NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A court order has forced Fisk University to reopen the gallery displaying a collection donated by artist Georgia O’Keeffe, but the school isn’t giving up its legal fight for the right to sell the artworks.

The state Court of Appeals is schedule to hear arguments this week over last year’s ruling that Fisk can’t sell any of the donated artwork – and that it would lose the entire collection if it wasn’t retrieved from storage and put back on display.

The gallery on Fisk’s Nashville campus reopened to little fanfare in October after nearly three years out of the public eye.

O’Keeffe donated the collection, including her own 1927 oil painting Radiator Building – Night, New York, to the historically black university in 1949, a time when segregation prevented Southern blacks from visiting many museums.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-01-04-09 1220EST

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Police are investigating the theft of $380,000 from an arts group that stages one of Indianapolis’ best-known art fairs and also grants money to local arts groups.

The theft from the Penrod Society amounted to all of the group’s revenue and its reserve funds. Members of the 42-year-old all-volunteer arts society believe the crime was an inside job.

Penrod Society President Jimmy Art says the theft has devastated the group, which stages the Penrod Arts Fair each September on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Penrod member David McGimpsey says the theft came to light in late November when the lawyer for another volunteer called Penrod officials to inform them his client had taken the money.

Penrod members would not confirm the volunteer’s identity because no criminal charges have been filed.

___

Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-01-01-09 1710EST

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ A $10,000 statue stolen from the Palm Beach estate of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has been found, with a message.

Thieves calling themselves “The Educators” have returned a statue stolen from disgraced investment guru Bernie Madoff. And they hope he’s learned his lesson.

The Palm Beach Post reports that the $10,000 copper sculpture turned up Wednesday near the country club Madoff belonged to.

A note attached read: “Bernie the Swindler, Lesson: Return stolen property to rightful owners. Signed by The Educators.”

Continue reading

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Authorities say he took billions from investors, and now someone has taken a statue from him.

Palm Beach police are investigating the disappearance of a $10,000 copper sculpture of two seated lifeguards from the multimillion-dollar home of disgraced investment guru Bernard Madoff.

Police spokeswoman Janet Kinsella said Tuesday a housekeeper reported the statue missing Dec. 22.

 

Continue reading

PARIS (AP) – Researchers have found three previously unknown sketches on the back of a painting Leonardo da Vinci that may have been drawn by the Renaissance master.

Paris’ Louvre Museum says the sketches feature a horse head, part of a skull and baby Jesus with a lamb. Researchers using infrared cameras found them on the back of the painting titled The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.

In a statement issued on Dec. 18, the Louvre said the style was reminiscent of Leonardo’s. Researchers are working to determine whether he drew them.

The sketches are barely visible to the eye. They were discovered during an in-depth examination using an infrared camera that picks up traces of carbon-based pigments often used for sketches.

The painting is in the Louvre’s collection.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-12-23-08 1019EST

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) – Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has acquired a 19th century Francis Gay painting showing the landscape of one of New York’s boroughs in the grip of winter.

Winter Scene in Brooklyn shows a snowy view of Front Street between Main and Fulton streets, an area now under the Brooklyn Bridge. The painting has a large pile of wood sitting in its center, as men in top hats and women in shawls walk along a snowy street under a gray winter sky.

Continue reading

WEST MILFORD, N.J. (AP) – Mystery solved in Passaic County.

A historian believes he has found the source of inspiration for an 1846 painting titled Janetta Falls, Passaic County. The site is likely Clinton Falls in West Milford.

Artist Jasper Cropsey was known for paintings which depicted the natural beauty of Passaic County and the Highlands. But he also got the names of places wrong.

Continue reading

PARIS (AP) – A benchmark Paris sale of Impressionist and Modern paintings that belonged to French fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin fell well short of pre-sale expectations Monday, in a clear signal the financial crisis is hitting the previously resilient art market.

Christie’s auction house said in a statement it raised euro7.67 million ($9.67 million) at its evening sale of works by artists including Pablo Picasso and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It had originally valued the collection at euro20 million ($25.2 million).

The highest-selling work in the sale was Renoir’s Woman with a Parasol Sitting in the Garden, which earned euro1.16 million ($1.46 million) below its estimate of euro1.2 million ($1.51 million) to euro1.8 million ($2.27 million), according to Christie’s.

Only 23 of the 31 lots were sold, it said. Among the paintings that failed to find a buyer was Renoir’s The Tapestry in the Park (Presumed Portrait of Camille Monet), which had been estimated at euro2.5 million ($3.15 million) to euro3.5 million ($4.41 million).

Further works by artists including Edgar Degas, Eugene Boudin and Camille Pissarro also stayed on the shelf.

“Unsold works are the reflection of estimates considered excessive by the current market, while those paintings with reasonable estimates drew great interest from international collectors,” Anika Guntrum, head of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art department, said in the statement.

Lanvin, who died in 1946 at the age of 79, started off making clothes for her daughter. She went on to become one of France’s most influential designers of the 1920s and ’30s, creating the classic fragrance Arpege.

The paintings originally hung in her Paris apartment, designed by the architect and interior designer Armand-Albert Rateau. A portion of the interior is now on show at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go toward two arts charities run by the Polignac dynasty, the aristocratic family which Lanvin’s daughter Marie-Blanche married into.

The Lanvin fashion label lives on, under the artistic direction of the critically acclaimed Israeli-American designer Alber Elbaz.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-12-01-08 1802EST