All Venues
COURTAULD’S PICASSO EXHIBITION ATTRACTS RECORD VISITORS
Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901, which closed 27 May 2013, attracted 137,438 visitors, the highest attendance figure ever achieved for a show at The Courtauld Gallery, London. The previous record was 97,236 for Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge, on view from 16 June to 18 September 2011.
BONHAMS TO SELL JOHN LENNON’S FIRST CAR - A FERRARI
The 1965 330GT 2+2 Coupé was bought by the Beatles singer for £6,500 on the day he passed his driving test. It is estimated to realise between £180,000 and £220,000 at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on 12 July 2013
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
The American Museum in Britain, Bath, is celebrated for its magnificent decorative arts collection comprising over 200 historic American quilts, exceptional pieces of Shaker furniture, exuberant folk art paintings and sculptures, Native American objects, and Renaissance maps of the New World. The Museum also has the most significant collection of American folk art in Europe. Perhaps less well-known are its unusual gardens and grounds which are accessible to visitors, whether they choose to visit the Museum or not, until 3 November 2013.
The American Museum in Britain Appoints Consulting Development Officer
Cherie Rogers, Chief Consultant of Common Aim Communications and a prominent fundraiser and award-winning journalist, joins the team of the American Museum in May 2013. Announcing Ms Rogers’s appointment, Museum Director Richard Wendorf said that the institution “welcomes its first development specialist, someone who has extensive professional experience in fundraising and membership, and who is familiar with the development environment in the South West”.
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART ACQUIRES THE SACRIFICE OF POLYXENA BY CHARLES LE BRUN
Paris – Christie’s is delighted to announce that The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has acquired this exceptional painting by Charles Le Brun for its world-famous collection. The Metropolitan’s intention is to put the painting on view to the public in the gallery dedicated to French Old Master paintings from the 17th century. The painting sold at Christie’s on 15 April 2013 for $1,885,194, establishing a new world record price for the artist.
RECENT LE BRUN DISCOVERY SETS WORLD RECORD AT CHRISTIE’S PARIS
A previously unrecorded painting by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), official painter to the ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV, was discovered hanging in the Coco Chanel Suite at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris by the London-based fine art consultant Joseph Friedman. Formerly Curator of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s residence in Paris, Friedman was advising the hotel on its current €200 million renovation project when he came across the work. The painting, thought to depict The Sacrifice of Polyxena, was auctioned by Christie’s in Paris on 15 April 2013 and sold to a private buyer for €1,441,500, a sum which vastly exceeds its pre-sale estimate of €300,000-500,000 and represents a world record for the artist.
The American Museum Appoints New Head of Learning & Events Programming
The American Museum in Britain in Bath is delighted to announce the appointment of Zoë Dennington to the post of Head of Learning & Events Programming from 25 March 2013.
TOMASSO BROTHERS MOVE TO ST JAMES’S
For over a year, Tomasso Brothers, the internationally renowned dealers in European sculpture, paintings, furniture and the decorative arts, has been searching for an elegant space in London. Dino and Raffaello are now delighted to announce that from 1 May 2013 they can be found at their new gallery at 12 Duke Street, St James’s. Established in 1993 and based at Bardon Hall, Leeds, Tomasso Brothers is pleased to also have a presence in the heart of London’s traditional art market where they will showcase exciting pieces from their extensive portfolio.
Terra Foundation Celebrates 35th Anniversary with $550,000 Funding for UK Exhibitions in 2013
The Terra Foundation for American Art continues its long-standing involvement in the United Kingdom by dedicating $550,000 in support of four major exhibitions that will run concurrently in London in early 2013. Since 2006, the Foundation has committed approximately $3.3 million to American art exhibitions, academic programmes, and professorships throughout the UK.
RESTORATION OF PONTORMO ALTARPIECE REVEALS UNRECORDED DRAWING
At the end of November 2012, Pontormo’s altarpiece, depicting a Sacred Conversation with the Madonna and Child, St John the Evangelist, St Francis and St James, was removed from the church of San Michele Visdomini for restoration in preparation for the exhibition Pontormo and Rosso. The Diverging Paths of Mannerism, at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, from 8 March to 20 July 2014.
The Courtauld Meets the HEFCE Matched Funding Challenge
The Courtauld is delighted to announce that, thanks to the generosity of more than 2,800 donors from a wide range of supporters including alumni and staff, parents and friends, it has not only met, but significantly exceeded, the HEFCE matched funding programme challenge of £8.25 million by raising the extraordinary sum of £9.5 million [£9,539,448].
The Courtauld Institute of Art expands into the Arts of Asia
The Courtauld Institute of Art is delighted to announce the establishment of two new faculty teaching and research posts in Asian art history as a major step in the expansion of its curriculum beyond the Western tradition as part of its engagement with world art history.
Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the first post will be based chronologically in the period from 1000 to 1750 AD. It will be defined thematically and focus on questions of imperialism and artistic patronage from the perspective of empires outside the Western world, from any major region of Asia.
Courtauld Conservation Experts Undertake New Research of Wall Paintings in Bhutan
During the last three years, experts from The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, have been given unique access by the Government of Bhutan’s Department of Culture to undertake scientific research of the kingdom’s wall paintings. Many of these are now under threat either because the traditional buildings in which they survive are damaged by fire or flood, or due to the ravages of time on the paintings themselves. An understanding of how the paintings were made will lead to an understanding of how they deteriorate and, ultimately, how they can best be preserved.
Medieval Ivories Brought to Light
On 15 December 2010 the Gothic Ivories Project, hosted by The Courtauld Institute of Art, goes online. The website makes available the first 700 objects from a database that already numbers more than 3,000 ivories. A detailed entry has been written for each piece and the vast majority are illustrated by high resolution colour images, with multiple views.
Meeting the HEFCE Matched Funding Challenge
On 1 November 2010 The Courtauld Institute of Art announced that it had raised £7 million towards the target of £8.25 million needed to meet the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) matched funding challenge. The Government, through HEFCE, is running a major three-year matched funding programme to encourage and inspire private funding for universities. The Courtauld, as part of this scheme, must raise £8.25 million to qualify for the 1:3 matched-funding grant of £2.75 million from the Government. The Courtauld needs to find the remaining £1.2 million by 31 July 2011.
Francis Bacon Loan to The Courtauld Gallery
The Estate of Francis Bacon has generously placed an important painting by the artist on loan to The Courtauld. Untitled (Crouching Figures), c.1952, is initially on display alongside Honoré Daumier’s Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, c.1870, in recognition of Bacon’s admiration for Daumier’s masterpiece.
Courtauld Experts Reveal the Full Beauty of Petra's 2,000-Year-Old Cave Painting
Experts from London's Courtauld Institute of Art recently completed the conservation of a rare and exquisite Nabataean wall painting at the World Heritage site of Petra in Jordan, for the Petra National Trust. Conservators Stephen Rickerby and Lisa Shekede from the Courtauld’s Conservation of Wall Painting Department worked on the project for three years.
Phillip King Presents Sculpture to The Courtauld
Phillip King (b.1934), one of Britain’s foremost sculptors and former president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and his wife, the novelist Judy Corbalis, have presented to The Courtauld Gallery one of King’s seminal early sculptures: Drift, 1961
Courtauld Receives Gift of Turner Watercolours
Eight works by J.M.W. Turner are part of an exceptional bequest of British watercolours announced today by The Courtauld Gallery. The bequest of fifty-one works by Miss Dorothy Scharf is the most significant single addition to the Courtauld’s distinguished collection of works on paper for over twenty-five years.
