September 30 | A New record for de Kooning?

Untitled XXV (1977) forms part of a series of large canvases that de Kooning produced during his later years in the mid-1970s. The estimate exceeds the record sale of a work by de Kooning, achieved by Untitled VIII (1977) in November 2013, which realized $32 million. More on Art Market Monitor.

The Armory Show, one of New York’s leading fairs of Modern and contemporary art, has appointed Nicole Berry as curator. She will take up the post in October, and will oversee VIP and visitor relations as well as directing new curatorial initiatives. Since 2011, Berry was the deputy director of Expo Chicago, prior to which she founded Accessible Art, a company that provides advising and consulting services. More info via Artforum.

14 years on from perhaps the most infamous heist the art world has seen in recent times, the two paintings that were stolen from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh museum in 2002 have been recovered by Italian authorities in Naples. Though the perpetrators of the original heist were caught, the paintings were thought to be lost forever, until the Italian police discovered Van Gogh’s View of the Sea at Scheveningen(1882) and his Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884) hidden in the house of an international drug trafficker based in Castellammare di Stabia. It is unclear at which point the artworks will return to Amsterdam, as they are likely to be used as evidence in the ensuing trial.  The Guardian has more.

A work by the Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby has been sold by Sotheby’s for $93,750, almost four times the auction house’s high estimate. Created in 2011, the work Untitled is a mixed media piece created using acrylic, graphite, colored pencil and printed paper collage. Crosby is currently represented by the Victoria Miro Gallery in London. See the auction lot on Sotheby’s website.

This year, Sotheby’s Made in Britain sale totaled £1.96 million, with Patrick Heron’s painting Complex Cerulean in Dark Green Square (1977) fetching the largest sum at £93,750. The total sales figure for the auction was well above Sotheby’s high estimate. Other works that achieved the highest prices within the sale included Ben Nicholson’s pencil and wash drawing St Ives Rooftop, Vessel and Boats, which went for £60,000 and Patrick Caulfield’s Wall Plate: Oval, which made £81,250. More on Art Market Monitor.