Art market pushes on with rocky crypto romance

PARIS - The closest most people get to owning a world-famous artwork is to buy a cheap poster from a gallery, but art dealers are determined to harness technology to draw in new collectors.

Anaida Schneider, a former banker based in Switzerland, is among those promoting new ownership schemes -- for a small fee, investors can buy a digital chunk of a painting and share in the profits when she sells.

"Not everyone has $1 million to invest," she told AFP. "So I came up with the idea to split, to make like a mutual fund but on the blockchain."

Each buyer gets an NFT, the unique digital tokens created and stored on the blockchain, the computer code that underpins cryptocurrencies.

Although cryptoassets have been routed this year with plunging values, collapsing projects and widening scandals, the NFT art sector has weathered the storm better than other parts of the crypto world.

NFT artworks accounted for some $2.8 billion in sales last year and the rate has declined only slightly in the first half of this year, according to analyst firm NonFungible.

Collectors and artists are among the most eager experimenters with the technology, even if it means owning only a slice of a digital copy of a painting.

A fifth of 300 collectors surveyed by the website Art+Tech Report said they had already engaged in so-called fractional ownership.

Schneider's Liechtenstein-based company Artessere offers squares of paintings by Soviet artists including Oleg Tselkov and Shimon Okshteyn for 100 or 200 euros ($100 or $200) a piece.

She is giving herself 10 years to resell them. 

Schneider owns the paintings she sells, thus avoiding legal complications, but attempts to offer novel digital ownership schemes for publicly owned works is proving more tricky.

'Complex and unregulated' 

Thirteen Italian museums recently signed deals with Cinello, a firm that sells limited edition digital reproductions, to offer ownership of digital replicas of masterworks.

The buyer gets a unique, high-resolution digital copy to project onto a screen and a certificate from the museum, which gets half the proceeds.

The company held a splashy London show in February displaying digitised works by Renaissance masters including Raphael, Leonardo and Caravaggio. It has since sold a handful of them.

But the Italian culture ministry was reportedly irked that a replica of Michelangelo's "Doni Tondo" sold for around 240,000 euros but Florence's Uffizi gallery got less than a third of the proceeds.

A spokesman for the ministry was quoted in several outlets last month as saying the issue was "complex and unregulated" and asked museums not to sign any new contracts around NFTs.

Cinello boss Francesco Losi was not pleased with the characterization, telling AFP: "We don't sell NFTs."

Buyers can ask for an NFT to go with their image, but the firm said they had their own patented system to secure ownership, which they call DAW.

Mixed blessing 

Cinello said it had digitized more than 200 works and its sales had generated 296,000 euros in extra revenue for Italian museums.

But the firm's difficulties in Italy underline the mixed blessing of NFTs -- they bring publicity but also suspicion.

The NFT sector -- which covers anything from avatars in computer games to million-dollar cartoon apes -- is replete with scams, counterfeit works, thefts and wash trading.

Losi said he was well aware that NFTs could be used "in the wrong way" and was unsure what future they had in the art world. 

Anaida Schneider stressed that her project was protected by law in Liechtenstein, the tiny principality being among the first jurisdictions to pass a law regulating blockchain companies in 2019.

Beyond that, she said her insurance would cover damage to the artworks and she had also factored in the possibility that the paintings would fall in value, though she declined to give exact details.

"I hope it never happens," she said. "For me, it's very important to put this idea in the market."

Agence France-Presse

Invader's 'Rubik Mona Lisa' beats estimate at Paris auction

PARIS -- A French street artist's interpretation of the Mona Lisa made of 330 Rubik's Cubes sold for 480,200 euros ($520,680) on Sunday at a modern art auction in Paris, well above presale estimates of up to 150,000 euros, organizers Artcurial said.

The 2005 artwork by anonymous street artist Invader uses the plastic puzzles' squares to create a mosaic of the Mona Lisa and her famous smile in garish colours.

The sale coincided with the closure of a blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the nearby Louvre museum, the home of the real Mona Lisa. That show marked the 500th anniversary of the death of the Renaissance master.

Invader is known for his mosaic tile works featuring pixelated versions of the 1978 Space Invaders video game characters, which "invade" cities around the world.

The Rubik Mona Lisa was created in 2005 and is the first in Invader's "Rubikcubism" series, in which he recreates well-known Old Master works.

Invader, who defines himself as an UFA, an Unidentified Free Artist, wears a mask and insists on his face being pixilated for his rare appearances on camera.

He has a large following of fans who use a Smartphone app, "Flash Invaders," to snap pictures of his mosaics if they’re authentically his, rack up points and compete with other players.

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Banksy plays with violence and innocence in Valentine's Day graffiti

LONDON - British street artist Banksy is thought to have given a Valentine's Day gift to his home town of Bristol in western England with the appearance of a new mural showing a small girl with a catapult and a splatter of red flowers.

Banksy - whose identity is not publicly known - has not confirmed that the artwork is his. He often uses Instagram to claim ownership of his works but has yet to do so this time. His agent did not respond to Reuters' request for confirmation.

The graffiti shows a young girl in a headscarf, stencilled onto the side of a house in the Barton Hill area of Bristol with black and white paint.

She holds a catapult in one hand with the other hand behind her, as though she has just launched a projectile. At the end of the catapult's trajectory is a bright red shape like a blood splatter, made of red plastic leaves and flowers.

It was spotted on Thursday morning, the day before Valentine's Day.

Banksy's street art often draws attention to social issues by adding elements of darkness to otherwise joyful scenes.

In December, the elusive artist highlighted the issue of rough sleeping with a mural showing two flying reindeer pulling a homeless man on a street-bench sleigh, in the central English city of Birmingham. (Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; editing by Stephen Addison)

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Marvel's latest issue of The Amazing Mary Jane features cover art of Pinay artist

MANILA -- Rising cover artist Rian Gonzales has her work featured in Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Mary Jane #4.

Gonzales’ cover art debuted with Betty and Veronica in 2016 and since then she has seen her stylish art adorn the covers of Josie and the Pussycats, Jem and the Holograms, Marvel Rising, Spider-Geddon, and Venom.

In her latest published work, she depicts Mary Jane Watson getting dolled up by miniature versions of Spider-Man’s villains such as Kraven the Hunter, the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, and Electro.

“It’s always fun to be able to do iconic characters such as Mary Jane Watson. After all, as a young comic book reader, Spider-Man was one of my favorites,” Gonzales said at a book signing at Comic Odyssey at Eastwood Mall last Saturday. “I know it’s just a cover or a variant cover, but it is a start. It feels good when people collect your art.”

Gonzales' style is a candy-themed style that, while appearing to be feminine, appeals to all audiences for their striking vibrancy.

“Getting to do covers isn’t an easy one,” shared Gonzales between book signings and sketches by fans. “There has to be the right moment for the book and even the right feel to what is going on.”

Gonzales’ work will next appear on Sabrina, the Archie character who has returned to popularity with its horror-themed comic book revamp in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina n 2014 and its wildly successful Netflix series. 

“That should be out soon. Probably around March or April. Then I have a couple of more works for Marvel that I cannot talk about right not. But it will be worth the wait,” she said.

The Amazing Mary Jane #4 and back issues of Rian Gonzales’ work can be purchased at Comic Odyssey or through Filbar’s.

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Vagina Museum opens in London, attracting all generations

Inside the winding alleyways of London’s Camden Market, past walls of combat boots, money exchanges and bustling food vendors, a small white sign announces the presence of the complex’s newest tenant: the Vagina Museum.

On Saturday, during its grand opening, the humble brick space — dedicated to understanding and appreciating the vagina, vulva and gynecological anatomy — was packed, mostly with women but from all generations. I heard visitors exchange confessions like “I didn’t know what a period was until I had one” and “I used to think that all vulvas look the same.” Topics of discussion that are often reduced to hushed tones in public spaces, if they are brought up at all, were thrown around with ease and enthusiasm.

“It’s almost like there’s an embargo in society around having very open, frank, honest and educational conversations around vaginas,” said Marissa Conway, 30, who is a founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy and who attended the opening. “I didn’t expect to have a visceral reaction of gratitude, but there’s an element of relief that we can talk about this.”

The museum is the first of its kind, an answer of sorts to Iceland’s Phallological Museum. With nearly 300 penises and penile parts from local animals, the specimen-rich institution ranks among Reykjavik’s top tourist attractions. While this monument to male genitalia is in many ways an orthodox museum that revolves around a permanent collection of “marvels,” the Vagina Museum is not. Like the city’s Migration Museum, which is focused on the country’s immigrants and refugees, and the Museum of Transology, which purports to be the largest collection dedicated to the lives of transgender people, the Vagina Museum is an institution whose mission is driven by social justice and public health initiatives.

Those expecting to see ancient fertility sculptures, medieval chastity belts or Victorian-era vibrators on display should know that the young, crowd-funded venture includes no such artifacts. At the Vagina Museum, visitors will discover informational posters and sculptures, a small shop with vaginally themed products, and an events calendar that includes a dinner for Trans Day of Remembrance and “Cliterature” (book club) meetings.

“It was much smaller than I anticipated, which was disappointing,” said Seren Mehmet, 28, a technical recruiter at Amazon. “I wanted to see more vaginas!”

The museum has secured a two-year lease on its Camden Market lot, but after that, there are plans for expansion. “The ultimate goal is to build a permanent museum, but that takes a lot of time and resources. This is like our starter home,” said the museum’s founder and director, Florence Schechter, in a phone interview before the opening. The debut show, “Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How to Fight Them,” is intentionally general and instructive. “I think it’s especially useful for younger people, because most of the time we have to figure this stuff out ourselves,” said Jade Dagwell Douglas, 22, who is a student in London.

“The anatomy has such complex politics around it, that we found it was best to first engage people through what they know, so we can teach them things they don’t know,” said Sarah Creed, the museum’s curator. “Menstruation, cleanliness, sexual activity and contraception are things that a majority of people have discussed in some format, or experienced in some way.” The exhibit addresses all of those topics.

“We can talk about cold, hard facts all we want, but that’s not going to change people’s minds. It’s all about unpacking social constructs and changing perspective through engagement,” Creed said.

Charlotte Wilcox, who illustrated the posters in the exhibit, said it was her job to “be as inclusive as possible” in bringing these myths to life. Rini Jones, 25, a policy and advocacy adviser in London, was “pleasantly surprised” by the exhibit. “I was really skeptical of the show as an activist, queer woman and woman of color,” she said. “There’s a really pervasive and unhelpful equation of women’s rights with often exclusively pink and, by association, white vaginas, in a way that is really trivializing and exclusionary.”

Despite outraging some trolls, team members say they have been pleasantly surprised by the Vagina Museum’s reception. Their biggest challenges are on the internet, where their content is often censored for violating community guidelines.

“It’s not a human problem as much as it is an issue with algorithms, which are set to assume anything with the world vagina in it is adult content or porn,” said Zoe Williams, the museum’s development and marketing manager. “Our emails go to spam and our online ads get rejected, and it’s all because of stigma,” Schechter added. “We’ve had to rely on organic reach.”

My most pressing memory of the visit is not the information gleaned but rather how comfortable I felt in the space. It’s evident the Vagina Museum is striving to make male, transgender and intersex visitors feel just as welcome and included. The word “woman" is used sparingly in wall text, and “Muff Busters” eagerly states that a vagina does not a woman make. One of its central messages is that dismantling gynecological taboos is not a gendered issue.

“This is everyone’s dialogue,” Creed said. “By segregating the issue, we only perpetuate it.”


2019 The New York Times Company

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Keanu Reeves sparks romance rumors with red-carpet date

Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves sparked romance rumors over the weekend as he arrived hand-in-hand with a date at a red-carpet event.

Reeves, 55, was photographed arriving with artist Alexandra Grant, 46, at the annual Art+Film gala of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

While neither camp has confirmed Reeves and Grant are in a relationship, the Nov. 2 event marked a rare moment where the “John Wick” actor was seen being publicly affectionate with a partner.

Reeves and Grant’s friendship span nearly a decade, Elle US reported. In 2011, Grant illustrated a book authored by Reeves, “Ode to Happiness.”

They had a similar collaboration in 2016 with “Shadows,” before they founded a publishing company together, X Artists’ Books, a year later, according to People.

Prior to their headline-making LACMA appearance, Reeves and Grant have appeared together at public events since at least 2016.

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Solid gold toilet stolen from English stately home

LONDON - A gang of thieves on Saturday stole an 18-carat gold toilet from Britain's Blenheim Palace, police said, causing flooding that damaged the world-famous stately home.

The fully-functioning toilet, dubbed "America", was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and estimated to be worth around £1 million.

A 66-year-old man was arrested following the burglary, which took place before dawn at the 18th-century estate near Oxford, southern England.

The toilet was one of the star attractions in an exhibition of Cattelan's works that opened on Thursday at the palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visitors were able to book time slots to use it -- but only for 3 minutes each, to limit the queues.

More than 100,000 people used the loo during the year it was on display at New York's Guggenheim Museum.

"The offenders broke into the palace overnight and left the scene at about 4:50 a.m. No-one was injured during the burglary," police said in a statement.

Detective Inspector Jess Milne of Thames Valley Police said she believed "a group of offenders used at least two vehicles" -- and left a mess behind them.

"The piece of art that has been stolen is a high-value toilet made out of gold that was on display at the palace," she said.

"Due to the toilet being plumbed into the building, this has caused significant damage and flooding."

Blenheim Palace said it was "saddened by this extraordinary event, but also relieved no-one was hurt".

It closed on Saturday but said it would reopen on Sunday.

NO GUARDS 

The palace is home to the 12th duke of Marlborough and his family, and was also the birthplace of British wartime leader Winston Churchill. 

The duke's brother, Edward Spencer-Churchill, who founded the Blenheim Art Foundation, said last month he was relaxed about security around the gold toilet.

"It's not going to be the easiest thing to nick," he told The Times newspaper.

"Firstly, it's plumbed in and secondly, a potential thief will have no idea who last used the toilet or what they ate. So no, I don't plan to be guarding it."

 He added: "Despite being born with a silver spoon in my mouth I have never had a shit on a golden toilet, so I look forward to it."

Cattelan, who is known for his provocative art, has previously described the golden toilet as "one-percent art for the 99 percent".

The Guggenheim had offered the loo on loan to US President Donald Trump, but he declined.

The Italian artist's exhibition at Blenheim runs until October 27 and includes a taxidermied horse hoisted onto the ceiling of an ornate reception room.

Blenheim has previously hosted exhibitions of work by Ai WeiWei, Yves Klein, Jenny Holzer, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lawrence Weiner.

Police said they were looking at CCTV footage to help them in the search for the gold toilet, adding that nothing else was believed to have been stolen. 

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Hippies young and old keep the 'real Woodstock' flame alive

BETHEL, New York -- The Woodstock name has become more brand than spirit for many hippies, but people spanning the generations continue to seek its aura, looking for more "authentic" ways to pay homage to the spot where it all began.

People like visual artist and activist Christopher Peter Vanderessen shun "commercial" events like those held at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, where the grounds that hosted the 1969 Woodstock stage are located and a handful of veteran acts like Santana are playing for the 50th anniversary weekend.

The 45-year-old is among those in a generation too young to reminisce about that 1969's weekend of peace, love and music, but who value the ideals that Woodstock came to symbolize enough to carry them on.

Wielding a walking staff etched with beaver teeth marks and wearing a long black cloak emblazoned with neon paint, he journeys each year to the forest behind the old Yasgur farmstead -- also part of the sprawling original grounds that were lent to Woodstock organizers by a benevolent farmer in 1969.

Scores of people camp out annually there to honor what they consider to be the original festival's spirit.

Children run wild as people of all ages dance, paint and relax in hammocks among the tall pine trees, and a number of local bands play for the crowd.

A muddy path flanked by greenery snakes among dozens of makeshift stands proffering crystals, pipes, tapestries and tie-dye T-shirts with slogans like "Make America Grateful Again" -- a reference to the quintessential 1960s rockers The Grateful Dead mashed with US President Donald Trump's slogan.

"This is a little different than all the other Woodstock things," the 45-year-old told AFP as the sun crept through the clouds, casting glimmers of light on the colorful yarn he threaded among trees at his campsite to create an intricate web.

"This is more of a family reunion. It's not the commercial stuff," he said. "What they don't get about Woodstock, was that it was meant to be this big commercial."

But facing a crush of people and lack of barriers the original Woodstock became free, Vanderessen recalled, "so for most of us it's a pilgrimage to come here. It's not about, 'Who is on the lineup.'"

"It's just that we need to be here."

Living the Woodstock story

Those gathered in the woods behind Yasgur's farm are decidedly younger than the crowd convened at the Bethel center, where the beer comes from a sponsored tent rather than a new friend's cooler.

Mick and Amanda Jenkins, Pennsylvania natives who are respectively 37 and 34, subscribe to the hippie lifestyle -- what they call "ideas of non-showy simplicity" -- they say their parents imparted on them.

For Amanda, it's important to thread hippie principles of peace through the generations as part of preserving "a legacy and a story that needs to be told."

"If somebody is not there to tell this story, then the story dies," said the high school teacher, flower crown like a halo atop her wavy blonde locks and crystals including an amethyst, a healing stone, in hand.

Perched against a tree nearby Michael Mahana, a three-year-old with a blonde bob, plays in the mud with sticks, far from the tech-rich environments of his peers.

His mother, Californian Shronnie Jean Miller, 42, says she grew up living on the road as a "deadhead" -- a groupie of the Grateful Dead who follows the band's tours -- and that camping out in the woods is "like my Ritz."

A local who goes by the name "Teach" came over to give her son a child's size poncho in case the rains sweep in.

"It's all peace and love and a good vibe," she said. "We're all just at home in the woods."

For New York state resident Vanderessen, who in addition to web building specializes in painting people's clothes while they're still wearing them, being a hippie is simply "being aware of social change, and being a part of the change rather than... complaining about what other people are doing. 

As he's done for three decades he'll be back next year to this hippie enclave, not for nostalgia for what was but rather what he believes could be -- a more relaxed, more inclusive society.

"It's about respecting what was there but also showing how we're evolving and changing," the psychedelic trance music fan who sports long dark hair said. "That's what Woodstock is about."

"It shouldn't be a concert, it should be a worldwide holiday."

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Artist sketches under the sea among fish and coral reefs

PUNTA PERDIZ, Cuba - Some artists like to go on a countryside retreat to foster their creative process.

For Cuba's Sandor Gonzalez, there is no better place to sketch than several meters below the surface of the sea, surrounded by iridescent Caribbean fish and fantastical coral forms.

The 42-year-old is renown at home and abroad for his predominantly black-and-white, haunting images of imaginary cityscapes, inspired by a trip to Europe and reflecting the aggressiveness of modern, urban life.

Then 6 years ago, he went scuba diving in Cuba and found his inspiration in the complete opposite: the tranquility found below water where all forms are natural and not man-made, all sounds are muffled and the light ripples softly.

While Gonzalez had heard of a biologist painting underwater in Spain, he decided to experiment for himself until he found a way of sketching with charcoal or oil paints, which unlike pastels or watercolor would not dissolve.

The Cuban learnt to then soak the canvasses for at least an hour and rinse them to get rid of the salt and any organic matter, before hanging them out to dry.

"This started off as a hobby, as a passion," he told Reuters at Punta Perdiz, his favorite dive spot, sheltered in the Bay of Pigs, where in 1961 US-backed Cuban exiles landed in a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

"But now I really need to come here, immerse myself and create below water because there is a peace there that you simply cannot find on dry land."

To do so, he gets fully kitted out in scuba diving gear including an oxygen tank and yellow flippers, and swims out 60 meters (197 feet) to his easel fixed in the seabed around 6 meters (20 feet) below the surface.

With him, he carries his canvas, and other equipment like a spatula for the oil paints weighed down with some lead to avoid it floating to the surface if he lets go.

The artist said he does not plan beforehand, instead allowing inspiration to strike as he enters a meditative state in the crystalline water. But inevitably his submarine work is more about nature than the cityscape series he continues to develop on land.

Being reliant on a tank limits the time underwater, but Gonzalez is quick and for this interview sketched in 30 minutes a flying whale, dragging a house behind it in a sky dotted with clouds. Palm trees grow off the creature's back.

"I really did not expect to see somebody under water, painting!" exclaimed Canadian tourist Mike Festeryga, who saw Gonzalez while diving along the seabed.

The state-run dive center at Punta Perdiz, on Cuba's southern coast, some 172 km (107 miles) from Havana, said his work was an extra draw for tourists.

"For tourists, it's really a novelty," said Hector Hernandez, who has been working as a dive instructor in the area for more than 28 years.

Gonzalez, who makes a living selling work at his studio in Havana for a median price of $1,000 per canvas, exhibits some of his submarine work in the Punta Perdiz dive center.

He is now hoping to get state permission to sell the work and develop the area as a center for underwater art.

"I would like for a department of submarine painting to be created," he said. "I don't think anything like that exists yet anywhere in the world."

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Virus-packed laptop sells as artwork for over $1.3 million

WASHINGTON -- For Chinese artist Guo O Dong, the simple black Samsung laptop computer, loaded with six potent viruses, symbolizes one of the world's most frightening threats.

On Tuesday his creation "The Persistence of Chaos" rocked the art world, selling for more than $1.3 million (P68 million) in a New York online auction.

There's nothing special about the 2008 10-inch Netbook, running Microsoft's now-outdated Windows XP. 

But loaded onto its memory chips are the computing world's equivalents of the most deadly infectious diseases: "I LOVE YOU" from 2000, "Sobig" of 2003, "MyDoom" (2004), "DarkTequila" (2013), "BlackEnergy" (2015), and the most notorious of all, the "WannaCry" ransomware from two years ago.

It is a powerful symbol of the threat on simple laptop can pose to the entire world. The six trojans, worms and malware loaded on it have caused at least $95 billion in damage around the world, according to Guo.

Guo is an internet artist "whose work critiques modern day extremely online culture," the auction site, organized by cybersecurity group Deep Instinct, said.

The computer, viewed via an online video stream, is harmless in its auction state -- turned on, but not connected to any network or the internet.

The auction site says it is "airgapped" -- its wireless and internet connections physically and electronically plugged. 

But it comes with ominous warning to the buyer not to unleash its pathogenic programs -- possible by unplugging its connection hardware, or by simply inserting a thumb drive.

The site stresses that the artwork is for research use only, saying that anyone who submitted a bid contractually agreed that they "have no intention of disseminating any malware." 

At the same time, the site appeared to acknowledge that the buyer might not heed the agreement. 

"Please remember that these are live and dangerous malware samples," it said.

"Running them unconstrained means that you will infect yourself or others with vicious and dangerous malware."

The buyer was not identified.

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'Hitler' paintings' auction stirs controversy in Germany

NUREMBERG, Germany - Five paintings attributed to Adolf Hitler will be auctioned off Saturday in the German city of Nuremberg, sparking anger that the Nazi memorabilia market is alive and well.

Nuremberg's mayor Ulrich Maly has condemned the upcoming sale as being "in bad taste," speaking to Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Among the items to go under the hammer are a mountain lake view with a starting price of 45,000 euros ($51,000) and a wicker armchair with a swastika symbol presumed to have belonged to the late Nazi dictator.

The Weidler auction house is holding the "special sale" in Nuremberg, the city in which Nazi war criminals were tried in 1945.

The auction made headlines days before its start after several artworks were withdrawn Thursday on suspicion they were fakes and prosecutors stepped in.

Sales of alleged artworks by Hitler -- who for a time tried to make a living as an artist in his native Austria -- regularly spark outrage that collectors are willing to pay high prices for art linked to the country's Nazi past.

"There's a long tradition of this trade in devotional objects linked to Nazism," Stephan Klingen of the Central Institute for Art History in Munich told AFP.

"Every time there's a media buzz about it... and the prices they're bringing in have been rising constantly. Personally, that's something that quite annoys me."

'Ambitious amateur'

In Germany, public displays of Nazi symbols are illegal but exceptions can be made, in educational or historic contexts for instance.

To comply with the law, the auction house pixelated the swastikas on the wicker chair and a blue-and-white Meissen porcelain vase in catalog photos, and has covered them up on-site.

But none of the paintings include any of the totalitarian party's insignia.

According to Klingen, Hitler had the style of "a moderately ambitious amateur" but his creations did not stand out from "hundreds of thousands" of comparable works from the period -- making their authenticity especially hard to verify.

A haul of 26 pieces originally featured in the catalog have been removed from sale after suspicions were raised that they might be fakes.

The watercolors, drawings and paintings bearing "Hitler" signatures featured views of Vienna or Nuremberg, female nudes and still lifes, the auction house said. They were offered by 23 different owners. 

Prosecutors on Wednesday collected 63 artworks from the Weidler premises bearing the signature "A.H." or "A. Hitler," including some not slated to go under the hammer Saturday.

The Nuremberg-Fuerth prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation against persons unknown "on suspicion of falsifying documents and attempted fraud," chief prosecutor Antje Gabriels-Gorsolke told AFP.

"If they turn out to be fakes, we will then try to determine who knew what in the chain of ownership," she said.

Weidler said in a statement that the paintings' withdrawal from sale "does not automatically mean they are fakes".

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Rubens drawing fetches $8.2 million at controversial auction

NEW YORK -- A drawing by Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens sold for $8.2 million in an auction in New York on Wednesday that was criticized by some in the Netherlands who said the work should have been offered to a Dutch museum. 

Sotheby's described the small, rectangular "Nude Study of a Young Man with Raised Arms" as a key piece in the development of one of the artist's pivotal commissions, and one of only a handful of drawings of comparable importance by Rubens to have come on the market in the last half century.

Depicting a muscular, nearly nude young man who strains as he pushes an unseen weight above his head, the drawing was used in the preparation of Ruben's famous "Raising of the Cross" triptych, painted in 1610.

It was acquired by the Dutch royal family in 1838 by Prince William of Orange, who became the Netherlands's King William II. 

Unlike many monarchies, the Orange-Nassau dynasty, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimated to be $220 million in 2011, owns personal assets separate from the institution's official holdings. 

Dutch museums responded with criticism in recent weeks after the announcement that several works of art from the royal collection would be put up for auction.

Some believed that Princess Christina, who owned the Rubens drawing sold Wednesday, should have given museums the chance to buy the work, which they see as part of Dutch cultural heritage, before selling it at auction abroad. 

Members of the D66 party, which is part of the governing coalition, also expressed reservations about the sale, before Culture Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven cut short the debate, saying the decision of whether or not to sell a work of art was up to the owner. 

Prime Minister Mark Rutte added it was a "private matter."

"It's an important distinction here that this drawing is actually the private property of a private individual," head of old master drawings at Sotheby's Greg Rubenstein. 

"It doesn't belong to a royal collection or a public collection. As such, the owner is entirely able to do what they will, which includes selling."

After several hectic minutes marked by a bidding battle between an in-person buyer and another over the phone Wednesday, the drawing finally sold for $7 million, which came to a total of $8.2 million after fees and commissions -- much higher than Sotheby's $2.5 to $3.5 million estimate. The buyer was not identified.

The previous record for a drawing from a Dutch master was set during a 2014 Christie's sale in London, when the only known preparatory drawing from Ruben's "Samson and Delilah" went for 3.2 million pounds ($5.5 million). 

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LOOK: Man tattoos image of Michael Jordan Bulls jersey on his back

One could say that this man's obsession over Michael Jordan isn't skin deep — figuratively, that is.

A short clip of an apparent fan of the 5-time NBA MVP has been trending on social media. The reason? He inked a near-realistic rendition of Jordan's Chicago Bulls mesh jersey, complete with Jordan's signature tattooed on the No. 2.

He could have just bought the uni if he wanted to be like Mike, but he wouldn't be getting this much attention and scoring this many viral points if he went the easy route.

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Van Gogh landscape sells for $8.27M at auction

PARIS -- An early landscape by Vincent Van Gogh, one of the art world's most sought-after painters, sold for 7.07 million euros ($8.27 million) at an auction in Paris on Monday.

Painted in 1882, "Fishing Net Menders in the Dunes" depicts peasant women working on the land under a cloudy sky, inspired by the countryside around The Hague, where Van Gogh passed a short but formative period.

The painting, the first Van Gogh to be auctioned in France for more than 20 years, had been valued at 3 million to 5 million euros. It was purchased by a buyer based in North America, auction house Artcurial said.

On average only two or three works by the Dutch impressionist appear on the international market each year, the auction house said.

While hardly cheap, the price comes nowhere near the record $450.3 million paid last November for "Salvator Mundi," Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century portrait of Christ, which is due to go on display in a new branch of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.

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Picasso painting of muse, future lover fetches record $69 million

LONDON - A Pablo Picasso portrait of his muse Marie-Therese Walter with future lover Dora Maar emerging from the shadows fetched £50 million (57 million euros, $69 million) at a London sale Wednesday, a European auction record for a painting.

The 1937 "Femme au Beret et a la Robe Quadrillee (Marie-Therese Walter)" beat expectations it would sell for £36 million (41 million euros, $50 million) at the sale of impressionist, surrealist and modern art at auction house Sotheby's.


It was the first time the oil on canvas had emerged on the international art market and headlined the auctioneer's first major sale of the year, it said.

The identity of the seller, and its new owner, were not released.

"It's an incredibly important museum quality picture," James Mackie, director of the impressionist and modern art department at Sotheby's, told AFP last week.

"It comes from a key era in Picasso's career, 1937, when he makes the great painting 'Guernica'," he added, referring to the masterpiece which portrayed the horrors of the Nazi bombardment of a Basque city during the Spanish civil war. 

The painting also has a strong autobiographical appeal, according to Mackie.

The main subject, Marie-Therese Walter, was the Spanish painter's "long time lover and muse". 

But the looming figure of Dora Maar, whom he met in 1936, emerges in the shadows behind Marie-Therese, explained Mackie.

Several masterpieces have reached astronomical prices at recent auctions, fuelled by the opening of major museums in the Gulf and the purchasing power of collectors from emerging countries.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acquired Leonardo da Vinci work "Salvator Mundi" for $450 million in November 2017.

"The market for masterpieces is at an unprecedented levels, and this picture certainly sits very much in that masterpiece category," said Mackie.

Three other Picasso works went under the hammer, including "Le Matador", which sold for £16.5 million (18.6 million euros, $22.7 million).

Sotheby's also sold 3 rediscovered Salvador Dali paintings, including "Maison pour Erotomane" (circa 1932), which went for £3.5 million after a five-way bidding battle, it said.

"Gradiva" (1931), depicting the mythological figure who became central to surrealist thought, fetched £2.7 million (3 million euros, $3.7 million).

Both small oil works were in a private collection in Argentina, having been bought directly from the artist in the 1930s by his friend, Argentinean countess Cuevas de Vera.

"They are a rediscovery, which is incredibly exciting," Mackie said of the works.

Sotheby's said the 36 lots sold Wednesday, which also included a 1912 Umberto Boccioni painting, totaled an above-expected £136 million

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Obamas reveal unconventional portraits in Washington

WASHINGTON - Former US first couple Barack and Michelle Obama unveiled their portraits at Washington's National Gallery Monday, 2 contrasting works by African American artists that shocked and delighted.

The paintings by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, were revealed at a star-studded event that is a rite of passage for most former American presidents. 

The museum holds portraits of all American ex-commanders in chief, but these latest additions stand in stark contrast to the more buttoned-down approach of traditional presidential portraiture.

Both show their subjects -- America's first black presidential couple -- looking cool and confident, a stark contrast to the bubbling swamp of anger and braggadocio that is political Washington today.

Wiley painted the ex-president against a signature lush botanical backdrop.

Obama, in a serious seated pose at the edge of a wooden chair, is enmeshed in a thicket of leaves and flowers that recall the tropical hues of the 44th president's home state of Hawaii. 

"How about that? That's pretty sharp," Obama joked, as he thanked staff and friends in attendance.

The internet quickly got busy making jokes about him being stuck in a bush.

'CHARM AND HOTNESS'  

Obama also praised Sherald for "so spectacularly capturing the grace and beauty and intelligence and charm and hotness of the woman that I love."

The Baltimore-based artist rendered Michelle Obama in her trademark grayscale, with only a few splashes of coral, pink and yellow, against an eggshell blue backdrop. 

The resulting image makes the subject's race almost an afterthought.

Obama's dress -- true to form for a first lady whose wardrobe was often the focus of attention -- dominates the frame.

As in Sherald's previous paintings of African American subjects, Michelle Obama appears poised and powerful as she looks down on the viewer.

Obama's portrait will be hung alongside those of former presidents, including the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart.

Michelle Obama's likeness will hang at the gallery until November this year.

The official portraits of the Obamas, which will be displayed the White House, have not yet been commissioned.

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Korean barista wows fans with latte art

SEOUL - South Korean barista Lee Kang-bin is taking coffee art to the next level, creating miniature imitations of famous paintings on foamy cups of java at his central Seoul cafe.

With meticulous strokes of tiny brushes and spoons, Lee, 26, recreates the likes of Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and Edvard Munch's "The Scream" using thick cream stained with food coloring atop a cup of coffee.

The result of the painstaking 15-minute process is a 10,000 won ($8.71) cup of cold coffee that has won Lee thousands of fans at his cafe and online.

"One time I drew 'The Starry Night' and it looked so special as the famous painting placed on top of coffee. After that, lots of people ordered that coffee," Lee said, as he copied the painting off an image on his smartphone.

"Customers usually ask me to draw their favorite art works," he added.

On his Instagram profile where he regularly posts images and videos of his so-called "creamart," Lee says he has never learned to draw. He started brewing coffee at age 17, during his mandatory military service and enjoyed it so much that he bought a coffee machine and opened his first cafe for fellow soldiers in his camp near the border with North Korea.

Customers at his cafe are delighted with Lee's art, which ranges from intricate paintings to cheeky recreations of Disney cartoon characters like Aladdin and Bambi.

"I heard (on TV) that this barista draws these kinds of famous paintings. I think he has very talented hands," said Kim Su-Kyung, a 24-year-old university student who recently visited Lee's store, named "Cafe C. Through."

South Korea's per capita coffee consumption has nearly doubled since 1990 to 2.3 kg per person, according to the International Coffee Organization - still roughly half the 4.5 kg that Americans consume.

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Celebrities embrace avant-garde challenge at 2017 Met Gala

NEW YORK -- On a night when celebrities can let loose on their fashion choices, pop princesses and Hollywood actress took it up a notch in the avant-garde department at New York's Met Gala.

The 2017 Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute ball was themed "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between," an homage to highly structured creations of the Japanese designer and her avant-garde label.

Pop singer Katy Perry, a co-chair of the ball, lived up to the theme's challenge with a custom Maison Margiela "Artisanal" ensemble by John Galliano, an imperial red tulle dress and a veil embroidered with the word "Witness."

Eric Wilson, fashion news director at InStyle, described this year's theme as "extremely challenging" compared to years past and agreed that Perry's outfit was courageously on point.

"I think she's without a doubt the hit of the night so far," Wilson said. "It's very brave to wear something that disguises who you are so much on the red carpet."

Rihanna was no slouch either, embodying Kawakubo’s penchant for dramatic silhouettes in a custom Comme des Garçons floral dress with cutouts and oversized ruffles. The singer earned the most mentions on social media, said Kellan Terry, an analyst at the social media monitoring company Brandwatch.

"Happy" singer Pharrell Williams in jeans and leather jacket, and star couple Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen in matching silver helped fashion maven and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour host the annual fundraising gala, which is sometimes referred to as "the Oscars of the East Coast."

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian went against the theme, sporting a white dress by Vivienne Westwood with no clutch, no jewelry and no Kanye West, her fashion-loving husband. Sister Kendall Jenner dared to be bare, wearing a sheer slip that left little to the imagination, both in front and back.

Donning a beige Ralph Lauren trench coat gown paired with big silver hoop earrings, actress Priyanka Chopra dropped jaws and turned heads. Tennis star Serena Williams also served up drama with a baby bump under her green Atelier Versace dress.

Actress Zoe Kravitz went with a strapless pink and black Oscar de la Renta gown with an off-the-shoulder train, receiving much praise on social media, where the hashtag #MetGala was top trending.

Wilson said an added plus to Kravitz's dress is that it "looks comfortable."

"Some of these pieces are gorgeous on the red carpet," Wilson said. "But I'm assuming that a lot of these celebrities are going to be changing once they get through that door and sit down to dinner."

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Fil-Am's artwork in New York reaches Philippine rural communities

NEW YORK — Filipino-American David McQueen is a sculptor and installation artist in Brooklyn. His art is all about impulse: hopes, dreams, and desires.

His works have been shown at spaces and galleries in New York, including the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, and the Bronx Museum of Art.

“I really love bonsai that gets shaped into these objects, and I wanted to do a 20-year project where I go out in the woods and shape a tree into the ribs of a boat, and then plane it down so that it looks like it's growing out of a tree,” McQueen told Balitang America.

Much like a tree that provides food, McQueen’s art helps feed hungry children in the Philippines through Advancement for Rural Kids, or ARK, an advocacy led by Ayesha Vera-Yu that provides opportunities for children in rural communities in the Philippines — through feeding programs, arts initiatives and economic investment.

“We use art and music as a way to help our partner communities in the Philippines heal after Haiyan, and so we saw the power of how art enabled all these kids and their parents and their communities reach and dream beyond what’s in their villages,” said Vera-Yu.

Through the ARK program, $15 dollars can a feed a child for a year, and a $50 donation can put one kid through school in a scholarship program.

McQueen worked with the kids to build their dream home. Kids get to write their dreams on a bamboo wall, and are inspired to work hard on making these dreams come true.

“Only the students are allowed inside and the students are allowed to graffiti the interior,” McQueen shared. “They’re meant to write their hopes and dreams for themselves.

“As soon as one person wants something, everyone wants, so everything builds in this really beautiful way, like imagination and dreaming build.”

ARK’s goal is to re-build 3 classrooms that were destroyed by typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

To date, the organization has benefited six villages with 10,000 residents in Cartero, Dumarau, and Capiz.

Read more on Balitang America.

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Pinay tattoo artist inks her name in New York art scene

In a world filled with self-proclaimed, multi-hyphenated millennials, it is a rarity to find a legitimate, accomplished talent who crafts for art and not for social media likes.

Fortunately for me, I stood witness as a bystander when Sarah Gaugler discovered and nurtured her genius before she eventually made a name. Today, the Filipina-American is on The New York Times for her impressive work on reinventing old tattoo choices.

She has gone a long way since rising from her personal tragedies of being orphaned at such a young age, and her difficult childhood in the Philippines that unfolded after that. The 29-year-old University of Santo Tomas graduate, who once graced EDSA’s billboards and Manila’s glossy magazines, has moved beyond her local accolades knowing full well that the world is at her feet.

In 2014, her feet, ingrained with a skull adornment, brought her west – to a Mecca for multi-platform artists like herself– the Big Apple. Here, between gigs with her electronic band Turbo Goth, modeling and doing commissioned art, Gaugler inks people for a living.

People struggling to find something that lasts forever come to her Snow Tattoo studio in Chelsea, New York. And she offers permanency in the form of beautiful custom art for display on one’s personal gallery, the human skin.

But “New York is just the beginning,” she says.

Who knows which international publication will see her next?

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