Art etc.

Some art (market) news from around the world:
- Excitement at art fair in Maastricht
- Chinese art-buyers in overdrive
- The world's most popular museums - and the most visited exhibition
- UK art dealer becomes art philantropist

Fun with funds

Do you have some spare money you'd like to invest in art? Next to the Fine Art Fund, some new possibilities are popping up. The Vienna-based hedge fund company Sharpe Investments has an investment fund called Sharpe Art and an Italian fund manager is launching a new 150 million art fund, together with Simon De Pury.

"The art market did not suffer repercussions when the Internet bubble burst and it is doing extremely well today, even after the credit crunch," said Robert Tomei, chief executive of the Italian fund manager Advanced Capital, who is starting his third art fund.

The Tomei Advanced Capital Art Fund, run with the art dealer Simon de Pury of Phillips de Pury, will focus on contemporary art, photography and design and hopes to replicate the 20 percent annual returns he achieved with past funds.

Freudian times

Two important Lucian Freud exhibitions are held this year, one at each side of the Atlantic. In New York, the MoMa hosts 'Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings' (until March 10). Art Knowledge News reviews this show. In The Hague, you can go to an impressive retrospective:

Art's economic indicator

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York holds its 2008 Biennial until June 1. Read the reviews by The New York Times ("And this year we have a Whitney show that takes lowered expectations — lessness, slowness, ephemerality, failure — as its theme.") and Artnet ("And indeed, the dominant sense you get is of things half-finished or things falling apart."). The NYT article also contains an interactive feature guiding you through the exposition.

Van Gogh in Maastricht

Next week is going to be an exciting one. Maastricht hosts both the annual Art Markets Symposium and Tefaf, one of the world's most important art fairs. One of the highlights of Tefaf is this painting by Van Gogh, 'L'enfant à l'orange'. Expect to pay more than 30 million USD.

Weak dollar, record sales...

...at Sotheby's in London.

“The global hunger for great works of art is here to stay,” said auctioneer Tobias Meyer after the evening’s heady sale. “It’s become a 20th century masterpiece market.”

Art market watchers

Reports on last week's Impressionist and Modern Art sales:
- The International Herald Tribune
- The Economist
- Artnet.com