January 2009

Explore the Apollo archive

Look back over two vibrant years of Apollo: browse every issue from January 2006 to the present day.

Christie’s unwittingly sells stolen miniatures
Fourteen portrait miniatures stolen from Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, in 2006, inadvertently went under the hammer at Christie’s King Street saleroom on 10 June. The loss, including miniatures by Richard Cosway and John Smart, had been reported with Trace, a computerised database of stolen art, but images had not been supplied. This caused difficulties for the police and it was only after the sale that it was realised the works were stolen. The lender is expected to return insurance money in exchange for the recovered miniatures.

Brueghel painting discovered by Dutch Antiques Roadshow
An elderly woman came forward on the Dutch version of the Antiques Roadshow programme with a small circular painting believed to be a previously unknown work by the 17th-century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger (pictured above). The work depicts a peasant couple seated by a tree, with the artist’s signature scrawled in the tree trunk. The owner bought the painting, thought to be worth £60,000, for 100 guilders (£560) in 1959. Expert John Hoogsteder called it ‘the find of the century,’ suggesting that the raised paint caused by the contraction of the wood panel dates the work to around 1620.

2008 Turner Prize exhibition opens to the public
Works by Runa Islam, Mark Leckey, Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes have gone on display in the 24th Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain, until January 18. The winner will be announced on 1 December.

James Hyman acquires Colony Room Mural
A complete mural from the famous Soho drinking club, frequented by artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, has been purchased by James Hyman for £38,400 at auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull’s this week. Hyman said of the mural by Michael Andrews, which has decorated the bar since the 1950s, ‘The Colony Room is a part of London's cultural history and the mural was the centrepiece. At this stage I am not sure what will happen to it, I am just pleased to have secured it for future generations to enjoy.’

Deutsche Bank loans 600 works to Frankfurt museum
Works by Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys and Sigmar Polke are to go on permanent loan from Deutsche Bank to Frankfurt’s Staedel Museum. The bank owns one of the world’s largest corporate art collections, and the loan comprises more than 500 works including paintings, drawings and sculpture. Max Hollein, director of the museum, said, ‘This trove from the Deutsche Bank collection allows the Staedel to boost its stock of top-quality postwar art and live up to its task of showing visitors important developments in art history.’

National Portrait Gallery hoping to acquire Quinn head sculpture
The National Portrait Gallery, London, is facing accusations of abandoning its remit after announcing its decision to attempt to acquire Marc Quinn’s controversial self-portrait, cast using 10 pints of his own blood. When the Gallery was formally established in 1856, it was felt that the collection should represent important figures from British history. However, in 1969 the Gallery took the decision to extend its policy to include living sitters. Opponents to the acquisition claim that Quinn is a little-known artist who has made no significant contribution to the nation’s history, but the NPG has said that Self would complement its extensive collection of artists’ self-portraits made over the past 500 years.

Piano wins prestigious Danish culture prize
Renzo Piano, co-architect of the ground-breaking Pompidou Centre and designer of the Paul Klee museum in Bern, the ‘Parco della Musica’ auditorium in Rome and the Ushibuka bridge in Japan, has been awarded the Sonning Prize by the University of Copenhagen. The €134,000 prize is given in recognition of an exceptional contribution to European culture, and will be received by Piano at a reception next week.

Lyon Biennale announces new director
Catherine David has been appointed as director of the Lyon Biennale 2009. David directed Documenta 10 in Kassel in 1994-97, and in 2008 she received the Bard College Award for Curatorial Excellence. She is currently chief curator at the Direction des Musées de France (French Museum Board).

Eckhard Schneider to direct Pinchuk’s Art Centre
The former director of the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, Eckhard Schneider, has been named as director of the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev. Victor Pinchuk, the steel billionaire, philanthropist and collector, aims to develop a leading museum of contemporary art in the Ukraine.

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