Le nez creux : He unknowingly buys a Modigliani painting at a market in Le Mans and discovers it 15 years later! "I paid a few thousand euros for it, which is not nothing since it was impossible to attribute it." ...he only notices the stamp of a Montmartre studio, frequented by famous artists, on the back of the canvas... (actu.fr)

Details on the hollow nose, enlightened and trained by the collector Paolo Guzzini, entrepreneur from the Marche region of Italy (former owner of IGuzzini Illuminazione, a subsidiary of the Swedish Fagerhulte group since 2019) and art collector... (fanpage.it)

A Modigliani painting sold for nearly 160 million euros, the "Naked Woman", painted between 1917 and 1918, which had caused a scandal during its first exhibition in 1918 in Paris. The police had ordered that the nudes be removed. Doesn't that remind you of Bernadette and Claudine in 1980 or Frédéric and Constance in 2024 ?

The Blocked Nose: From a Pensioner's Living Room to the Louvre, the Extraordinary Destiny of an Unknown Painting by Cimabue : "there is no more beautiful story...". A discovery that will shake up the world and the history of art: the author is Cimabue, father of painting in the modern Western era. Sold for more than 24 million at auction, how this work was bought by the Louvre... a very small painting, the "Christ mocked" of about 25 cm by 20 hanging on the wall that extends the open kitchen towards the living room... An auctioneer moves, looks, inspects, takes inventory, evaluates and announces a sale price between 4,000 and 5,000 euros for what is saleable... (france3.fr)

Cimabue

Accessible worldwide, a new auction house is opening in the Oise... "We are discoverers and transmitters of heritage." Philomène Wolf, auctioneer for 14 years. (actu.fr)

And a ruckus between the former partners Philomène Wolf and Dominique Le Coënt de Beaulieu. Five years after the sale of Cimabue's painting for 24 million, the auctioneers' war has been declared (leparisien.fr by subscription)

CIMABUE. TO THE ORIGINS OF MODERN PAINTING IN THE WESTT, organized and presented at the Louvre Museum, Paris, from January 22, 2025 to May 12, 2025

Fun Mathematics from La Bignole: 5,000 - 24,000,000 = ?

The winning nose: A sculpture by Camille Claudel found by chance reaches a record price at auction... Discovered hidden under a sheet during an inventory carried out in an apartment uninhabited for over 15 years, located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, "L'Âge mûr" was sold for 3.1 million euros... "A flat plunged into darkness, closed for about fifteen years, with a lot of dust" —Matthieu Semont, auctioneer— (france3)

The snub nose: The world's No. 1 chess player, Magnus Carlsen, is auctioning off his "cursed jeans" for charity... It's the jeans that earned him a fine, then a banned from participating in a round (time when all participants play a game) at the 2024 World Blitz Championships "for violation of the dress code" (lefigaro.fr)

Magnus Carlsen will finally play in jeans at the World Chess Championships in New York. Indeed, the International Chess Federation (Fide), which is not a "pawn", has moved back one square, announcing more "flexibility" in the outfits authorized during the world championships... During the previous edition, at the end of 2023, the international federation had fined a player, Anna-Maja Kazarian, 100 euros because her shoes were not deemed to comply with the regulations. The Dutchwoman was forced to change her "sports shoes" - sneakers - and put on heels. Wearing sneakers is still not authorized this year... (huffingtonpost)

Magnus Carlsen       Anna-Maja Kazarian     And for chess lovers, there are the weekly chess games of La Bignole d'Antan, this week in the weekend edition of February 22, 1925, the problem and chess game No. 221 played at the La Rotonde café during the Masters Tournament between Znosko-Borovsky and Tartakover

Les nez fins : Des vitraux du 16th siècle d'une église de Oise discovered in San Francisco: "we do not know when and how the originals were replaced"... (france3) A long investigation to discover.

Chaumont-en-Vexin      The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, a art museum just over a century old

The fashion nose : An exceptional sale: nude drawings by Yves Saint Laurent were auctioned in Paris... (actu.fr)

The lots and other nude curiosities with Bernadette Chirac and Claudine au bains, as well as Frédéric Masquelier, mayor of Saint-Raphaël and her little panties.

The inspired nose: In Sierentz, the town hall wants to "reproduce" a Van Gogh painting from the natural decor of an old gravel pit... A major renaturation project with the canvas "Willows at Sunset" as a model, painted in 1888 by the Dutch painter... Around this "living canvas" in its draft stage, cabins, bird observatories and children's games have already been built... (francebleu)

Sierentz in Haut-Rhin  

And some time ago: In Bosnia, a botanical garden inspired by Van Gogh's "Starry Night"... On no less than ten hectares, tens of thousands of lavender shrubs, herbs and plants form whirlpools and spirals which, seen from the sky, recall the celestial configuration painted in 1889 by the post-impressionist artist

View of the sky (from very high). Lužnica (Visoko), a very small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina

In the official journal of La Bignole, a new CAP: A new discipline of fine arts or plastic arts, the "Gardener-Painter" with the creation or reproduction of paintings by living plants in 3 dimensions?

« WITCHES (1862-1914) » organized and presented at the Pont-Aven museum, from June 7, 2025 to November 16, 2025

« READ THE SKY » organized and presented at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem), Marseille, from July 9, 2025 to January 5, 2026

« ALL THAT GLITTERS. LE JOU À LA RENAISSANCE » organized and presented at the Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse, from April 4, 2025 to July 27, 2025

« CÉZANNE AU JAS DE BOUFFAN », organized and presented at the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, from June 28, 2025 to October 12, 2025

« CHARLES FREDERICK WORTH » presented at the Petit Palais, Musée des Fine Arts of the City of Paris, from May 7, 2025 to September 7, 2025

« MATISSE AND MARGUERITE. THE GAZE OF A FATHER » presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, from April 4, 2025 to August 24, 2025

« MAMLOUKS » organized and presented at the Louvre Museum, Paris, from April 30, 2025 to July 28, 2025

« APPIANI. NAPOLEON'S PAINTER IN ITALY » presented at the Château de Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, from March 15, 2025 to July 28, 2025

« THE ARTIST AND CLOTHING. DRESSING AS AN ARTIST » organized and presented at the Louvre-Lens Museum, Lens, from March 26, 2025 to July 21, 2025. An evening dress from around 1933 in a fabric created by Marie LAURENCIN (1885-1956) will be exhibited. About Marie Laurencin: Lino, a new profession with a particular charm, an innovative process due to Madame Marie Laurencin. The high cost of materials makes you ingenious

« JOSEPH-SIFFRED DUPLESSIS » organized and presented at the Inguimbertine library-museum, Carpentras, from June 14, 2025 to September 28, 2025

« THE EXPERIENCE OF NATURE. ARTS IN PRAGUE AT THE COURT OF RUDOLPH II » organized and presented at the Louvre Museum, Paris, from March 19, 2025 to June 30, 2025

« MAMLUKS » organized and presented at the Louvre Museum, Paris, from April 30, 2025 to July 28, 2025

« TREASURES SAVED FROM GAZA, 5000 YEARS OF HISTORY » organized and presented at Arab World Institute, Paris, from April 2, 2025 to November 2, 2025