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Automakers mull aid to art museum in Detroit bankruptcy

Detroit's three automakers are mulling a request by the city's art museum to help it raise money for a key component of Detroit's plan to restructure its debt and exit class="mandelbrot_refrag"> bankruptcy , representatives of the companies said on Tuesday. Under an $816 million so-called grand bargain, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) would contribute $100 million to ease pension cuts on the city's retirees and avoid a sale of art works to pay city creditors. The rest of the money would come from philanthropic foundations and the state of Michigan, where a $350 million contribution over 20 years or a $195 million lump sum payment needs legislative approval. "Chrysler Group is committed to playing a positive role in Detroit's revitalization. Accordingly, we are reviewing the DIA's request," said Chrysler spokesman Kevin Frazier in an email.   true       class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Ford Motor Co spokesman Todd Nissen

Abstract work by Barnett Newman tops Christie's contemporary art sale

American artist Barnett Newman's abstract painting "Black Fire I" sold for $84.2 million at Christie's contemporary art sale on Tuesday, setting a new auction record for the artist and confirming the buoyancy of the global art market. The price, including buyer's premium, easily surpassed the previous record of $43.8 million set a year earlier for Newman's "Onement VI," and topped the $80.8 million a private Asian buyer paid at Tuesday's sale for Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards". All but four of the 72 lots on offer were sold as the post-war and contemporary sale also broke records for works by American sculptor Alexander Calder, sculptor and artist Joseph Cornell and several others.   true       Apart from the two top lots, four more fetched over $50 million, with deep-pocketed collectors from around the globe vying for the most coveted works of art. "These are incredible statistics," B

Paris' Picasso museum chief sacked in crisis with staff

The head of Paris' Picasso museum was sacked on Tuesday as a looming staff revolt and a disputed renovation threatened the long-delayed reopening of the world's largest collection of the Spanish artist's works. _0"> Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti took the rare decision of firing Anne Baldassari after inspectors found the museum in crisis with "deep suffering and an anxious environment threatening workers", her ministry said in a statement. French authorities have also been keen to make peace with Pablo Picasso's descendents after his son accused them of dishonoring the artist by frequently delaying the reopening of the museum, which has been closed since 2009. [ID:nL6N0NR2IP]   true       Housing nearly 300 of Picasso's paintings, the museum in a 17th century mansion in central Paris was due to re-open in June after a 52-million-euro ($71.3-million) refurbishment. However, the Culture Ministry has said it had no choice but to push the re

Mantel's Tudor 'soap opera' strikes chord in modern London

Five centuries after he ruled the roost in Tudor England, Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell is playing to packed houses in London in two plays based on the best-selling novels of Hilary Mantel. It is further evidence of how her double Man Booker prize-winning books "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies", which have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, resonate for modern audiences with their mix of political and sexual intrigue. The story of the matching and despatching of the king's wives - and the resulting political earthquake as Henry breaks with Rome to create a new Church of England - speaks across the ages, according to Mantel.   true       "This is our national soap opera," she said in an interview. "Henry is a monster king - a Bluebeard - with his wives and their various fates. No-one else has a king who marries six wives and executes two of them. It is one of our national glories, you know." The combined six-hou

Stradivarius violin owned by reclusive U.S. heiress could sell for $10 million

A Stradivarius violin forgotten in a closet for decades and formerly owned by a reclusive U.S. heiress to a copper fortune could sell for as much as $10 million in a sealed bid auction next month, according to Christie's. _0"> If the 1731 violin, known as "The Kreutzer" after the French concert violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer who once owned it, reaches the top end of its pre-sale estimate it would be one of most expensive musical instruments ever sold. The violin is one of the highlights of the sale from the estate of Huguette Clark, a reclusive, eccentric heiress who owned sprawling Manhattan apartments and palatial homes but chose to spend her final decades living in a New York hospital where she died in 2011 at the age of 104.   true       After she died, the violin was found in a closet, where it had been for 25 years. The highest price paid for a Stradivarius violin is $16 million. A rare viola made by the Italian artisan Antonio Stradivari in 1719 that wil

Latin American art sales in NY feature Botero, Matta paintings

A family portrait by Colombian artist Fernando Botero and a depiction of psychological turmoil by Chilean painter Roberto Matta are expected to be the highlights of Latin American art sales in New York next week. Botero's 1969 "Man Going to Work" is the top lot in Christie's line-up for its Wednesday sale, with a pre-sale estimate of up to $1.8 million. Matta's "Morphologie Psychologique" could fetch up to $3.5 million at class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Sotheby's two-day auction on Wednesday and Thursday. The Latin American auctions follow post-war and contemporary art sales earlier this month in which a Barnett Newman abstract painting called "Black Fire I" sold for $84.2 million, a new auction record for the artist, and Andy Warhol's "Six Self-Portraits," went to the highest bidder for $30.1 million.   true       "During the first half of May there were practically $2 billion in sales at auction houses in

Vandalised Rothko painting rehung in London after pioneering restoration

(This May 13, 2014 story was refiled to correct the final words in quote in last paragraph and adds how Reuters received a copy of Umanets' video statement) A Mark Rothko painting vandalized at London's Tate Modern gallery 18 months ago went back on public view on Tuesday after the first-ever effort to strip graffiti ink off a major artwork without damaging the layers of paintwork.   true       Rothko's "Black on Maroon" was attacked in October 2012 by an aspiring artist who scrawled "Vladimir Umanets '12, A Potential Piece of Yellowism" in a lower corner. One of the Seagram Murals commissioned for the Four Seasons restaurant in 1958, the painting was valued at five million to nine million pounds by class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Sotheby's . Rothko donated it to the Tate in 1970. A Polish national called Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets, claimed the graffiti was a creative act to promote his artistic movement, Y