Why Canaletto Bought for $43.9 M., Identification Politics vs. Artwork, and Extra

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The Headlines

NUMBER CRUNCHING. For a new report launched by way of Puck Wednesday night, artwork information agency ARTDAI analyzed public sale information for the primary half of 2025 to generate the High 50 promoting artists by complete public sale quantity, variety of heaps bought, total hammer ratio, and the highest worth achieved for the artist. The outcomes, downloadable right here,  recommend that consumers are “critically pursuing works made by traditionally important artists—some dwelling, many useless [and] it seems that we’re simply in the beginning of the cycle.” In keeping with Puck‘s Marion Manneker,  consumers are additionally chasing lower-value works “at a reasonably strong clip, and so they’re not afraid to bid for the works they need—although we might not be seeing as many high-value purchases as we now have prior to now.” The largest offers, it appears, are taking place privately—however there’s no method to verify them. “Nonetheless, the concept consumers have misplaced curiosity in artwork doesn’t actually make sense while you see this information,” he writes. “They’ve simply turned their focus to undervalued works, and that longer-term venture appears to be constructing momentum.”

‘UNASHAMEDLY 18TH-CENTURY.’ In a pleasant segue from the above, Artnet Information’s Eileen Kinsella tried to get to the underside of why Canaletto’s Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day (circa 1730) bought for “a whopping” £31.9 million ($43.9 million) at Christie’s final month, smashing the artist’s public sale document. The article, which sources opinions from a number of Previous Masters specialists, asks questions like, Is it the right image? How did shortage affect the value? However, in line with vendor Nicholas Corridor,  it was the entire above: “Its glittering Downing Avenue provenance [once owned by a British prime minister], its over-the-top composition with each conceivable Venetian ingredient thrown into the combination, and its spectacular scale [make it] the last word trophy purchase,” he mentioned. “However, nonetheless, it was unashamedly 18th-century in date and style and had a excessive assure. That didn’t inhibit a few of the most spirited, aggressive bidding seen at an Previous Grasp public sale for a few years.”

The Digest

Present exhibitions on the Nationwide Gallery Singapore and different establishments within the nation are presenting “a nuanced exploration of the island nation’s historical past because it continues to grapple with its colonial legacy.” [The Art Newspaper]

A courtroom has dominated that the Polish tradition minister’s determination final yr to fireplace the longstanding director of the Polish Historical past Museum (MHP) in Warsaw was illegal. The removing of Robert Kostro prompted widespread criticism on the time, with some accusing the federal government of political interference. [Notes from Poland]

Hayward Gallery Touring has tapped curator and author Ekow Eshun to steer the British Artwork Present 10, opening September 2026 in Coventry earlier than rolling out to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle Gateshead. [Artlyst]

Gaypalani Waṉambi has taken house Australia’s most prestigious First Nations artwork prize, and $100,000, for her paintings Burwu, blossom, which noticed her etch hundreds of stringybark blossoms and bees. [The Guardian]

The Kicker

IDENTITY CRISIS. When Dean Kissick let off some steam in Harper’s Journal earlier this yr, arguing that identification politics has destroyed modern artwork, many stood as much as disagree with him. Steven Pie seems to be the most recent; his latest article in ArtReview critiques the concept artwork is dominated—and diminished—by identification politics. He questions whether or not identification has ever really formed artwork, arguing as a substitute that nice artwork transcends private identification, specializing in common themes and progressive expression. “Even the YBAs, ever represented as brash individualists, have been extra involved with problems with sustainability and historiography than these of identification,” he writes. “Tracey Emin’s tent, hand-stitched with the names of all these with whom she was shut, is a roll name of a number of epistemologies and methods of realizing. What’s in a reputation? she asks. The moveable housing mechanism of the tent itself additionally references local weather emergencies and displacement, embodying a ‘provider bag of fiction’ strategy to the artwork object. And: the tent is empty. Simply because the artist’s unmade mattress as an set up turns into an emblem of a mattress—turns into everybody’s mattress—it appears this has all the time been the position identification performs in artwork. The artist would possibly make the mattress, however we lie in it. Who’s within the mattress with you is as much as you.”