Our Art News Letter for March 21, 2015 - Pierre Bonnard, Rembrandts, Vincent van Gogh, Dali, Picasso, Matisse

A replica of DaVinci's ''Mona Lisa'' is part of the ''Dali & Da Vinci'' exhibit at the Dali Museum. On the left, Salvador Dali inserts himself into the classic painting by Leonardo da Vinci. MARCIA BIGGS

'Dali & Da Vinci' takes lighthearted look into the minds of geniuses. Following an international blockbuster Picasso exhibit, the Dali Museum brings another of the world’s greatest artists into a comparative show with “Dalí & da Vinci: Minds, Machines and Masterpieces.” But let’s get one thing clear from the start — that’s where the similarity ends. Discover da Vinci at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL - See more

Anémones et grenades by Henri Matisse

Picasso and Matisse Among Auction Highlights from Hollywood's Goldwyn Family Collection. Sotheby's will present Property from the Goldwyn Collection across a series of auctions in 2015. While the Goldwyn family is legendary within the film industry, many will discover in these sales that their creative vision also extended to collecting fine art... more

Musée d'Orsay drops photo ban after culture minister snaps Bonnard. The museum, which houses many impressionist paintings, has now aligning itself with rules in force in other major museums in Paris and around the world, which allow visitors to take photos as long as flashes and tripods aren't used... More

French couple guilty of possessing stolen Picasso works. Pierre and Danielle Le Guennec given two-year suspended sentence over cache of 271 works that retiree claims artist gave him as gift for odd jobs... More

The Rothschilds of France have a lot of great pictures. They even have a number of Rembrandts including this pair of portraits Marten Soolmans and his wife that the family wants to sell for €150m.

The portraits were bought in 1877 by baron Gustave de Rothschild and were only shown to the public for a short period in 1956 in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

France’s Tribune of Art is very unhappy that the national authorities have passed on trying to acquire the works for France

Read more at DutchNews.n, & Art Market Monitor

A landscape by Vincent van Gogh is to be exhibited for the first time in more than 100 years following the discovery of crucial evidence that firmly traces back its history directly to the artist.

The significance of two handwritten numbers scribbled almost imperceptibly on the back had been overlooked until now. They have been found to correspond precisely with those on two separate lists of Van Gogh’s works drawn up by Johanna, wife of the artist’s brother, Theo.

Experts expect Le Moulin d’Alphonse to fetch around $10m. More at: Guardian News 

More than two decades after the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí died, a woman claiming to be his daughter has lodged a paternity suit, asking for help in obtaining DNA evidence to back her claim.

Pilar Abel, 58, claims her mother and the artist met in the 1950s when her mother was working for a family that would often spend summers in Cadaqués, close to where Dalí had a home. The pair “had a friendship that developed into clandestine love”, said Abel, in documents presented to a Madrid court. Abel was born in 1956. More at: The Guardian

Bonnard’s Art to Visit Paris, Madrid and San Francisco - Pablo Picasso “detested” Pierre Bonnard, says Guy Cogeval, president of Paris’s Musée d’Orsay. It’s easy to see why. In the early 20th century, Picasso and members of experimental groups such as the cubists and the futurists were finding shocking new ways to render the world. They tended to view a decorative-minded painter like Bonnard as a lightweight.

“Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia” runs at the Orsay from Tuesday through July 19, then moves to Madrid’s Fundación Mapfre before the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco install the show in that city’s Legion of Honor in February 2016. At the Orsay, the exhibition contains 147 works, including his purely decorative commissions and lesser known photographs. Mr. Cogeval and the Orsay’s Isabelle Cahn curated the show.