The artwork ''Virgen de Tobed'' by Jaume Serra, dated in 1359, is seen in this undated picture provided by the Prado Museum in Madrid January 29, 2013.

MADRID | Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:23pm EST

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Prado museum received its biggest private donation in decades on Tuesday with the gift of 12 medieval and Renaissance works by Spanish artists.

The paintings and sculptures include "The Virgin of Tobed", the central panel of the altarpiece of a church in northeastern Spain and an exceptional example of Catalan Italo-Gothic painting attributed to Jaume Serra.

The collection, donated by a businessman from Barcelona in a ceremony attended by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, will join paintings by Spanish masters such as El Greco, Velazquez and Goya in one of Europe's most venerated museums.

"These aren't times of lavish state spending, so this donation is generous and tremendously timely," said Jose Pedro Perez Llorca, president of the Prado's board of trustees.

Spain is mired in a deep crisis which has forced the government to apply severe spending cuts to try to meet public deficit targets agreed with its partners in the European Union.

"The Prado is the memory of an ambitious nation that has never been stopped by hardship," Rajoy said.

"This donation enriches in an extraordinary way a museum...which is an indispensable element of our image as a country," he added.

The patron, Barcelona businessman and engineer Jose Luis Varez will receive the rare honor of having a room in the Madrid museum named after him.

The museum, which had 2.8 million visitors last year, did not say when the newly donated works will go on show.

(Reporting by Teresa Larraz; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

A restoration expert arranges the ruffles on a blouse that belonged to iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo at the ''Blue House'' in the neighborhood of Coyoacan in Mexico City September 27, 2012.

MEXICO CITY | Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:33pm EDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The colorful dresses of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo will go on display for the first time in November after being kept hidden from public view for 50 years at the request of her husband, acclaimed muralist Diego Rivera.

Curators of the Kahlo's "Blue House" in Mexico City discovered a trove of 300 dresses, bathing suits, accessories and photographs in 2004 and are now ready to show the public 22 items from the unique wardrobe that turned her into a fashion muse.

The exhibit explores Kahlo's fascination with Mexico's indigenous women and her penchant for richly embroidered ethnic frocks, flowery headpieces and ornate silver jewelry that earned her a photo shoot with Vogue magazine in 1937.

It also reveals how she chose clothes to hide her disfigurement after a bout of childhood polio that left one leg thinner than the other and a devastating bus accident that broke her spine in three places and left her in constant pain and scarred from subsequent surgeries.

"We must remember that Frida - like Diego - wanted the colors, the dress, the culture of Mexican women to be public and known," said Carlos Phillips, head of the museums that exhibit Kahlo and Rivera's work.

"They were attempting to rescue a people which had been abandoned. Mexican society dressed like Europeans. Those types of clothes weren't appreciated as much anymore," he said.

Kahlo and Rivera are two of Mexico's most celebrated figures, and their on-off stormy marriage was among the most prominent of the 20th century art world.

Kahlo, who died from pneumonia in 1954 at age 47, led a troubled life fraught with illness and tumultuous love affairs. A member of the Mexican Communist Party, she was a fierce supporter of the country's traditional culture.

"Frida Kahlo without a doubt is a very important icon in the fashion scene," said Kelly Talamas, editor of Vogue magazine for Mexico and Latin America.

"She had more of a dark side, and also had her side in which she was inspired by the colors and the textures and the people and the culture here in Mexico," she said. "I think that's what's most inspiring to designers, that the pieces that she wore create a story."

Vogue has commissioned contemporary Frida-inspired pieces from several designers to display alongside the originals.

PAIN AND DISFIGUREMENT

Kahlo began painting as a teenager while convalescing from the crash in 1925 and her work and the numerous self-portraits for which she is best known reflect the searing pain she lived with until her death.

The museum had respected Rivera's request to keep Frida's clothing under lock and key for half a century after she died in 1954. Rivera had wanted to preserve the items and protect them from people who might not take care of them properly.

When they did start examining the items, they were thrilled to find the exact outfit worn in the 1937 Vogue shoot.

Seen by Reuters, it features a European-inspired green, ruffled blouse with high neck and long sleeves, with small buttons down the back, and a voluminous, ivory-colored silk taffeta skirt with a floral print and lace hem. A magenta shawl wrapped around the shoulders completed the look. The blouse now has some stains from Kahlo's oil paints.

"She didn't just choose any dress. This particular dress ... symbolizes a strong woman," said Circe Henestrosa, the exhibit's curator.

"It's also a dress that projected her political beliefs and her desire to promote her Mexican identity. As far as her disability, it's a dress that allowed her to hide her physical imperfections," she said.

(Writing by Bernd Debusmann Junior and Louise Egan; Editing by Simon Gardner)

View the original article here

Artist Francis Bacon's painting ''Untitled (Pope),'' which Bacon painted circa 1954, is shown in this publicity image released to Reuters September 27, 2012.

NEW YORK | Thu Sep 27, 2012 5:52pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A painting from Francis Bacon's iconic screaming Pope series, which has not been seen in public since 1975, is hitting the auction block where it is expected to sell for as much as $25 million, Sotheby's said on Thursday.

"Untitled (Pope)," which Bacon painted circa 1954, will be sold at the November 13 New York sale of impressionist and modern art, the auction house said in a statement.

"This is a great collecting opportunity," Oliver Barker, Sotheby's senior specialist for contemporary art, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Paintings of this nature have become tremendously important in terms of asset value," he said, adding that Bacon's early Pope paintings "are truly unattainable objects" with most gracing museum walls and only a few remaining in private hands.

Sotheby's said the work was last sold, and seen in public, in 1975, when a collector it declined to identify bought it for $71,500 at its London auction.

"The timing is absolutely right to capture the upward momentum of the Bacon market," Barker said, noting that prices in recent years "have been driven by an international reassessment of his works by the market".

Barker said Bacon's most desirable works were his Pope series.

Works by the British painter have commanded high prices. A female nude sold for $34 million in London in February, and his "Triptych, 1976" went for $86 million in New York in May 2008.

Art prices have recovered since the financial crisis, and Barker said several of the highest prices for Bacons had been realized in the last three or four years.

Sotheby's has estimated the painting will fetch $18 million to $25 million. It will go on exhibition in Los Angeles on Thursday and be shown in London and New York before the auction.

(Editing By Christine Kearney)

View the original article here