At the end of each week, Whitewall is here to help sift through the news so you don't have to. After the jump, find what's worth reading from this week's news.
1. Mentioned in last weeks post, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, the Southeast Asian contemporary art sale finished up with a decent sell-through rate of 76%. This is due in part to the low estimates cautiously made in response to the struggling economy.
2. The private equity firm Patriarch Partners of New York purchases the failing Polaroid Corporation. The sale includes Polaroid’s art collection of numerous Ansel Adams', some photos by Warhol, as well as a variety of other high-quality works.
3. The Wall Street Journal explains why the dropping value of art should cause many collectors to donate.
4. The New Museum opened their much-talked about triennial exhibition The Generational: Younger than Jesus, April 8 – June 14. The group show showcases artists from around the world who are born after 1976.
5. The Whitechapel Gallery in London opens its substantial new expansion, designed by Belgian architects Robbrecht en Daem.
6. Last week we posted about an upcoming sale from a prominent South African collector. Here are the results, making more of a case for the growing interest in the South African art market.
7. To counter the success of the South African auction are the sluggish sales this week at the Joburg Art Fair.
8. Art funds, such as London’s Art Trading Fund, are found to be struggling, in part because they have been unable to raise the necessary money from investors.
9. The top Russian collectors are exercising “thriftiness” as Maria Baibakova tells the Moscow Times. She also says that no one would have believed that six months ago, and we can attest to that. Russian collectors, purchasing items at auction at incredibly inflated prices, were touted just a few months ago for keeping the bubble afloat.
10. Art conservation is joining the green movement with new discoveries in ways to conserve art and the environment simultaneously.
