Daily art news

ROUEN, FRANCE (AP).- A French museum has returned the mummified and tattooed head of a Maori to New Zealand officials after spending 136 years in a Normandy museum, a belated gesture to restore dignity to the first of 16 such human heads once displayed as exotic curiosities. Representatives of New Zealand's native Maori people sang traditional songs during an elaborate ceremony at Rouen City Hall to hand over the head to New Zealand diplomats, the first to be returned from of a total of 16 in France. "It's truly a solemn and symbolic day," New Zealand ambassador Rosmary Banks said. "We are very happy at the return" of the tattooed head after so many years in Rouen, Banks said. For years, New Zealand has sought the return of Maori heads kept in collections abroad, many of which were obtained by Westerners in exchange for weapons and other goods. Dozens of museums worldwide, though not all, have agreed to return them. Maori, the island nation's indigenous people, believe their ancestors' remains should be respected in their home area without being disturbed. 

LOS ANGELES, CA.- On May 3, 2011, Bonhams & Butterfields presented its $1.6-million Fine Prints auction, marked by strong surrealism sales: the exceptional $134,000 purchase of Salvador Dalí's La Divine Comédie, a complete signed portfolio of 100 color wood engravings from Dante Alighieri, L'Enfer, La Purgatoire, and Le Paradis, estimated at $50,000-70,000; and The Magic Flute, an After Marc Chagall, color lithograph on wove paper, estimated at $20,000-30,000 that sold for $42,700. 

AMSTERAM.- Sotheby’s Amsterdam will offer for sale on Tuesday 17 May 2011 Marie-Antoinette (1986) by the German artist Anselm Kiefer (1945). Kiefer’s Marie-Antoinette was a gift to designer and interior decorator Benno Premsela from the famous Dutch furniture designer Martin Visser . Premsela received the present work for his help with the negotiations of the bequest of Visser's private collection (including over 20 works by Anselm Kiefer) to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands. In 1986 Kiefer constructed a large piece in lead (280 by 470 cm.) titled Die Frauen der Revolution (Woman of the Revolution), that consisted of an assemblage of smaller steel frames with dried lilies-of-the-valley and roses under glass. Below each frame he wrote the name of the woman to whom that particular work was dedicated.