Inspiration

By George Nelson The man who has assembled “one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material to come to market,” according to Sotheby’s, is hoping Elon Musk buys it all.On June 25 in Paris, the house is selling around 100 lots from the private collection of Pierre-Jean Chalençon, described as “France’s most famous antiques collector” by the UK Times. The sale is called “Napoleon: A Historic Collection.”Chalençon recently told the New York Post that he thinks Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is the ideal prospective buyer for his collection, which includes one of Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hats and a herald sword and stick used during the French general’s 1804 coronation ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris. Sotheby’s is also selling his worn stockings and portable camp bed.“[The lots] are like my babies,” he said. “And I wish Elon Musk, the new Napoleon, to buy everything, to keep my babies together.”“Echoing Napoleon’s words—‘What a novel my life!’—this collection reads like a vivid historical epic, unfolding across battlefields and boudoirs, ceremonial halls, and intimate chambers, alternating a chronicle of power, politics, and pageantry, to the vulnerabilities, ambitions and c

In a lengthy interview published this week by the German publication Der Spiegel, curator Klaus Biesenbach addressed his decision to leave the American art scene for the one in Germany, where he now serves as director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. He appeared to attribute the decision to what he described as “political correctness” in the US, where he had served as artistic director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles prior to his departure in 2021. He directed MoMA PS1 before joining MOCA. “For several years now, everything in the museum world has revolved around DEI, as it’s called in American [English],” he said. (All quotes from the interview have been translated through Google Translate.) Seemingly referring to his work at both PS1 and MOCA, he then claimed that he was “one of the first to show more art by women than by men, or one of the first to exhibit Black artists. Because they are great artists who were overlooked for a long time. But then it became unbearable. Everything became a quota requirement. Only certain words were allowed to be used.” His contribution was a narrative from his teenage years. “I grew up in a [...]

A number of artists have accused art dealer Reco Sturgis—the founder of Hugo Galerie in New York, which closed in 2023—of withholding artworks, failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in owed funds, and making violent threats via email and text message. In one message reviewed by ARTnews, Sturgis seemingly threatened to kill a friend of an artist who had publicly warned others about him: “She is in danger now. This bitch will die. On my mother’s grave,” he wrote.Sturgis, who is originally from Atlanta and whose current whereabouts are unknown, has been named in at least one legal proceeding by an artist seeking unpaid sales proceeds. In 2023, he was also sued by his landlord, Peter Weisman, for nonpayment of rent on Hugo Galerie’s SoHo location. Court documents filed in the Civil Court of New York show that a settlement of more than $463,000 was reached, but Weisman told ARTnews that no payments have been made.Other companies, including CFG Merchant Solutions, Byzfunder, Mantis Funding LLC, DHL Express, and Sutton Maddison Inc., have sued Sturgis for outstanding debts between 2023 and 2025. The cumulative damage claims in these lawsuits, together with the rent he owes Weism

One of J.M.W. Turner’s earliest oil paintings will head to auction with an estimate of £200,000–£300,000. The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol, painted when Turner was just 17, had been misattributed for decades. According to the Guardian, the picture sold last year as the work of a minor 18th-century artist described as a “follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson.” Dreweatts, an auction house, estimated the work at between £600 and £800.  It was only during cleaning after the sale that Turner’s signature emerged. Sotheby’s, which will auction the painting next month, says the work now sheds new light on Turner’s early career. The painting’s original owner, Reverend Robert Nixon, was an early supporter of Turner. He likely acquired it from the artist’s father’s barbershop, where Turner first found patrons. Over time, mistaken attributions consigned the work to obscurity. Following a 167-year absence from public display, The Rising Squall will be exhibited at Sotheby’s London later this month before its July 2 sale. The sale coincides with the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth.

A London art dealer was recently sentenced to two years and six months for failing to declare he sold artworks to a collector sanctioned by the US government since 2019 for giving money to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group. The charges occurred after an investigation into terrorist financing by officers from the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit (NTFIU), part of the police department’s Counter Terrorism Command, in partnership with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in His Majesty’s Treasury, His Majesty’s Revenue and Custom (the organization that regulates the art sector), and the Met’s Arts & Antiques Unit. Barrister Gavin Irwin, who represented Ojiri, told BBC News the art dealer’s “humiliation is complete” through the loss of “his good name” and the “work he loves.” “He’d like to apologize for undermining trust” in the art market, Irwin said, and called Ojiri naive. In addition to owning a namesake gallery in East London, Ojiri appeared as an art expert on the BBC antiques show Bargain Hunt and other programs. Ojiri’s motivation for the transactions with Ahmad appeared “to be financial along with a broader desire to boost his gallery’s re

Halimi called the Original Birkin prototype consigned to Sotheby’s “a singular piece of fashion history”, and a “true unicorn in the world of fashion and accessories.” The prototype was publicly exhibited for the first time in Europe at Sotheby’s Paris last fall, and then at the house’s offices in Hong Kong earlier this year, drawing an “overwhelming response,” according to a press statement. It has been in a private collection in France since its purchase from an auction at Poulain Le Fur in Paris in May 2000. The Original Birkin was also exhibited as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” show in 2018 and “Bags Inside Out” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2020.