SGFARA

Romanian Man Defaces Vatican Altar, Damaging Objects Worth Thousands of Dollars

A picture shows the newly renovated baldachin, a large Baroque sculpted bronze canopy over the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, 2024. Photo Tiziana FABI/AFP via Getty Images A Romanian man who jumped onto the main altar at Saint Peter’s Basilica was apprehended by security staff at the Vatican on February 7. A video capturing …

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Sotheby’s Establishes a Foothold in Saudi Arabia After Hosting the Kingdom’s First Major Auction

The sale generated $17.3 million, with Islamic art selling well. Getty Images for Sotheby’s Sotheby’s laid down a marker in the Middle East on Saturday evening by hosting Saudi Arabia’s first major art auction. The results were like the two-part evening sale’s lineup: a mixed bag. The house took in $17.3 million (estimate: $14 million–$20 million) …

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Art Institute of Chicago Gains a Neoclassicist Trove with Sizable Gift of French Art

Hilaire Le Dru, Indigence and Honor, 1804. Horvitz Collection A wealth of Neoclassicist art has joined the holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago via collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, who have gifted the museum around 2,250 works of French art made between the 16th and 19th centuries. The gift comes after held two shows …

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Israeli Bill on West Bank Antiquities Oversight Faces Opposition from Government Body

An employee works at an excavation site by Israel Antiquities Authority containing the remains of a Byzantine monastery which was uncovered north of the Israeli city of Qiryat Gat, on January 6, 2025. AFP via Getty Images The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), a body of the Israeli government that oversees national artifacts and sites, rejected …

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A Rising Generation of Mexican Artists and Dealers Impress During Mexico City Art Week, But Can the Market Respond?

The entrance to the 11th edition of Feria Material in Mexico City on Thursday, February 6. Courtesy of Feria Material Shortly before I left for Mexico City last week, I asked a fellow journalist who has reported on the country’s art for years for any advice for a first-timer. “The young Mexican artists are the …

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Noah Davis: An Innovative Painter Who Also Reimagined Art’s Role in Community

Noah Davis at work, Los Angeles, 2009 Patrick O’Brien-Smith In Painting for My Dad (2011), artist Noah Davis presents a male figure gazing over a rocky landscape beneath a star-strewn, nearly black night sky. With the figure facing away from the viewer, dressed in a worn red shirt and denim trousers and holding a lantern …

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At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a Blockbuster Exhibition Explores Different Approaches to Black Figuration

Lubaina Himid, Le Rodeur: Exchange, 2016. Photo Andy Keate/©Lubaina Himid/Courtesy the artist; Greene Naftali, New York; and Hollybush Gardens, London A range of interpretations and depictions of the Black figure is currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (through February 9). Organized by British writer and curator Ekow Eshun, “The Time Is Always …

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