Daily art news

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces a special highlight of its Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 4 May: Les enfants et les jouets, an extraordinary work by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted in the spring of 1901 when the artist was only 19 years old and in his first flush of commercial success. The subject is among the earliest and most elaborate of the artist’s depictions of small children to be finished as a full-fledged oil painting. Estimated at US$ 5.5 - 7.5 million, this brilliantly painted work is the second major oil from this early period in Picasso’s career to reach the auction block this year. In February, Christie’s London fetched US$ 7.8 million (£4.9 million) for the artist’s Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine, a 1901 painting consigned from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both paintings are among an important group of works Picasso created in a flurry of creative inspiration as he adjusted to life in Paris and prepared for his first major exhibition at the gallery of the influential Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. 

April 13, 1860.- James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Flemish-Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX. In this image: A visitor of the exhibition 'James Ensor' examines a painting of the artist titled 'Death and the Masks' (1897) at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Friday 16 December 2005. The exhibition shows 80 master pieces on canvas and the same number of works on paper covering all works periods of Ensor. The exhibition runs from 17 December 2005 until 19 March 2006. 

RALEIGH (AP).- In the unlikely location of a North Carolina jewelry store near the beach, a lavishly jeweled cross and a ring once owned by Pope Paul VI sit under lock and key, awaiting transfer to an even less familiar venue for symbols of Roman Catholic authority: an eBay auction. The items have turned up at a Wilmington store owned by a Southern Baptist with a flair for self-promotion. It's the latest stop on a strange journey involving luminaries ranging from UN Secretary General U Thant to Evel Knievel, and which began with Paul VI's novel decision to allow some of his jewelry to be sold to raise money for charity. One of the items is a pectoral cross, given to clergy who attain the rank of bishop or higher to signify their office. The pope's donation was a testament to his willingness to engage the contemporary world by de-emphasizing the importance of such regalia.