eigen & Art

Reinhard Voigt at BQ

Nicolas Guagnini at Miguel Abreau

Brett Murray at Goodman Gallery

Hank Willis Thomas at Goodman Gallery

Gilbert and George at Alfonso Artiaco

Jack Pierson at Regen Projects

Hank Willis Thomas at Jack Shainman

Hank Willis Thomas at Jack Shainman

Alfredo Jaar at Galerie Thomas Schulte

Terence Koh at Sean Kelly

Jack Pierson a Galerie Thaddeus Ropac

Darren Almond at Matthew Marks

Ed Ruscha at Valerie Carberry

Tavares Strachan at Anthony Meier

Barbara Kruger at Mary Boone

Glenn Ligon at Richard Grey

Mel Bochner at Galerie Nelson-Freeman

Mel Bochner at Two Palms

Richard Prince at Two Palms

Jeremy Deller at Gavin Brown

Ricci Albenda at Andrew Kreps

Yael Bartana at Sommer Contemporary

Claude Leveque at Kamel Mennour

Sam Durant at Blum & Poe

Ivan Navarro at Galerie Daniel Templon

Lawrence Weiner at Marianne Goodman

Dan Colen at Massimo De Carlo

Luis Camnitzer at Alexander Grey

Jiro Takamatsu at McCaffrey Fine Art

As I wrote in the earlier review of Art Basel Miami Beach 2012, one of the major themes of the fair was that works based on squares or rectangles were exceedingly plentiful. It didn’t matter whether the galleries or artists were North American, South American, European, or Asian, quadrilaterals ruled the day. I am not sure whether this was to appeal to Swiss minimalist tastes, Russian oligarchs high regard for early 20th century Constructivists, or merely the close to 90 degree heat outside. Works by Judd and Albers carried the day and were probably the reason that many described the fair as “safe”, “staid”, or “boring”. There may have been a few Rymans in the fair, however I did not see them as they would have been perfectly camouflaged amid the boxed booths and the boxy art. If 2012 was the year of the spot due to Gagosian’s global saturation of Damien Hirst’s Spot Paintings, 2013 will certainly be the year of the rectangle.

John McLaughlan at Greenberg Van Doren

Qiu Shihua at Galerie Urs Meille

Daniel Buren at Kamel Mennour

Hrienn FridFinnsson at Galerie Nordenhake

Jose Maria Sicilia at Meesen De Clercq

Fabrice Samyn at Meesen De Clercq

Rodrigo Matheus at Silvia Cintra & Box4

Carlito Cavalhosa at Silvia Cintra & Box4

Gadar Eine Einasson at Team Gallery

Henrik Hakansson at Meyer Riegger

Joseph Albers At DAN Galeria

Mark Rothko at Helly Nahmad

Donald Judd at Anthony Meier

Donald Judd at Galeria Elvira Gonzalez

Angela Bulloch at Simon Lee

José de Rivera at Valerie Carberry

Anne Truitt at Valerie Carberry

Alan Green at Annely Juda

Sarah Braman at Mitchell-Innes & Nash

John Golding at Annely Juda

Jorge Mendez Blake at Galeria OMR

Jose Davila at Galeria OMR

Karin Sander at Galerie nächst St. Stephan

Dave McKenzie at Suzanne Vielmetter

Fernanda Gomez at Galeria Graça Brandão

Matias Faldbakken at Standard

Egill Sæbjörnsson at i8

Débora Bolsoni at Galeria Marilia Razuk

John McCracken at David Zwirner

Günther Förg at Galerie Max Hetzler

Marepe at Galeria Luisa Strina

Jiro Takamatsu at McCaffrey Fine Art

Jon Thompson at Anthony Reynolds

Willem De Rooij at Petzel

Harvey Quaytman at McKee