Free Republic

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) filed a lawsuit against the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office on Thurday over the earlier seizure of a headless bronze statue, estimated to be worth $20 million. The museum stated in its lawsuit that it “does not question that the New York district attorney sometimes gets it right and returns true stolen items to foreign nations. Based on the evidence adduced thus far and the opinions of experts available to the museum, this is not one of those times.” The court filing says the CMA lawfully purchased the “Draped Male Figure” for $1.85 million from...

In its boldest collection-culling since 1982, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will sell off 42 artworks in November, including paintings by Amedeo Modigliani, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Max Beckmann, sculptures by Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, and works on paper by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Edgar Degas. Sotheby's in New York will offer the works at auction Nov. 2 and 3 and expects them to bring in $10 million to $14 million. The headliner is a Modigliani, "Portrait of Manuel Humbert Esteve," that is expected to fetch $4 million to $6 million. The idea, said LACMA...