BY BLAIR LEAKE
January’s Old Master paintings sales in New York were dominated by Sotheby’s.  During the Thursday morning sale, rare and spectacular paintings on offer included the infamous Portrait of a Woman Called “La Belle Ferronnière” (Lot 181), a dramatic ‘The Contnience of Scipio” by Il Baciccio(Lot 177), and a highly anticipated restituted work,  “Jupiter [...]

OMNP takes a look at some of the highlights of Old Master paintings up for auction this week at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York.
A fantastic selection of works on both sides, however Sotheby’s is offering a veritable cornucopia from all ages and periods; headed up by a Mannerist masterpiece by Hendrick Goltzius, (lot [...]

BY MEGHAN  MCGAVIN

Idris Khan (British, b. 1978), an artist working primarily in the photographic medium, introduces us to a new dimension of work in the practice of appropriation with his carefully superimposed photographs. While peeling back each gossamer layer of his  works, short stories about the original object, or artist, reveal themselves. Far from a [...]

These days, announcements of Leonardo discoveries are rather routine. Details surrounding two of the latest cases however-the sudden cooperation of the notorious Italian bureacracy on a long delayed Leonardo excavation, and the use of forensic technology to confirm a previously dubious claim, continue to have us expecting the unexpected.
In 1563, [...]

The US has gotten its share of Renaissance preeminence, as Michelangelo and Leonardo, and the Venetian trinity have both made rare appearances stateside over the past twelve months.
Following the debut of  rare Leonardo drawings at the Birmingham Museum of Art last winter, the rare and controversial discovery of what many believe to be Michelangelo’s first [...]

The opening of the Venice Biennale last month was highlighted by  a video installation commemorating one of the fabled city’s hometown heroes. “The Wedding at Cana” , the signature work of  Paolo Veronese, one of the three great painters from the Venetian Renaissance (along with Tintoretto and Titian)  was given in a modern-day tribute in [...]

Alleged discoveries of new works involving famous Old Masters undergoes a process of filtration. Each year a slew of claims comes forth-many are dismissed without being considered, some are reported in the press and debated by experts, and a select few are actually proven to be authentic.These are matters that are taken with [...]

Selected lots from Christie’s New York Sale 2135, Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, 28 January 2009

OMNP details the recent year that was Old Masters news, sales, and exhibitions.
News Highlights
Christie’s and Sotheby’s Old Master auctions are successes in spite of the art market’s recent struggles
England attempts to save its own “Mona Lisa,” Titian’s “Diana and Acteon,” from being sold on the open market, by raising the funds to meet [...]

Three near-invisible drawings discovered on back of Da Vinci masterpiece [Times UK] [Art Daily]
In what the Times UK described as a scene out of the Da Vinci code, a curator at the Louvre accidentally uncovered a group of never-before seen drawings on the back of “The Virgin and Child [...]

Exploring Leonardo’s Studio [BBC]
A virtual tour of Leonardo’s studio, for both the adults and the kiddies…
Anonymous subject, not so anonymous author. A portrait of an unknown man by Antonello da Messina, the greatest Italian importer of the Northern Renaissance, residing in Cefalu, Sicily.
Sleepers:whose side is the law on? [Philip Davis and Graham Ludlam, The [...]

A gorgeous M+C from the Bellini showcase in Rome.
When it comes to Old Masters paintings, OMNP sometimes finds that living stateside is akin to going to movie theater in the ‘burbs- your’e going to get some of the big releases, but your certainly not going to get all of them. Click MORE to read through [...]

OMNP lists a few more exhibitions hitting up the big museums in the US and Europe in the upcoming months. Links are below. Newslinks have been updated on the right, as well.
US
Exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook and other priceless Renaissance artifacts from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in “Medieval and Renaissance [...]

After a week or so off, a few links/announcements to run down:
First, a site update: “Why Collect Old Masters?” has been added to the page section below, in the left hand column. This page discusses the collecting advantages of the Old Master market; .pdf and .doc formats will be available for download shortly.
In other news:

“Marriage [...]

Market issues, attractive purchases, and the opening of what looks to be an exquisite exhibition of Durer prints highlight OMNP’s weekend reading:
Buyer Beware, [Noah Charney, ART INFO]
This article was of particular interest to OMNP for its breakdown of the different types of forgery that inflict the art market. The concept of alteration forgery, for example [...]

Caravaggio Stolen From Odessa Museum [Art Info]
With the recent wave of thefts in Nineteenth Century art and Old Master works that has inflicted Europe’s museums over the past few years, you would think that more of these older museums would be taking steps to improve their security. As this article mentions, Odessa Museum officials [...]

As we round out this first month of the site, OMNP would like to ask you, the reader, what you would like to see published. Are there particular artists, OM or contemporary that interest you? Any particular subjects on the market that you would like to see covered, or OM-related questions that you would like [...]