Fire breaks out at maritime museum in Jakarta

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Fire breaks out at maritime museum in Jakarta | A fire at Jakarta’s maritime museum (Museum Bahari) broke out this morning, taking around four hours to be extinguished and causing significant damage to the institution’s collections. There is also concern for the structure of the buildings that house the museum, a complex of former colonial-era 17th-century warehouses which underwent restoration work last year, although the Indonesian Heritage Society says that it is too early to assess the extent of the destruction. The museum has confirmed that no people were injured in the fire, the cause of which is now under investigation.

Two new drawings confirmed as by Van Gogh | A previously unknown drawing by Vincent Van Gogh has been identified by experts, reports the Art Newspaper. The Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry (1886), from the collection of the Van Vlissingen Art Foundation, was examined by specialists at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, who authenticated the work. The discovery has also led to the authentication of a second drawing in the museum’s own collection, depicting a similar scene and dating from the same year, and previously rejected from the museum’s 2001 catalogue raisonné.

Markus Lüpertz sculpture stolen from Düsseldorf foundry | A bronze sculpture by Markus Lüpertz has been stolen from a foundry in Düsseldorf. The artist discovered the 2.30-metre-high work, titled Athena, to be missing from the foundry, which he has used to fabricate his sculptures for over forty years, on Thursday last week – two days after an eyewitness reportedly saw two men were loading a large sculpture into a van.

Simon de Pury wins suit for $10m Gaugin painting commission | This morning a High Court judge in London announced the verdict in a high-profile lawsuit, successfully brought by Swiss auctioneer and collector Simon de Pury, over a $10m commission which de Pury sought for his role in the sale of a painting by Paul Gaugin. De Pury has now won his battle for financial recognition that he brokered the deal in 2015 between the painting’s former owner, ex-Sotheby’s executive Rudolf Staechelin, and art dealer Guy Bennett, who purchased the work for $210 million for the emir of Qatar.