Joan Miro

A painting by Joan Miro sold for $36.9 million at a London auction Tuesday. The Sotheby's sale of Miro's "Peinture (Etoile Bleue)" was an auction record for the late Spanish artist. The sale was part of a larger Sotheby's auction of Impressionist and modernist paintings by artists including Pissarro and Kandinsky. The auction, which brought in a reported $117.7 million, was the first of the London summer auction season. "Peinture (Etoile Bleue)" dates from 1927 and was purchased by its most recent owner in a Paris sale in 2007, according to Sotheby's.

A painting by Joan Miro sold for $36.9 million at a London auction Tuesday. The Sotheby's sale of Miro's "Peinture (Etoile Bleue)" was an auction record for the late Spanish artist. The sale was part of a larger Sotheby's auction of Impressionist and modernist paintings by artists including Pissarro and Kandinsky. The auction, which brought in a reported $117.7 million, was the first of the London summer auction season. "Peinture (Etoile Bleue)" dates from 1927 and was purchased by its most recent owner in a Paris sale in 2007, according to Sotheby's.

Police officials in Sweden and Denmark have uncovered what they described as the biggest art swindle in Scandinavia, seizing hundreds of forged etchings attributed to the Spanish artist Joan Miro. Swedish police said four Danish nationals had been arrested, one in Sweden and three in Denmark. The 380 etchings seized in Sweden and 500 others confiscated in Denmark had a market value of $13.5 million.

The Tate Modern Art Museum in London, which opened in 2000 in a onetime power station, will open a major exhibition of the work of Spanish artist Joan MirÃ?³, called the father of Abstract Expressionism, on April 14. The show, featuring more than 150 works, is one of the most extensive shows ever dedicated to this  20th century artist and the first in London in half a century. The exhibition, "The Ladder of Escape,"  features rarely seen pieces that signpost the stages of MirÃ?

Picasso never spoke Spanish, only Catalan. He liked to be called "Don Pablo" and preferred the company of his bullfight cronies to the Beautiful People who were his best customers. In 1971 a Madrid art critic was jailed for daring to call Picasso Spain's greatest living artist while, at the same time in Barcelona, plans were under way for a Picasso Museum. Joan Miro wintered in Paris, but spent his summers on the family homestead near Barcelona.

The Tate Modern Art Museum in London, which opened in 2000 in a onetime power station, will open a major exhibition of the work of Spanish artist Joan MirÃ?³, called the father of Abstract Expressionism, on April 14. The show, featuring more than 150 works, is one of the most extensive shows ever dedicated to this  20th century artist and the first in London in half a century. The exhibition, "The Ladder of Escape,"  features rarely seen pieces that signpost the stages of MirÃ?

With proper care and feeding, the reputation of an established artist can last a lifetime, even if his later works are pretty awful. The acid test for living icons such as Picasso, Calder, Moore and that Olympian lot comes after they die. Fame's buzzards sit hungrily on blasted branches of status waiting for that first big posthumous retrospective. Is the great man going to be immortalized or will the parching clay of time crack and fissure?

When they converged in San Francisco about 45 years ago, Wolfgang Paalen, Gordon Onslow Ford and Lee Mullican wanted nothing less than to be image makers of cosmic freedom. The purpose of art, they thought, was self-transcending awareness.

On the surface, the thieves seemed sophisticated. They carefully targeted fine art prints created by mainstream contemporary and modern artists, whose pieces command thousands of dollars. Yet the artwork, taken from a number of upscale galleries around Los Angeles, often ended up folded or creased, visibly damaged in the process of being hidden inside clothing during the thefts.

Five Surrealist paintings by Paul Klee and Joan Miro have been given to the Art Institute of Chicago by the estate of a local artist and collector. Claire Ziesler, who died last month at the age of 88, was a major collector of Klee's work. She had decided in 1987 that the works would go to the institute upon her death.

Police officials in Sweden and Denmark have uncovered what they described as the biggest art swindle in Scandinavia, seizing hundreds of forged etchings attributed to the Spanish artist Joan Miro. Swedish police said four Danish nationals had been arrested, one in Sweden and three in Denmark. The 380 etchings seized in Sweden and 500 others confiscated in Denmark had a market value of $13.5 million.

With proper care and feeding, the reputation of an established artist can last a lifetime, even if his later works are pretty awful. The acid test for living icons such as Picasso, Calder, Moore and that Olympian lot comes after they die. Fame's buzzards sit hungrily on blasted branches of status waiting for that first big posthumous retrospective. Is the great man going to be immortalized or will the parching clay of time crack and fissure?

Picasso never spoke Spanish, only Catalan. He liked to be called "Don Pablo" and preferred the company of his bullfight cronies to the Beautiful People who were his best customers. In 1971 a Madrid art critic was jailed for daring to call Picasso Spain's greatest living artist while, at the same time in Barcelona, plans were under way for a Picasso Museum. Joan Miro wintered in Paris, but spent his summers on the family homestead near Barcelona.

Klees and Miros to Chicago: Five Surrealist paintings by Paul Klee and Joan Miro have been given to the Art Institute of Chicago by the estate of a local artist and collector. Claire Ziesler, who died last month at age 88, was a major collector of Klee's work. She had decided in 1987 that the works would go to the institute upon her death.

Caroline Weiss Law, whose father founded the oil company that later became Exxon Mobil, has willed more than $100 million in endowments and artwork to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Law, who died on her 85th birthday Dec. 24, left 52 major contemporary artworks, valued between $60 million and $85 million, and $25 million to establish an endowment at the museum.