The house-work of art for sale at 10 million euros
Hubbabubbabuilding in Zandvoort, a villa covered in bright pink chewing gum bubbles, is now for sale. Created by street artist Frankey (based in Amsterdam), it is for sale not on a real estate site but on the platform Artsy as a work of the Newhouse Gallery. How much is it being offered for? 10 million euros, with a specific contractual condition attached to the sale. The house can be lived in, but the artwork must remain completely intact for the next five years. Yet “You would never turn a painting into a kitchen table.”
Mick Nieuwenhuis – Founder of the gallery writes: “When I was asked to present this ‘house’, I accepted immediately; what could be more suitable for Newhouse than a work of art in the shape of a house? Frankey’s playful yet sharp approach makes this project irresistible. His works always convey that unmistakable lightness that simply makes you happy.”
A four-meter-tall sculpture depicts the artist balancing on a ladder while blowing a gigantic bubble from the chimney inside the house. Other chewing-gum come out of the windows.
“It is a building that lives like a sculpture,” explains the artist, and in this it reminds us of the casts of Rachel Whiteread.
Click here to view/buy the artwork on Artsy
The Salomè by Diana de Rosa sold at Sotheby’s auction for 4 times the estimate
On July 2, during the Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, Salomè with the Head of St. John the Baptist by Diana de Rosa achieved a record sale leaving everyone speechless: at £317,500 (approximately €369,000). The starting estimate was £60,000–80,000. The oil on canvas by the Neapolitan painter was thus sold with a value of +400%.
The market rediscovers women painters. Who is Diana de Rosa?
Also known as Annella di Massimo or Dianella, she was a 17th-century artist whose story was passed down by Bernardo De Dominici in his Vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti napoletani. Born in 1602, daughter of the Mannerist painter Tommaso de Rosa and related (perhaps as a sister or perhaps as a niece) to the better-known Pacecco, Diana trained at the workshop of Massimo Stanzione, of whom she was a favorite pupil. It is even said that Stanzione provided her with a sort of “paid maternity leave” to ensure he wouldn’t lose her as a collaborator. An important commission was the Storie della Vergine at Santa Maria della Pietà dei Turchini (Naples). The biographer Bernardo De Dominici describes her as a tenacious and strong-willed woman, eager to establish herself in the artistic scene. As happened to many artists, like the famous case of Caravaggio, her name had been lost.
Now, with the revaluation of many female artists, we are not talking about the famous Artemisia Gentileschi, but about lesser-known artists, her profile has been noticed. Fashion or skill?
The previous auctions of Dorotheum
The previous record was reached by Dorotheum for the painting Sansone e Dalila, auctioned in 2021 for 165,500 euros. Dorotheum has sold other works of his in the past during the auctions. If the painting of Santa Cecilia in April 2023 totals just 39,000 euros, in May 2022 La morte di Didone reaches almost €128,000. It was conceived as a pair with lot 68, Sofonisba con la coppa avvelenata, also sold for 89,600 euros. Very similar is the setting of Lucrezia (boasting the same measurements as Sofonisba), painted while taking her own life, sold in 2018 for 87,500. His Sant’Agata in June 2020, on the other hand, was awarded for 25,000 euros. The attributions were made by the critic Riccardo Lattuada.
Are we facing a meteor or a rising star?
We remember the beautiful exhibition Roma Pittrice. Artiste al lavoro tra XVI e XIX secolo from October 2024 to May 2025, on fifty-six artists active in the Urbe. In addition to Angelika Kaufmann and Lavinia Fontana, works by Emma Gaggiotti, whose works were mostly kept in the deposits of Palazzo Braschi (P. Navona).
Waiting for Art Basel Paris
The paintings of the impressionist Marie Bracquemond will be exhibited at Art Basel Paris after a record auction in 2024. Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool has just acquired one of her paintings. She was given a personal stand at Art Basel Paris last October, set up by the Parisian gallerist Pauline Pavec. During the next Paris edition of Art Basel, an exhibition will be dedicated to her with works painted before 1900. It is the first time that, on the occasion of an art fair of this caliber, a personal exhibition of a female impressionist artist is presented.
Who is this artist who has long been off the radar? Born in 1840 in Brittany, she took lessons from a retired artist and in 1857 exhibited one of her paintings at the prestigious Salon in Paris. She was a student of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres but then made her own way in the art world. She earned the esteem of both Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. She was one of the few women to participate in the impressionist exhibitions of 1879, 1880, and 1886.
Unfortunately, her husband, the engraver Félix Bracquemond, who initially supported her career by introducing her to Paul Gauguin, became jealous of her talent over the years. The couple’s son wrote an unpublished biography about his mother and noted how the father hid Marie’s merits, ensuring that “none of their artist friends paid attention to her works.”
Marie Bracquemond stopped painting in 1890: a full two decades before her death, which occurred in 1916.
The market of rare items from Capitolium
For Capitolium, Giano del Bufalo, who became famous to the general public for the program Cash or Trash, manages the auction of the department Wunderkammer, Curiosities & Etnografia, the next online auction will be held on December 11. As explained on the site, the department focuses on rare and travel objects, so you can find “porcelains, metals, votive statues, paintings, fabrics, sculptures, manuscripts, miniatures and paintings, ceramics, fabrics, calligraphies, jewelry, furniture, and collectible objects from the natural world”.
In the latest auction in presence “535”, rituals and relics, the awards were modest. The selection of objects is particular. The lot that reached the highest price was a collection composed of 103 phalluses in bronze. The provenance is England XVIII/XIX century, the price € 5,418. It was then sold for € 5,292 a futurist banner displayed on the occasion of the signing of the Tripartite Pact Rome, Berlin, Tokyo of 1940. Another Pair of fine wooden mannequins of Italian craftsmanship from the nineteenth century (€ 3,906.00). Starting from low estimates and results: this encourages new enthusiasts to approach the world of collecting. For example, the first lot “Artistic composition with taxidermy of albino African hedgehog on ostrich egg with alabaster base” had an estimate between 150 and 250 euros.
She has collaborated for many years with art magazines such as Artribune, XIBT Contemporary, ArtApp, Insideart and Espoarte, preferring contemporary art in its many facets and media drifts.
