Art Noir: True Crime in the Arts

Disgraced Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick Is Out of Prison—and Planning a Comeback; 'I'd like to get re-established as an art dealer," he says in a splashy new Vanity Fair feature

Vanity Fair: The Saga! Episodes 1-6! The Confessions of Inigo Philbrick, Art Fraudster Extraordinaire; Pleaded guilty as part of the largest art fraud in US history. Now out of prison and “wearing the scarlet letter,” he’s searching for a second act.

AMERICAN ART AS WEAPON


Was Robert Rauschenberg’s Venice Biennale Victory Rigged? New documentary explores the scandals surrounding the 1964 show, illuminating the US government’s obsession with its international image

'Taking Venice' Trailer SIFF 2024; Cultural Weaponization; Rauschenberg and the First American to Win the Golden Lion International Grand Prize for Painting

Modern Art was CIA 'Weapon'; Revealed: How The Spy Agency Used Unwitting Artists Such As Pollock and De Kooning In A Cultural Cold War

NYT Review: America's Secret Weapon; A study of how the C.I.A. sponsored modern art exhibitions and literary journals during the cold war; "The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters" (2000)

Excerpt: Chapter One: Exquisite Corpse "The Cultural Cold War; The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters" By Frances Stonor Saunders

Podcast 'Theory of Everything': Not All Propaganda is Art

‘Ultra-Specialized’ Gang Pulls Off $1 Million Heist at Italian Museum; Nearly 50 treasures including jewels and gold statues were brazenly stolen; “To their credit, the thieves demonstrated great professionalism”

An Up to Date Overview: Empty Frames and Other Oddities From The Unsolved Gardner Museum Heist

FBI Boston Special Agent Describes Return of Okinawan Artifacts; Taken at the end of World War II

Speak, 'Muse;' Tell Us the History of the Brancusi; An Angry Widow, Unscrupulous Dealer, Rape and Murder

Andrew Crispo, Disgraced Manhattan Gallery Owner, Dies At 78; Long series of tabloid-worthy scandal; “It was a horror show”

Ex-Husband of Gallerist Brent Sikkema Is Arrested in New York; Daniel García Carrera, who is accused of orchestrating the murder of his husband, was detained on charges of passport fraud

Mona Lisa Targeted in Louvre Bomb Threat; Mysterious and menacing message was sent to the world famous museum early on Sunday morning

Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein Found Guilty of Tax Fraud; Wildenstein will remain under house arrest for two years

Spanish Police Smash Banksy Fakes Syndicate

Two Devious, Conniving Lesbian Lovers’ Elaborate Art Hoax; Artworks will be attributed to both Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece for the first time in a new exhibition

Perk of the Job? Italian Politicians Call On Government To Sack Culture Minister Involved in Art Theft Case; Vittorio Sgarbi Has Been Accused of Laundering A Stolen 17th-Century Painting Attributed To Rutilio Manetti

At Rybolovlev Trial, the Creator of FBI's Art Crime Team Explains How to Spot a Dirty Art Adviser

Spanish Police Make Mass Arrest of Climate Activists Following Museum Demonstrations

Kyoto Anime Studio Fire: Japanese Man Sentenced To Death For Arson Attack That Killed 36; Japan Media Reported Shinji Aoba Held A Grudge Against The Studio When He Doused The Entrance In Petrol And Set It Ablaze In 2019

Children's Corner: Protesters hurl soup at Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in Paris

CEO of Royal Commission of AlUla (the Vast Saudi Cultural Project) Arrested for Corruption, Money Laundering

Atlantic: A Trove of ‘Lost Basquiats’ Led to a Splashy Exhibition. Then the FBI Showed Up. Why is it so hard to root out fakes and forgeries?

Meet Ron Rivlin, the Gallerist Who Helps the FBI Spot Fake Warhols

Judge Rules That Architect Valerio Olgiati’s Social Media Comment About Project Was Not Defamation; Once-Collaborators; Instagram Post "...executes a distorted version of my design... that I do not approve"

Artist Helen Frankenthaler’s Nepo-Nephew ‘Looted Billion Dollar Foundation, Turning Her Foundation into a $10 Million “Pay-To-Display” Scheme To Boost His Middlebrow Art’: Lawsuit

Sh*t Hits the Fan for Alleged Thieves of $6M Gold Toilet; Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture “America,” a functioning 18-karat gold toilet, was stolen from Blenheim Palace in the UK in 2019

Six Paintings Stolen From A Dutch Town Hall Left On Art Detective's Doorstep; Arthur Brand, who helped to recover a Van Gogh painting last month, says he was watching a "boring football game" when the surprising delivery was made

In Art Recovery, Cash May Be the Deciding Factor; Art theft is rare, but so are successful recoveries. Knowing who to call for help is key

Mega Collector Joseph Lau Shoots Down Rumors That His Wife Lost Him Billions in Bad Investments; Lau said his wife Kimbee Chan Hoi-wan actually "brought me HK$20 billion in return from investing in art."

Louvre Museum Evacuated After False Bomb Threat; Palace of Versailles was also evacuated while France continues to be under high alert

Where the Wildensteins Are: For more than a century, France’s Wildensteins reigned over their colossal art dynasty in near-total secrecy. Now the third court case in two decades threatens a precipitous fall for the family

Scorsese’s ‘Kundun’ Banned by Disney, Much to China’s Delight

Thief Makes Off With $100K Chagall in NYC Gallery Break-In; Suspect wearing blue gloves carried the framed work down the sidewalk to their car and drove off

Internal Revenue Service Warns of Tax Scam Targeting Collectors; Scheme involves inflating value of donated works to claim bigger tax deductions

A Stolen Van Gogh Drawing Recovered Outside A Public Lavatory 20 Years Ago Goes On Show; Whitworth's Watercolour Will Be A Highlight at The Royal Academy’s Exhibition; “The intention was not to steal only to highlight the woeful security”

Did Edward Hopper’s Trusted Friend and Minister Steal a Trove of His Art? Self-portrait by the artist at the Museum of Fine Arts is linked to a leading expert’s long-held accusations of a massive theft

How a Notorious Alleged Smuggler Is Trying to Pry Back the Mafia’s Multimillion-Dollar Caravaggio

Martin Bailey: Gauguin’s Shocking Claim: Van Gogh Painted The Sunflowers 'Following My Advice'; French Artist Tried To Rewrite History, Just Months Before His Death

Art Bon Vivant Kenny Schachter Uncovers Allegations Regarding the Latest Art World Scandal — And It’s a Doozy; Featuring Picassos and Bacons, and even an ex of King Charles, you don't want to miss this one!

‘Warhol After Warhol’ Review: A Question of Authenticity; ‘Red Self-Portrait’ Owned By One Collector Is Not A Fake, According To The Artist’s Foundation — But Not Truly A Warhol

In New Book, 'Monet: The Restless Vision' was Quite Savvy About the Systemic Corruption in the Art World; To His Advantage

That's All? Seattle Man Sentenced To Two Years of Probation For Selling Fake Native American Art; Lewis Anthony Rath Had Pleaded Guilty To Selling Fake San Carlos Apache Art at Seattle Retail Stores

Will Banksy’s Identity Finally Be Unmasked in a Defamation Lawsuit Brought by a U.K. Greeting Card Company? Company's claim is the latest volley in a long-running trademark dispute with the anonymous artist

French Billionaire Collector Bernard Arnault Under Investigation For Money Laundering In Connection To Russian Oligarch; Probe concerns a convoluted financial transaction around properties in the French luxury ski resort Courchevel

Elderly Couple Sold a ‘Worthless’ African Mask for $157. Now They Are Suing the Buyer Who Auctioned It for $4.4 Million; Couple has accused a local antiques dealer of cheating them out of a fair price for the rare object

Art fraud has hijacked the conversation again, but calls for stronger regulation miss the bigger picture; Is regulation a wonder drug for curing the art market of its chronic fraud problem? Our columnist explains why that thinking is a myth

Documents Shed New Light on Leon Black’s Eight-Figure Art Deals—And How Jeffrey Epstein Helped Him Avoid Taxes; Representative for Black insists the deals were "legal and appropriate."

Netflix Art Scandal Doc ‘Made You Look’ Being Turned into Bigger Book; The Infamous Knoedler Gallery Art Scandal

First Colour Photographs Shed Fresh Light On Ethiopia's Most Treasured Icon And Its Looting By An Agent Of The British Museum; Art Newspaper investigation uncovers new details on the infamous seizure in 1868 by Richard Holmes of a 500-year-old painting of Christ, the Kwer’ata Re’esu, which never reached the London institution

'Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art' Documentary Trailer

German Museum Employee Has Been Caught ‘Shamelessly’ Swapping Original Paintings for Fakes to Fund His Lavish Lifestyle

China Wants the Return of Chinese Relics; Amends for 'Historical Sins' Campaign Continues; Viral series about Chinese teapot escaping from British Museum to become film; Series with 370m views echoes Chinese state media calls for return of cultural relics

A New Documentary Revisits a Knotty, Unresolved Forgery Scandal that Rocked Australia’s Art World; Two-part program investigates the suspected forgery of artworks attributed to Brett Whiteley and the ripple effects that followed

Arm Chair Detectives! Exclusive: British Museum launches webpage to recover stolen objects—and announces return of 60 items; Museum has also stated that 300 further items are “due to be returned imminently”, and that it has enlisted an international taskforce

The Return of Seven Schiele Works Marks a Turning Point in Nazi-Looted Art Claims

The Illicit Allure of Art Forgery; An Anarchic Desire to Undermine the Art World’s Institutions Lends Art Forgers a Roguish, Rebellious Identity That is Both Compelling and Unsavory

Three Museums Forced to Part with Possibly Pilfered Schiele Works

'Handed over in an Ikea bag': Art Detective Recovers Van Gogh Painting Stolen From Dutch Museum; Three years ago, 'The Parsonage garden at Nuenen in Spring' was taken in a smash-and-grab raid in Laren

Recovering the stolen Van Gogh: the museum director recalls the emotional moment; Seized in a violent raid in 2020, returned in a blue Ikea bag—now being bought back from the insurer illo van-gogh-recovered

The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel the Wildenstein Art Dynasty

Renowned Chinese Artist Has Been Found Guilty of Brazen Plagiarism After He Made Millions From Copying a Belgian Artist’s Work; Ye Yongqing must pay $690,000 in damages to Christian Silvain, the highest sum that has ever been awarded for a case relating to fine arts in China

U.K. Authorities Are Ready to Charge Seven Suspects Over the 2019 Theft of Maurizio Cattelan’s Gold Toilet Sculpture; Artwork was literally ripped out of the plumbing during an exhibition at Blenheim Palace in the U.K.

New Court Filings Show the Magnitude of Claims Being Made Against Disgraced Art Advisor Lisa Schiff; Three documents include claims from more than 50 individuals and businesses

Washington State man sentenced to two years in prison for passing off more than $1m worth of fakes as Alaska Native art; Even hired Alaska Natives as clerks in his stores as part of the ruse, and will serve the longest sentence on record for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act

Billionaire Financier Thomas H. Lee’s Heirs Are Selling His Art Privately After His Suicide. Public Filings Show He Leveraged the Heck Out of It, Too; Late leveraged-buyout tycoon's loan agreements show he was a pioneer in leveraging art as well, almost from the beginning

British Museum Thefts: Welsh Politicians Join The Queue In Calling For Objects To Be Repatriated

British Museum imposes 'emergency security measures' after staff member allegedly steals priceless artefacts

'There Are No Fakes' Full Documentary: True Crime, Art, Fraud and the Work of Canadian Indigenous Art Star: Norval Morrisseau

This Art Thief Nabbed 239 Works of Art Worth An Estimated $2 Billion; From As Many As 200 Museums All Over Europe; Including Cranach the Elder (1526); Stendhal Syndrome

‘What Are You Going to Do About It, Fat Boy?’: How a Hamptons Feud Between Two Uber-Privileged Art Dealers Exploded Into an All-Out Turf War; Levai vs. Lindemann

Nefarious Data Collection Masking as Public Art? An A.I. Company Worldcoin Has Placed Mirrored Spheres Around the World in a Massive Eye-Scanning Project; Worldcoin's effort has been criticized by the likes of Edward Snowden, who tweeted, "Don't catalogue eyeballs"

Billionaire Art Collector Joe Lewis Indicted in New York for Insider Trading and Financial Fraud; Authorities accuse Lewis of orchestrating a 'brazen' scheme where he provided inside information to friends and associates on multiple occasions

New Exhibition in Barcelona, 'Sade: Freedom or Evil', with a Fresh Look at the Marquis de Sade

Video: Inside the Exhibition: 'Sade. Freedom or Evil'

German Police Have Arrested Four Men Suspected of Stealing 483 Ancient Celtic Coins in an Elaborate Museum Heist; Men were found in possession of gold bars, likely made by melting down the stolen coins

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art Is Reviewing Its $‎670,000 Donation by Austrian Billionaire Ingrid Flick, Whose Fortune Is Rooted in Nazi Crimes; ecade-old donation is receiving fresh scrutiny

Why Hasn’t Atlanta’s Art Scene Flourished Like Those of Other Cities in the South? A Tragic Plane Crash May Hold the Answer; In 1962, a plane crash marked "the day Atlanta stood still." The city's art community is still forging a path forward

Collector Adam Lindemann arrested after shoving rival dealer Max Levai; Hamptons neighbours got into a spat about zoning violations

After His Landmark $120 Million Counterfeiting Victory, Artist Michael Moebius Is Now Suing Fast-Fashion Retail Giant Shein

Group of Artists Is Suing Fast-Fashion Chinese Giant Shein, Claiming It Used a ‘Secretive Algorithm’ to Identify and Steal Their Work; Lawsuit labels Shein 'a greater societal threat than TikTok.'

Who Bought the Mysterious Klimt at Sotheby’s? An Equally Enigmatic Hong Kong Power Broker, Some Believe; Sold by one shadowy entity and purchased by another, will the masterwork's fate ever truly be known?

Prominent Collector and Dealer Adam Lindemann Arrested After Alleged Altercation at His Montauk Neighbor’s Art ‘Ranch’; Dealer allegedly trespassed onto Max Levai's art gallery in Montauk, The Ranch

Detroit-area photography dealer pleads guilty to $1.5m art fraud scheme; Wendy Halsted Beard was arrested last year after an FBI investigation

Suspects arrested in theft of gold coins from German museum; Trove stolen from the Kelten Römer Museum near Munich was the biggest Celtic gold find of the 20th century

Alleged Arson Attack Has Destroyed Michelangelo Pistoletto’s ‘Venus Of The Rags’ Installation in Naples

‘You’re a Big Imbecile’: Russian Artist Pyotr Pavlensky’s Trial Over a Leaked Video That Brought Down a French Politician Concludes With a Tense Spectacle; For having recorded and diffused sexual images of the former French politician Benjamin Griveaux without his consent

Doug Harvey: Painter of Darkness; Cracking the Kinkade Vault; Jeffrey Vallance's Strange Premonition

Trailer: Canadian Criminal Mastermind Doc Film 'The Jewel Thief'; Based on a True Story

Detained Cuban artist and activist pens appeal from prison on two-year anniversary; Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was imprisoned on charges of contempt and insult to national symbols when widespread protests swept the nation in 2021

Museums cut ties with David Adjaye after sexual misconduct allegations; Since bombshell accusations about the architect's behaviour became public, cultural institutions have rushed to distance themselves from him

Curbed: David Adjaye, Falling Starchitect

Sir David Adjaye: The Celebrated Architect Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Book Review: Genocide and Genius; "Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History" by Benjamin Balint

Podcast: The Stunning Fall of Lisa Schiff, Art Advisor to the Stars

Lisa Schiff, Inside the High Life and Downfall of an A-List Art Adviser

DOJ Charges Moroccan Man With Stealing $450K in OpenSea Spoofing Scam; Officials allege the man set up a lookalike website based on the popular NFT marketplace to steal victims' digital art collectibles

Did a Secret Manhattan Cult Drive Jackson Pollock to His Death? The Sullivan Institute brought a radical vision to midcentury psychotherapy, promoting alcohol and sexual freedom as conduits for creative expression. For a tormented genius like Pollock, those ideas proved very dangerous

Real child murder victims recreated by AI in sick true-crime TikTok trend

Italian Painter Arrested As Investigations Continue In Old Master Forgery Scandal; Lino Frongia is suspected of producing the fakes that sold for millions of euros; Paintings by Franz Hals, El Greco, and Others

Cat-and-mouse world of art fraud revealed in London show London (AFP) – Some of the most notorious art forgeries form the centre-piece of a new London show, which reveals a cat-and-mouse world of intrigue, deception and painstaking detective work.

Warhol and Pollock works stolen by American crime ring may not have been destroyed, authorities reveal; Statements by one member of a crime ring that struck 20 different institutions over two decades have restored hope that not all the loot was destroyed

What the Story of a Botched $1 Million Auction Reveals About the Clash Between New Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Client Confidentiality; Patrick Matthiesen sought more information about a painting he bought at auction, but immediately hit a wall

Hermès Bags a Win Against NFT Artist; To determine whether NFTs are art protected by the First Amendment or whether they are simply commercial products subject to trademark law

Portland Artist and Anne Frank-impersonating Drag Queen Trans Activist Arrested For Murder in Virginia

BBC True Crime Podcast Is Asking Museums for Help Locating a Murder Victim’s Remains to Solve a Cold Case; If the skeleton is recovered it may reveal the woman's origins or even her surviving relatives; Nazi spy?

FBI List: Arizona’s Most Wanted Art; List of nearly 90 pieces

The Mystery of the Disappearing Van Gogh; Painting’s Many Lives; Producer and the Billionaire; Abduction, and a Vanishing Act

Prominent Art Advisor Lisa Schiff Has Been Hit With a Second Lawsuit, Alleging She Embezzled Nearly $3 Million; Suit spells out details of alleged art fraud on more than a dozen transactions

Blucifer, a Towering, Terrifying Demon Horse Isn't Even The Weirdest Part of the Denver International Airport; Flat-Earth Conspiracy Theory? Illuminati Headquarters? Roswell? Gargoyle Breeding Grounds?

Billionaire Hubert Neumann arrested during bitter family feud over ‘world-class’ art collection reminiscent of HBO hit ‘Succession’

Woman Who Wrote A Book on Grief After Her Husband’s Death Is Charged With His Murder

In August 1911, the Shocking Theft of the Mona Lisa Appeared to Have Been Solved 28 Months Later, When the Painting Was Recovered. In an Excerpt From Their New Book, the Authors Suggest that the Audacious Heist Concealed a Perfect, and Far More Lucrative, Crime!

"Master!" Is a Brazilian Art School Actually a Cult? Former students of the Atelier do Centro have come forward with horrific allegations of abuse by Rubens Espirito Santo, the man they once called “Master”

A Case of the Venetian Jitters: Spooky story of Ca’ Dario, the city’s cursed, and much whispered about palazzo