The big art stories of 2024

Unleashed

In early August, a number of new Banksy images began to appear across London – all animal-themed, with a new one appearing in a different spot each day for nine days. A goat stencilled on a wall in Kew kicked off the series, followed by two elephants on blocked-up windows in Chelsea, and a howling wolf on a satellite dish in Peckham (promptly removed by two masked men). Later works included two pelicans above a Walthamstow chippy and, finally, a gorilla freeing animals from London Zoo. Many interpretations were offered: the images were about the threat of mass extinction; a comment on gentrification; a paean to the plight of the Palestinians. "Recent theorising about the deeper significance of each new image has been way too involved," stated Banksy's company, Pest Control Office.

Rediscovered

A painting by Gustav Klimt that was believed lost for nearly a century has recently been rediscovered. "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser" (1917), a late work by the painter of "The Kiss", was found in Klimt's studio when he died in 1918. It was then given to the family of the Jewish industrialist Adolf Lieser, whose niece may be depicted in the painting (the identity of the sitter is unclear; it may be another member of the family). Some time after 1925, when it was displayed at a Klimt exhibition in Vienna, it vanished. But it was discovered this year after an Austrian citizen was bequeathed it by a relative who had bought it in 1960. In April, the painting was sold in Vienna to an anonymous buyer for €30 million, with a restitution settlement in place: the proceeds were split between its Austrian legal owner and the heirs of the Lieser family. There is no clear evidence that the work was looted during the Nazi era, but there is a "hole" in its provenance, and the Lieser family are known to have been persecuted under the Nazis' anti-Jewish laws.

Remembered

Frank Auerbach, one of the most admired British artists of his postwar generation, died in November, aged 93. Born in 1931 in Berlin to a Jewish family, he was sent to Britain by his parents in 1939; they died in Auschwitz. After studying art in London, Auerbach painted city scenes (mostly bomb damage and building sites) and austere portraits, which evoke the anxiety and horror of the mid-century. His paintings were broadly figurative, but used such thick daubed swathes of impasto that they appear almost abstract. Auerbach lived a famously monastic existence, devoting himself to his work. For 70 years, he spent seven days and five evenings a week in a studio in Camden Town, although it wasn't until a 1978 retrospective at the Hayward Gallery that he became celebrated. Last year, he said that he hoped to die with a brush in his hand.

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Sold

René Magritte's "Empire of Light" sold for $121.2 million at Christie's in New York in November. It was the highest price ever paid for a work by the Belgian surrealist, and the highest price paid for any work of art this year. The 1954 painting, of a villa by a canal, looks normal enough until you notice that it's night in the lower half but bright daylight higher up. It is the most famous of a series of 17 that Magritte painted on the same theme over a period of 15 years – and illustrates the artist's ability, said Christie's, "to turn symbols of ordinary, conventional life into agents of surprise and awe". It also inspired a famous frame in "The Exorcist", which was pictured in the poster for the film. The work had been owned by the Romanian-American interior designer Mica Ertegun, the wife of Ahmet Ertegun, who founded Atlantic Records and released music by many classic soul artists, such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. The buyer was a telephone bidder whose identity was not disclosed.

The art market as a whole suffered its second year of recession. Auction sales in the first six months at Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips and Bonhams fell 26% from 2023, and 36% from the market peak in 2021. Experts pointed to a mismatch between supply and demand, with big buyers moderating their purchases and a retrenchment after heavy spending during the pandemic, as well as the uncertain geopolitical outlook. Difficult conditions led to the closure of a number of galleries in London. There were, though, some high points, such as the sale of Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian" – a banana taped to a wall – to the crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun for $6.2m. Sun publicly ate the banana to celebrate his purchase.

Dated

The oldest-ever example of figurative art has been discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The painting, of a wild pig with three human-like figures, was found in the Leang Karampuang cave in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi province. It is at least 51,200 years old, more than 5,000 years older than the oldest previously known example. Researchers adopted a new scientific technique to determine the minimum age of the painting, using a laser to date a calcium carbonate crystal that had formed naturally on it. Older artworks have been found, in South Africa, but they are geometric patterns, not figurative art.

Sued

When John Bonafede took part in Marina Abramovic's performance art work "Imponderabilia" at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2010, he agreed to stand naked 18 inches from a nude woman and to let New Yorkers jostle between them. He did not agree to be groped. In January, 14 years after the event, Bonafede sued MoMA, alleging that he was assaulted on seven occasions by five older men. He accused MoMA of failing to protect him, and sought damages for "years of emotional distress". The case has not yet come to court. First staged by Abramovic in 1977, the work has often been performed since.