Kahlo set to smash records, Picasso’s daughter settles taxes, and are there enough Americans at Art Basel?

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

Estimated $30mn Frida Kahlo self-portrait goes on block

Sotheby’s announced on Wednesday it was offering for sale a 1949 painting titled Diego y yo (Diego and I) with an estimate in excess of $30m. The artwork shows a sorrowful Frida Kahlo self-portrait with her cheating husband, Diego Rivera, in the centre of her forehead. If it achieves anywhere near that it will break the Latin American artist auction record, currently held by a painting of Rivera’s. Kahlo first set eyes on Rivera in 1922. He was a world-famous mural artist, pot-bellied and 36. She was only 15 and was instantly fascinated by him. They were re-introduced in 1928 and married the following year. The Guardian narrates the tale.

Picasso’s daughter settles tax bills — by donating 9 of her father’s artworks

The late Pablo Picasso’s daughter Maya Ruiz-Picasso will next year donate nine artworks by her father to the national collection of Paris’s Picasso Museum — the world’s largest trove of works by the Spanish artist — as part of a tax inheritance settlement. Le Figaro reports that this booty includes six paintings, a sketchbook, and two sculptures. A 1970 law grants exceptions for the payment of certain taxes through the donation of highly valuable artistic or historic objects to the nation, according to Law360. The works will go on view at the museum in the spring of 2022. Artnet News has the details.

Art Basel takes stock sans the usual American crowd

Art Basel is known as the world’s most prestigious art fair, with 272 galleries selling hundreds of million-dollar artworks to the world’s super-rich. That rush was eliminated in 2020, with the in-person fair canceled entirely and moved to online viewing rooms. Then the 2021 edition was delayed until September. Now, the threat of having to quarantine in Switzerland proved a major deterrent for American collectors who would have otherwise attended. But the somewhat surprising takeaway from the most Eurocentric Art Basel in recent memory is that even though the US market still represents an estimated 42% of the global art market’s sales value, Americans may not be entirely necessary for business here. Bloomberg dissects.

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