Van Gogh’s Bedroom Paintings Reunite in Chicago
The Vincent van Gogh exhibition that opens Feb. 14 at the Art Institute will mark the first time in North America that three versions of Van Gogh’s famed painting of his bedroom will be shown together. “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” is dedicated to his paintings of his bedroom in Arles in the south of France, though more than 30 works by the artist will be displayed, in addition to the bedroom paintings. Click here to continue reading.

Knoedler Gallery’s Trial Over Fake Rothko Begins This Week
No scandal in recent years has hung over the art market as heavily as the Knoedler & Company forgery case. At its heart lies a mystery. Was Knoedler, the distinguished old gallery that sold more than 30 fake paintings said to be by Pollock, de Kooning and other titans of Abstract Expressionism, in on the scam? Click here to continue reading.

Carnegie-Stout Library Turns Down $6-Million Offer for Grant Wood Painting
Dubuque library officials recently rejected a $6 million offer for one of their two paintings by renowned Iowa artist Grant Wood. Trustees of the Carnegie-Stout Public Library say they have no intention of selling either painting by the artist best known for his work “American Gothic,” the Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports. Click here to continue reading.

The Walker Art Center Adds 16 Works to Sculpture Garden
A kiss is just a kiss, but if it happens beside a gigantic “LOVE” sculpture, surely it will mean more as time goes by. That’s what romantic Walker Art Center officials have in mind as part of a major expansion of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Walker announced Thursday that it is adding 16 new artworks, valued at $15 million, including an 8-feet-square sculpture of the “L” word by Robert Indiana near the landmark “Spoonbridge and Cherry” fountain — a place where lovers, young and old, can gather for special moments. Click here to continue reading.

Sotheby’s Reports $12-Million Loss in Fourth Quarter
Sotheby's announced an estimated $12 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 as a result of the A. Alfred Taubman sale, according to a January 22 conference call with investors. The sale famously included a $500 million guarantee payed to Taubman's heirs in order to secure the impressive art collection of the auction house's former owner.Click here to continue reading.

For Sale: Frank Lloyd Wright's Final Home, A Green Retreat, A Castle on the French Riviera, A Stone Mansion & A Craftsman Estate in LA
1. Frank Lloyd Wright’s final home is up for grabs. Built in 1967, the curvilinear Norman Lykes House is the last home ever designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Perched atop Palm Canyon in Phoenix, Arizona, the home’s spiral design is closely related to two other late-career Wright masterpieces -- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the David & Gladys Wright House in Mesa, Arizona. The historic three-bedroom, 2,840-square-foot residence, which is registered with the Wright Conservancy, is being offered with all of its original Wright-designed furniture. Click here to continue reading.

The Art Loss Register Goes Head to Head with the Art Recovery Group
The privilege of running a commercial database of the world’s stolen art is proving as intriguing and complex as some of the crimes committed. For the past 25 years, the task of keeping track of the millions of stolen or looted objects around the world has been taken on by the Art Loss Register (ALR). It provides a due diligence service to the art trade, insurers and—increasingly—private individuals. Click here to continue reading.

The Director of New York’s Museum of Arts and Design Steps Down
The Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan said Friday that its director, Glenn Adamson, 43, would step down at the end of March “to work on exhibition, research and institutional development projects.” In a statement, the museum said that Mr. Adamson, who had been named to the post in September 2013, would continue to collaborate with the museum’s curatorial team “on the development of exhibitions through the fall of this year, including a major exhibition focusing on the groundbreaking work of ceramic sculptor Peter Voulkos.” Click here to continue reading.

The Cleveland Museum of Art Rings in Centennial with Contemporary Exhibitions
The Cleveland Museum of Art, once famously cool toward contemporary art, will mark its centennial this year with no fewer than five exhibits devoted to post-1960s art – and possibly more. On tap are shows devoted to Los Angeles-based abstract painter Jon Pestoni; New York-based conceptual artist Dan Graham; New York artist Kara Walker, who deals with highly provocative racial themes; and contemporary German abstractionist Albert Oehlen. Click here to continue reading.

Self-Taught Luminary Thornton Dial Has Passed Away
Self-taught painter and sculptor Thornton Dial has died at his home in Alabama. Maria May, of the African-American art-preservation group the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, says Dial's family passed along the information that the artist died Monday. Born in 1928 to sharecroppers in rural Alabama, Dial had made things from found materials for years but didn't come to wider attention in the art world until 1987. Click here to continue reading.

Paris’ Les Arts Decoratifs Explores the History of Wallpaper
The history of wallpaper gets a special show at Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. The museum has picked 300 wallpapers from its archive of more than 400,000 examples, one of the world’s most important collections. The exhibition compares wallpapers from different periods and origins, to illustrate the styles and techniques involved. Click here to continue reading.

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts Acquires a Rare Frida Kahlo Painting
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, announced Tuesday that it had acquired its first painting by Frida Kahlo, the Mexican modernist whose unsettlingly beautiful works are few and far between in American public collections. “Dos Mujeres (Salvadora y Herminia),” from 1928, depicts two Mexican women, maids whom Kahlo had known since childhood, set against dense tropical foliage. Click here to continue reading.

A French Family Demands Swiss Town to Return Stolen John Constable  Landscape
A French family has taken legal steps in Switzerland to recover a painting by the master English landscape painter John Constable that they say was stolen from them in World War II, a legal source said Tuesday. The Jaffe family say a Constable work, "The Stour Valley," was confiscated along with other paintings and works of art by France's collaborationist Vichy government in 1942. Click here to continue reading.

The Art Institute of Chicago Receives Its Largest Cash Gift Ever
The Art Institute of Chicago on Tuesday announced the largest cash bequest in its history, a donation of more than $35 million from one of its steadiest benefactors in recent decades. Massachusetts collector Dorothy Braude Edinburg, who died this month, donated the money in her will and, in an unusual move, earmarked it for new art purchases. The final figure is still being determined. Click here to continue reading.

James Turrell Donates $1-Million Artwork to Pittsburgh Museum
The Mattress Factory announced today that internationally acclaimed artist James Turrell is gifting them one of his Skyspaces for the permanent collection. The work has an estimated value of at least $1 million and is the largest artist gift received by the North Side contemporary installation art museum. A Skyspace is a chamber from which a visitor may observe the sky through an open aperture in the ceiling. Click here to continue reading.

Exploring the Modern Designs of William Hunt Diederich at D. Wigmore Fine Art
The multi-talented Modernist William Hunt Diederich (1884-1953) began making cut-out paper silhouettes of animals at the age of five. Born on a grand estate filled with hounds, horses and deer in Austria-Hungary, this fascination with the natural world started after the death of Diederich’s father, Colonel Ernest Diederich, in a hunting accident. Click here to continue reading.

Frank Stella’s Former NYC Studio Nets $22 Million
The horse and carriage auction house used by artist Frank Stella as a live/work studio from 1978 to 2005 has sold after half a year on the market. The property at 128 East 13th Street, as well as an adjacent townhouse at 123 East 12th Street that's on the same tax lot, sold to Milan Associates for $21.5 million, the Real Deal reports. The properties were sold to the development firm by Infinity Group, which purchased the properties for $9 million at auction in 2012. Click here to continue reading.

MoMA Revises Its Expansion Plan
New York City's Museum of Modern Art has unveiled a revised expansion plan. MoMa announced a preliminary design two years ago. The new plan was made public Tuesday. The work will add about 50,000 square feet of exhibition space, enhance galleries and replace a 1939 staircase that was removed. A plan to build a new entrance to its sculpture garden has been scrapped. Click here to continue reading.

Olafur Eliasson Has Been Selected to Create an Installation at Versailles
The Palace of Versailles has announced Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson as its 2016 Guest Artist, following Jeff Koons in 2008, Xavier Veilhan in 2009, Takashi Murakami in 2010, Bernar Venet in 2011, Joana Vasconcelos in 2012, Giuseppe Penone in 2013, Lee Ufan in 2014, and Anish Kapoor in 2015. Click here to continue reading.

Family of Late Collector Melva Bucksbaum Battles Over Art-Filled Estate
The death of beloved art collector, patron, and Whitney Museum board member Melva Bucksbaum, who passed away last year at age 82, marked the beginning of a family battle over her considerable assets. At stake is a $30 million home and an impressive art collection featuring the likes of Henri Matisse, Peter Paul Rubens, Andy Warhol, and Robert Mapplethorpe.Click here to continue reading.

The Art Institute of Chicago Appoints a New Director
The Art Institute of Chicago's search for a new leader was deemed "international." Its choice, announced Thursday, was hyper-regional, a man who had been in the building all along. James Rondeau, the highly regarded chair of the museum's department of modern and contemporary art, will take over as president and Eloise W. Martin director Feb. 16, after a Thursday morning vote affirming his appointment by the institution's board. Click here to continue reading.

The Inaugural Los Angeles Fine Art Show Launches Alongside the LA Art Show
On Thursday, January 28th, the inaugural Los Angeles Fine Art Show opens to the public alongside the 21st edition of the LA Art Show. The new fair, which spotlights historic and contemporary art in a range of media, is the latest event from the Palm Beach Show Group, the producers of many of the art and design industry’s most celebrated fairs, including the LA Art Show. Both shows, which kicked off with a star-studded Opening Night Preview Party hosted by actress Anne Hathaway and her producer husband Adam Shulman, will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown L.A. Click here to continue reading.

 A New Tome Explores the Barnes Foundation’s Illustrious Matisse Collection
Dr. Albert C. Barnes (1872- 1951) was a medical doctor in Philadelphia who went into business as a chemist. In 1902 Barnes began marketing a drug called Argyrol. He was a shrewd businessman. Within five years he had become a millionaire. A few months before the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 Barnes presciently cashed out, selling his business. Click here to continue reading.

Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art Has Been Awarded $600,000 in Grants
The Institute of Contemporary Art is getting off to a lucrative new year, announcing on Thursday that it has received two substantial grants worth a combined $600,000. The first, a $100,000 award from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, will go toward the ICA’s upcoming exhibition “The Artist’s Museum,” a group show that opens later this year. Click here to continue reading.

Taubman and Wildenstein Collections Boost Old Masters Sales in New York
Art troves amassed by former Sotheby’s chairman A. Alfred Taubman and the Wildenstein art-dealing family boosted the Old Masters auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York on Wednesday. Wildenstein & Co., a gallery owned by the family whose members are fighting tax-evasion charges in France, sold $1.2 million of art at Christie’s auction of Old Master and British drawings. Click here to continue reading.

The Reina Sofia Plans an Exhibition Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Guernica
The Reina Sofía museum in Madrid is planning an exhibition in 2017 for the 80th anniversary of Picasso’s great mural Guernica. The show will present new aspects of the famous work, which was painted in 1937 in response to the aerial bombing of the town of the same name in the Basque country by German and Italian forces allied to the Nationalists led by General Franco. Click here to continue reading.

The Getty Acquires a Gentileschi Masterpiece at Sotheby’s
The 17th-century painting “Danaë” by Orazio Gentileschi, a peer of Caravaggio, which set an auction record for the artist at $30.5 million in a sale on Thursday at Sotheby’s in New York, was purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Sotheby’s and the Getty announced the acquisition. Click here to continue reading.