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The Headlines
LOST AND FOUND KLIMT. A rediscovered portrait by Gustav Klimt of an Osu prince from modern-day Ghana, is for sale at TEFAF Maastricht, reports Art Dependence. The striking painting was lost after World War II, but resurfaced when a collector presented it to Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Gallery in 2021, though it was in need of a cleaning. Now valued at about $16.4 million, it is the talk of the fair, where the painting is on view in the Vienna and New York gallery’s booth until March 20. The portrait, titled Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona (1897), is believed to have been a commission, but stayed with the artist until it eventually became the property of Ernestine Klein, who fled Nazi persecution in Austria in 1938 with her husband, both Jewish. A settlement has reportedly been reached with Klein’s heirs. About the painting, Klimt expert Alfred Weidinger said, “the composition and painterly execution point to Klimt’s turn to decorative elements, which were to characterize his later work, and are directly linked to his portraits of the following years.”
Related Articles
SENTENCING FOR MUSEUM HEISTS. A key member of the theft ring that snatched artworks by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock, as well as World Series rings that belonged to baseball legend Yogi Berra, was given an eight-year sentence in federal prison by a Pennsylvania court, reports The Associated Press. Thomas Trotta, 49, was “the main burglar, he was the one that went into the institutions and burglarized them,” his lawyer reportedly said. He pleaded guilty to the theft, and is the fourth person to be sentenced during the decades-long investigation into thefts involving 20 museums, stores, and institutions. Trotta was also ordered to pay $2.8 million in restitution. Trotta admitted to stealing a Warhol silkscreen, a Pollack oil painting, rings and MVP plaques worth $500,000 together, including items from the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in New Jersey, among other items.
The Digest
Today French police began forcibly evacuating squatting migrants from a digital and media art center, the Gaîté Lyrique, in Paris. The migrants had been told services would be available to discuss their temporary housing, but footage of the evacuation showed clashes between police and people protesting their intervention. [Le Figaro]
11 years after his death, film star Mickey Rooney’s prized collection of memorabilia from his estate will head to auction. On March 30, 250 lots from his personal items and film memorabilia will be up for sale. [The Los Angeles Times]
A new study shows how the Argaric people, an early Bronze Age civilization that emerged over 4,000 years ago in the southeast Iberian Peninsula, developed a sophisticated, large-scale, centralized system for sourcing clay used for pottery. Tracking their unique pottery has allowed researchers to map the territorial expansion of the Argaric culture. [El Pais]
Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs has awarded the 75thArt Encouragement Prize to four Japanese artists: Takashi Ishida, Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, Chiharu Shiota, and Hiroshi Kanechiku. [ArtAsiaPacific]
The Kicker
BANKSY’S MYSTERIOUS MET CAMEO. Who remembers the 2005 headline-making story of how Banksy snuck a painting into the Metropolitan Museum of Art disguised with a fake beard and trench coat, while two accomplices argued with a distracted security guard? The disguised intruder stuck the painting onto the wall with double-sided tape and added a label. It read: “Banksy, 1975. ‘Last breath.’ Oil on board. Donated by the artist.” Only ten minutes later, museum personnel noticed the portrait of a woman in a gas mask, and removed it. But what happened to the painting? That is the subject of a short New Yorker piece by Alex Scordelis, who interviews a certain John Barelli, who was head of the Met’s security department from 2001 to 2016. In a Met café Barelli was “cagey” about the painting’s location, but remembers how the artist himself called the museum in an attempt to get the artwork back. “’And I said, ‘Well, he can’t have it back. We threw it out.’” But that was a fib. Barelli revealed he had asked his now-deceased assistant to throw out the painting. The assistant, however, didn’t do that either. He ended up leaving it in Barelli’s office. The rest is a bit fuzzy and conflicted, according to Barelli’s telling, but he did admit that, “If I need some money, maybe I’ll do something with it.”