Paintings from before 1850, once a bedrock of the market, now account for just a tiny percentage of auction sales. Instead, buyers want works by living artists with a strong Instagram presence.
The gem, recovered from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, ended up in the possession of the chicken magnate Frank Perdue. His widow, Mitzi Perdue, is auctioning it to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
Stephanie Clegg paid $90,000 for a Marc Chagall painting at a Sotheby’s auction in 1994. It was reappraised for $100,000 in 2008. Now an expert panel in France wants to destroy it as a fake.
Two sleuths — a curator and a librarian — in New Paltz, N.Y., helped the F.B.I. track down 200-year-old paintings that were stolen from a historical society in 1972.
No longer does museum validation or scholarly attention determine a painting’s value. Now, the collectors’ hunger comes first, and institutions must follow.