Ben Lewis

Interesting metaphor

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer: Why this mysterious Klimt painting sold for $236m Hidden for decades from public view, the artist's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer has now sold at auction for a record sum. Why is it so valuable?

Terrific appreciation of $236m Klimt from Kelly Grovier

www.bbc.co.uk/culture/arti...

If net migration is lower because more Brits are *leaving* the country, then it logically can have nothing to do with any measures to reduce immigration. It’s nothing to do with fewer people coming in. @thetimes.com

'Aeroplane Crash, North London, May 1940' by Rudolf Haybrook

(Imperial War Museums)

V good! “evidence of purchases by Russian-linked individuals is solid; proof of corrupt or state-directed funding is not publicly documented.”

This email does not mention the Kremlin. As far as I know there is no evidence that Rybolovlev is aligned with or does anything to help Putin, nor vice versa. Am I missing something, ie actual evidence? Any evidence the Kremlin financed the purchase of the Epstein then Trump Florida property?

How could I ever forget? Formative times

The U.S. was a leader in cultural heritage investigations. Now those agents are working immigration enforcement. Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases.

Denver Post confirms what we’ve been hearing: nearly all federal HSI agents with expertise on cultural property crimes have been reassigned to immigration duties in recent months.

Major loss of law enforcement capabilities in the world’s largest art market.

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/u...

What impact did this handful of specialized HSI agents have in recent years?

Working with Manhattan DA's ATU, they helped convict 18 antiquities traffickers, recovered approximately 6,100 antiquities valued at $480 million, and returned approximately 5,770 of them to 32 countries, with more daily.

Artes Mundi 11 review – smug, stagey, up-itself nonsense for art world wazzocks Six international artists vie for the prize – and none of them seem interested in engaging visitors. I had more fun on Llandudno pier’s ghost train

"Is Artes Mundi just telling the truth about art now – that it has lost touch with a mainstream audience?"

I don't think art was ever, by and large, 'in touch with a mainstream audience.' That has only rarely been the point of art or the market for it

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Why does everyone complain about AI slop, when humans are already making endless slop?

I watched the Netflix documentary about the orgasm cult. Every doc they have is made in exactly the same way

Public housing posters, 1930s

Electric Ballroom Camden Town circa 1981. Jay Strongman on the decks. Rockabilly nights

Dave Ball was not some bloke in the background of Soft Cell – he drove their startling, subversive sound Far more than a mute foil to Marc Almond, Ball brought his love of northern soul and strange electronics to bear on some of Britain’s most uncompromising pop

Petridis gives Soft Cell the hard sell. Oh how I loved them aged 14! Bring back the glory days of art school synth pop! Say hello wave goodbye is true art

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Palazzo Reale Napoli. Who can resist a bit of porcelain?

B&W image, approximating a printed image, of various jewels and jewel-like forms

Roy Lichtenstein, Large Jewels, 1963 www.lichtensteincatalogue.org/catalogue/en...

Stockport motorways, painting by Helen Clapcott (b.1952). #WomensArt #NorthernArt

Indigenous artists transform works at Metropolitan Museum in unsanctioned augmented reality project The digital interventions by 17 Native artists, launched on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, put pointed twists on works in the museum’s American Wing

Really good idea for an exhibition here that other museums could learn from. Artists created a set of VR interventions on existing works in a museum so anyone with the VR headset got the 'new' exhibition.

www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/13/i...

The Surete's elite Flaneur squad is now on the case.

'The Bedroom Window.' (c1930) Gilbert Spencer's first one-man exhibition was held at the Goupil Gallery, London in January 1923, four years before his brother Stanley's first one-man exhibition at the same venue, on other occasions he exhibited with John Nash and Mark Gertler.

London’s Courtauld Gallery Receives Historic $40 Million Donation The Courtauld Gallery and Institute has received a £30 million ($40 million) donation from the Reuben Foundation—the largest in its 93 year history.

Always read the small print in art news reporting

“The gallery also announced a long-term partnership with the Reuben Foundation, through which the organization will assist in staging exhibitions at the Courtauld thru the Reuben brothers’ extensive art collection.”

www.artforum.com/news/courtau...

Kate Moss and Lucian Freud — the supermodel reveals her side of the story An intimate portrait and their unlikely friendship made them the talk of the town — two decades on, the supermodel is the executive producer of a new film, Moss & Freud

Kate Moss and Lucian Freud — the supermodel reveals her side of the story. Hilarious piece by Waldemar

www.thetimes.com/article/0893...

French porcelain makes a showboating appearance in New York The Bard Graduate Center’s inventive exhibition proves that Sèvres can suit every occasion, be it formal, witty, serious or silly, writes Rachel Hunter Himes

Now that's what I call art!

apollo-magazine.com/sevres-frenc...

Marsden Hartley
Landscape, New Mexico (1920)

My entire wardrobe is suddenly out of date

Woman in a blue dress, sitting in a chair, holding a book.is she reading or is the looking pensively at an invisible light-source in front of her, lighting-up her face?

Jean Angladon,
Portrait de Paulettte Martin,
Musée Angladon, Avignon/France

‘Nonconformist’ architect of MI6 building Terry Farrell dies aged 87 Farrell was a key member of the hi-tech movement of the 1980s and 90s, with buildings including the TV-am studios and Embankment Place in London, and the Deep in Hull

Well, he was cool

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

In an era of AI slop and mid TV, is it time for cultural snobbery to make a comeback? The lowbrow dominates culture and anyone who questions the status quo is dismissed as an elitist killjoy. But with bland algorithmic content on the rise, perhaps we consumers should start taking our a...

Yes! At last - Ai slop might finally bring us the return of value judgement in art

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Intermission (also known as Intermedio), 1963 #hopper #newrealism

Cf. August Sander, farmer, 1930