https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjxPp2dPZIc This story begins, for me, in 2006 or early 2007 in the lobby of a London hotel. Tom Krens was head of the Guggenheim at the time, a museum he sought to transform into a global brand. He had opened branches of...
To witness the spectacle of certain works by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is to experience a phenomenon verging on the mystical. Excluding the Mona Lisa, whose true nature is barely discernible behind the thick glass and throng of tourists, many great drawings or...
Chantilly is the name given to a sublime variety of whipped cream, for which France is envied the world over. But it shares its name with another French speciality: a Renaissance château, home to a long forgotten art history treasure trove. The Château de Chantilly...
Old habits die hard in the art market. Tradition dictates that the beginning of the month of September in Paris is a time when antique dealers and auction houses put on special events seeking to display their most beautiful wares. They wish to profit from the...
Sublime. Ouro Preto. Perched on a cluster of slippery hills is a city of white, blue and gold, of sloping streets paved in large rough-edged stones, of fountains and churches, of rockeries, of Jesus and Mary. We’re in Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais ('the General...
New York’s most stunning exhibition right now is dedicated to a complete unknown – or near enough. His name is Hercules Segers (circa 1589-1638), he’s a Dutchman and he was best known for his prints. Don't be put off by the austerity of the subject matter. Segers is...
In Paris, a stone’s throw from the Boulevard Saint Germain, an exceptional new show has just opened that looks into the creative process behind Dutch masterpieces of 17th century. It involved a police-like investigation of history to locate the drawings that helped to...
At a time when the world has been shaken by a series of catastrophic election results, France is growing increasingly nervous about the approaching presidential contest in April. Running counter to these trends is the Tefaf antiques fair in Maastricht, taking place...
The court decision came like a thunderbolt. Guy Wildenstein, the heir to the world’s largest dynasty of art dealers, was accused in France of a massive tax fraud (‘The most sophisticated and longest tax fraud of the Fifth Republic’ (1)) but on 12 January, before the...
There is a unique sensation one feels at sight of a rare few old master drawings, to be found more often than not in museums. It is a beguiling emotion born from the impression you have of a life pulsating behind those drawn faces. They’re by Leonardo da Vinci, or...
The world’s most prestigious museums, the likes of the Louvre and the Metropolitan, fill entire rooms with uncommonly intricate works of art from the Medieval and the Renaissance period. For a long time the great European and American families, banking dynasties such...
The international calendar of fairs is extremely full, to the extent that any new venture seems unneeded. It must be stated, however, that the brand-new Tefaf New York that took place from 22 to 26 October, is absolutely remarkable. Located uptown at Park Avenue...