The robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990 is the biggest modern art theft to date. The robbers masqueraded as police and managed to dupe the night guards and in a relaxed manners were able to steal dozens of works of art while they took eighty-one minutes and multiple trips to their car. They wore no masks, it was all on video, and the guards distinctly remember their faces. That only adds to the mystery of how these two men were able to calmly and methodically steal these seemingly random (not the most valuable in the gallery) works of art through alarms and safety triggers sounding. There has been no real trace of either these men or of the the stolen works in any world market or private collection. Private investigators do though have over 10,000 leads, none of which are at all guaranteed accurate or have led to any findings so far. Join discussion...

the Denver Art Museum gave a half interest in its Charles Deas painting Long Jakes that were painted in 1844 to billionaire Philip Anschutz. In exchange, he bought a painting by Thomas Eakins, 1892, and donated half the money to the museum. Join discussion...

A retired lawyer, Robert Mardirosian, has just been found guilty of knowingly possessing seven stolen paintings worth 30 million dollars that he had received more than 20 years prior. This act of theft is the largest known in Massachusetts history. Robert Mardirosian had been attempting to sell the piece of art, but was unsuccessful. Now 72, Mardirosian faces up to 10 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release and a 250,000 dollar fine. Join discussion...

In Hong Kong, Sothesby's sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian paintings made far more money that was estimated. Over HK$71 Mil was spent (US$9 million). The article in the link tells more about each of the individual works sold. Join discussion...

this article shows a painting of Narcissus looking down in a pool of water gazing upon hisself because of the fact that Narcissus fell in love with hisself after gazing upon hisself when looking in a pool of water Join discussion...

Fourteen recently stolen paintings were auctioned at Christie's King Street auction house. These paintings, part of a set of 69, had been stolen from an on-loan exhibition at Abbot Hall, a house turned museum, in 2006. For some reason they were never registered as stolen, and as such never caught when they were put for auction. It was only until after they were sold that they were discovered to be stolen. The miniatures will soon be returned to their owner who lent them out. Join discussion...

The Cliffton Park museum is taking acceptance to a new level with the opening of a new art exhibit inspired by the terrible flooding of the last season. The show was displayed in a cafe so people could enjoy the art while eating lunch. It was a huge success; they sold three of the paintings and got lots of compliments on the exhibit. The paintings were done by Craig Longmuir. Craig is an art teacher at Silverdale school in Sheffield who takes great pride in his work and community. In an interview he said, "I like it when a work of art takes control of itself and I just allow it to finish. This for me is the magic and mystery of painting." After such harsh natural disasters as the floods, this kind of exhibition is exactly what a community needs to rebuild its morale. Join discussion...

NOTE: The article is the second one on the page. Sotheby's is auctioning 4 works by Banksy. These contain Untitled (Happy Coppers), Untitled, Mona Lisa, and Police. Happy Coppers contain two "coppers" which have a Wal-Mart smiley on their faces. Untitled shows a bird with a grenade in its mouth with a very cartoonish look. Mona Lisa has Mona Lisa with an AK-49 in her hands and a red target on her four head. Police shows a policeman with an anarchy sign behind him. Join discussion...

On Sunday, November 25, a Chinese art auction in Hong Kong broke the record for highest selling when the buyer paid the equivalent of $9.4 million. The buyer got a set of 14 interesting paintings done in gunpowder and ink, a strange combination. The artist has become internationally famous because of his experimentation with this gunpowder art. The pieces are a combination of traditional and contemporary that appeals to people all over the world. There were bidders from Asia, Europe, and America. The paintings by artist Cai Guo-Qiang ended up selling for double their marked value. Guo-Qiang currently lives in the U.S. and at one time won the Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award for works of his that had explosions of gunpowder creating carbon residue images on a piece of canvas. The previous record for Chinese contemporary sales was $5.9 million and this new set of paintings smashed that with almost double the price paid. Join discussion...