Imagine for a moment a warehouse building in Seattle. Antiques are gathered there from Japan throughout the year. Then for two weeks of the year, the warehouse is open to the public. Would you travel to Seattle for that? We did. We made our way to Kyoto Art and Antiques for the open warehouse from … Continue reading A Warehouse Sale Worth Waiting For
Two exhibitions have brought Japanese art to the city of Dallas. It is a welcome change from shows like the staid flower paintings of Bouquets at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). These two exhibitions, one at DMA (Between Action and the Unknown: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Sadamasa Motonaga) joined The Mary Baskett Collection of Japanese … Continue reading East Meets Texas, Part 1–Mary Baskett Collection of Japanese Fashion at the Crow Collection of Asian Art
Bloomberg News reports that Christie's will hold its first auction in Mainland China this fall. In doing so it will become the first international auction firm to hold its branded events there. The article cites the European Fine Art Foundation which concludes the $13.7 billion market is the second-largest in the world. The move may begin … Continue reading Christie’s to Enter China Auction Market
Albany, Texas is about as far away from Tokyo as you can get, but Kana Harada has brought her cherry blossoms to the Old Jail Art Center. For a fleeting period of spring time, the 19th century jail is infused with meditative zen. Kana moved from Tokyo with her husband, an expatriate from Texas Instruments, … Continue reading A Japanned Cell – Note on Kana Harada’s installation at the Old Jail Art Center
A special 60th anniversary exhibition at the Shanghai Museum that opened this month to enormous crowds and much praise includes works from American museums including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Cleveland Museum of Art. The special exhibition, Masterpieces of Early … Continue reading Chinese Landscapes from American Museums on View in Shanghai
A judge in England recently ruled a painting purchased for more than $2.6 million from Christie's in London is a fake. Christie's must pay Russian billionaire buyer Viktor Vekselberg the $2.6 million, plus $2.2 million in damages, according to the Daily Telegraph. Originally thought to be painted by Boris Kustodiev, the signature was allegedly made … Continue reading Judge Rules $2.6 million Painting is a Fake
In a story with a dateline of Paris, a city in a country knocked out of the top art markets several years ago, the China Post reports that the late artist Zhang Daqian 张大千 was the best-selling artist at auction in 2011. The information was provided to the paper by Artprice. Spanish great Pablo Picasso … Continue reading Move Over Picasso, Zhang Daqian Rises as China Confirms Position as Top Art Market
A stool labeled as being from the Han dynasty (roughly 200 B.C. to 220 a.d.) recently brought $220 million with premium at auction in China. There’s only one problem, stools were not yet used in China during the Han Dynasty. According to Inside China, the jade set labeled “Han Qing Huang Yulong phoenix dressing table … Continue reading Stool Sold as Han in China Likely from Qing Dynasty
If, according to a director of a New York art institution, the first thing that curators should study is the neighborhood’s demography, then a collection in San Antonio will seem out of place. If an emphasis on Latino culture, with a vast selection from pre-Columbia, Spanish Colonial to contemporary, matches the city’s dominant Hispanic population, … Continue reading Chinese Art in San Antonio Museum of Art
An exceedingly rare, ancient Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty solid nephrite jade bear, made between 475 B.C.-220 A.D. and exhibiting extensive calcification due to centuries of extended burial, sold for a little more than $8 million at a multi-estate auction held Dec. 10 by Florida's Elite Decorative Arts. The nephrite (greenstone) bear was by far the … Continue reading At $8 Million, Ancient Chinese Jade Bear Falls Short of Estimate
Urban Art & Antiques 