US-ARTS Summary

Brother-in-law of Chinese Nobel winner jailed for 11 years

HUAIROU, China (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on charges of fraud in a case that rights activists have called another example of official retribution on the Liu family. Supporters of Liu Hui say his case was trumped up, aimed at thwarting the increasing attention by the rights community on the plight of Liu Xia, who has remained under effective house arrest since her husband Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize in 2010.

London art market woos 'uber-collectors' to buoy summer sales

LONDON (Reuters) - Auctioneers are pinning their hopes on "uber-collectors" to help London summer art sales top last year's $1 billion total when the series kicks off later this month. Estimates from Christie's, Sotheby's and smaller rivals such as Phillips and Bonhams for sales over the next few weeks in the British capital show that the paintings, sculptures and furniture under the hammer are on course to defy a sluggish global economy again this year.

La Scala's new manager wants an Italian music director

VIENNA (Reuters) - Alexander Pereira, the next manager of Italian opera house La Scala, would like to have an Italian music director, ideally Riccardo Muti or Claudio Abbado, he told an Austrian newspaper. Pereira, an Austrian who is now artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, will take over at the helm of Italy's best-known opera theatre in 2015, replacing current general manager Stephan Lissner, who is moving to Paris.

Painting seized by Nazis fetches more than $3.3 million at auction

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 17th century Dutch masterpiece that graced the collections of Catherine the Great's art adviser and Russia's Hermitage Museum before being seized by the Nazis sold for nearly $3.4 million at auction, a record for the artist Gerrit van Honthorst. "The Duet," which was confiscated by the Nazis from Jewish art collector Bruno Spiro and sold in 1969 to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, fetched $3,371,750 including commission at Christie's Old Master auction on Wednesday.

Brazil's Portinari tops Christie's Latin American art sale

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dream-like painting of children releasing kites by Brazil's Candido Portinari sold for $1.4 million at Christie's Latin American art sale and set a world auction record for the artist. Portinari's 1941 "Meninos Soltando Pipas" was the top seller at the Wednesday evening sale, which totaled $16 million and set benchmarks for other Latin American artists.

Venice Biennale seeks to capture the "unruly" world of art

LONDON (Reuters) - Blocks of ice from the Bahamas, cardboard bed clothes from Iraq and a thumping Vatican heartbeat will help the 2013 Venice Biennale attempt to capture the "unruly" world of art. The rich diversity of unexpected sights and sounds at the world's largest non-commercial art exhibition are partly a result of sheer numbers, with shows from 88 countries installed across the canal city in time for this week's opening.

Kandinsky painting shoots for record in Christie's London sale

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky's expressionist masterpiece "Studie zu Improvisation 3, 1909" will take centerstage at the London Impressionist and Modern art sale held by Christie's next month, the auction house said on Thursday. The early 20th century artist's vibrantly colored painting of a knight on horseback is expected to fetch as much as 16 million pounds ($24.19 million) less than a year after a similar painting set a $23 million record for Kandinsky's work.

Giant garbage patches of the sea become "national" art in Venice

VENICE (Reuters) - Five huge patches of rubbish floating in seas around the world will have their own unofficial national pavilion on the sidelines of the world's largest non-commercial art fair in Venice this week, thanks to artist Maria Cristina Finucci. These "garbage patches" are areas of high marine debris concentrated in the North Pacific Ocean, the exact size and content of which are hard to define, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Mystery and science fiction author Jack Vance dead at 96

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mystery and science fiction writer Jack Vance, whose works included "The Dragon Master" and "The Last Castle," has died at age 96, according to a statement posted on his official website on Wednesday. Vance passed away at his Oakland, California, home on Sunday, according to the statement at www.jackvance.com, a site maintained by his friends and family.

Viennese artist and convicted pedophile Otto Muehl dies

VIENNA (Reuters) - Otto Muehl, one of Austria's most provocative artists who was jailed for sexual offences against minors in 1991, died on Sunday aged 87, the Austria Press Agency said. He was best known as a co-founder of Viennese Actionism, an avant-garde movement that caused outrage with its graphic images of paint-daubed, naked bodies, blood and violence.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-arts-summary-022145904.html

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