Gino Severini Mare=Ballerina, 1914, oil on canvas, 105.3 x 85.9 cm, (including artist’s painted frame)Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
"Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire and to know what he ought to do"--St. Thomas Aquinas
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CHRISTOFF'S OLD MASTERS Summer 2021: Futurismo! Christoff's Old Masters Summer 20 “The crowd contains a concealed beauty….When that beauty reveals itself in the unexpected noise that surges forth in the theater of the piazza or the trench, then a torrent of joy swells the heart of the man who has inspired it, with his verse, his oratory, or his sword. The word of the poet communicated to the crowd, like the gesture of the hero, is therefore an act that creates an instantaneous beauty in the obscurity of the obscurity of the soul, just as a great sculptor can draw forth a divine statue from a block of stone". Gabriele D’Annunzio quoted in Michael Ledeen “The First Duce: D’Annunzio at Fiume”. Here to the left, a link to my latest, the fourth issue of my quarterly print journal on the European Old Masters-- in this case, Classic Modern--market. This quarter is dedicated to the most exciting chapter in early Modern Art-- the late, great Futurismo--its philosophies, its main characters, its women, its brilliance. 
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Autumn 2020 "The Sporting Life"
Christoff's Old Masters The Sporting Life Autumn 2020 (adobe.com) This issue is a beautiful investigation into the theme of the great outdoors in Old Masters and Classic-Modern painting. Perhaps as a respite to the culture of confinement we have been living through, this issue's essays, images, and erudition will transport one to the exciting world of "Man against Nature" as depicted in the most glorious paintings of the genre dating from the 15th through 20th centuries--and with a particular focus on Winslow Homer and the "struggle against the elements" in his art.. This issue also provides an overview of the record-breaking auction season that took place between July and October 2020, along with an analysis of present macroeconomic conditions "From the start, Cole’s style was marked by “dramatic forms and vigorous technique, reflecting the British aesthetic theory of the Sublime, or fearsome, in nature”. This application of “the Sublime” was virtually unprecedented, and moreover accorded with a growing appreciation of the wildness of native scenery that had not been seriously addressed by other landscape artists. However, the wilderness theme had earlier gained currency in American literature, especially in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, which were set in the upstate New York locales that became Cole’s earliest subjects, including several pictures illustrating scenes from the novels..."----From the Autumn 2020 issue, "The Hudson River School: Romancing the Stone"
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Summer 2020: "The Force of Destiny"
Christoff's Old Masters Summer 2020 (adobe.com)
This inaugural issue centers on Spanish Renaissance and Baroque works, highlighted by the feature guest dealer Nicolas Cortes of Madrid. As the inaugural edition, its introduction emphasizes the significance of what I call "the value of Value" and why it is so important to keep this outlook in mind especially during times so wildly unstable as they currently are. This world devalues Value--with its paper money, its paper morals, paper principles and paper priorities. But then....there are Old Masters. It was a record year of sales in 2019 and January 2020--including works ranging from such blue-chip names as Rubens, Brueghel, de Ribera and Cimabue to the brilliantly sublime second tier led by the likes of Giovanni di Paolo, Sebastiano del Piombo and mysterious Bohemian Masters.
The Art of Art as Investment:
“The current phenomenon of viewing art as investment has took off in the US the 1960s, when, as dealer Robert Miller once observed, many large American corporations began hanging paintings and placing sculptures in lobbies and boardrooms. What accounts for the widely held perception of art as investment? Once upon a time it had to do with the growth in the size and scope of auction houses and the globalization of the art market; the growing audience for art, the desirability of art as a status symbol, the (relative) scarcity of top quality art, all of which fuels competition and rising prices. Art is also an excellent hedge against inflation as well as a currency hedge. As with every decade, troubles in the equity/stock market is always a factor; works of art are a safe repository. Other factors include real estate tax laws and the often precarious nature in the market that represents the classic storehouse-of-value, gold.” --From this issue: “Old Masters as the New Modern”
Christoff's Old Masters Summer 2020 (adobe.com)
This inaugural issue centers on Spanish Renaissance and Baroque works, highlighted by the feature guest dealer Nicolas Cortes of Madrid. As the inaugural edition, its introduction emphasizes the significance of what I call "the value of Value" and why it is so important to keep this outlook in mind especially during times so wildly unstable as they currently are. This world devalues Value--with its paper money, its paper morals, paper principles and paper priorities. But then....there are Old Masters. It was a record year of sales in 2019 and January 2020--including works ranging from such blue-chip names as Rubens, Brueghel, de Ribera and Cimabue to the brilliantly sublime second tier led by the likes of Giovanni di Paolo, Sebastiano del Piombo and mysterious Bohemian Masters.
The Art of Art as Investment:
“The current phenomenon of viewing art as investment has took off in the US the 1960s, when, as dealer Robert Miller once observed, many large American corporations began hanging paintings and placing sculptures in lobbies and boardrooms. What accounts for the widely held perception of art as investment? Once upon a time it had to do with the growth in the size and scope of auction houses and the globalization of the art market; the growing audience for art, the desirability of art as a status symbol, the (relative) scarcity of top quality art, all of which fuels competition and rising prices. Art is also an excellent hedge against inflation as well as a currency hedge. As with every decade, troubles in the equity/stock market is always a factor; works of art are a safe repository. Other factors include real estate tax laws and the often precarious nature in the market that represents the classic storehouse-of-value, gold.” --From this issue: “Old Masters as the New Modern”