Old masters and shooting stars

11/4/2026

Autumn’s usual run of high-profile auctions came with some big surprises. Both Fortune and Money Week wrote about collectors in their 20s becoming the biggest buyers of high-priced art. Unlike other post-Boomer age groups, Gen Z relishes Old Masters more than modern artists. A prized flower still life by Jan Brueghel the Elder changed hands for $6.5 million at Frieze London. 

Tainted by associations with Anti Semitism, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York jumped on the Old Masters bandwagon, announcing its largest Rembrandt exhibition in 20 years in a joint effort with the Louvre.

In more modern news, French police successfully recovered two Pierre-Auguste Renoir paintings that were brazenly stolen from Renoir Museum on the French Riviera. Five suspects were arrested. Sotheby’s London sold a self-portrait by David Bowie for $543,700 — a massive 500% spike above his previous benchmark. The biggest score, though, came from a garage sale in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where a buyer paid $30 for a Gertrude Abercrombie painting of sea shells that he then sold for $1.35 million at auction.  

As Europe burned in riots and rotted in debt, Boomer billionaires stepped up to finance massive art museums. Le Large opened on Île Seguin on the Seine with a $504 million investment mostly covered by Laurent Dumas and his Emirige empire. The museum opened on the site of a former Renault factory with a show featuring repurposed Renaults. In Venice, Francois Pinault planned a permanent exhibition of 106 of his favorite artworks by 54 artists turning his home into a museum.

In Des Moines, the Art Center’s 2026 Gala raised more than $300,000 to ensure “world-class art, exhibitions, programs, and education remain free and accessible.” DMAC was awarded a $100,000 Implementation Grant through the 2026 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative to replace the original 40-year-old air-handling system in its 1985 Richard Meier-designed building. The opera’s board of directors extended General and Artistic Director Michael Egel’s contract through 2032. That would be his 38th year with the company.

Des Moines Metropolitan Center for the Arts proposed to build a $200 million performing arts center attached to the historic former Des Moines City Hall in the East Village, preserving the 1911 building while adding a new theater, recital hall, ballroom and atrium, with the Des Moines Metro Opera expected to expand its programming there.  

Shooting stars headed to Des Moines

Civic Music Association is bringing Alberta jazz singer-songwriter Caity Gyorgy to Sheslow Nov. 6. Winner of the John Lennon Prize for Songwriters, Gyorgy favors the classic American songbook, particularly Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice projects a rare tone of joy — what the world needs now. Nov. 6. 

Fashion designer turned painter Fontaine Scarelli will be in Des Moines the weekend of his Moberg opening Nov. 6. Scarelli is a rising art world star whose work is described as “philosophical science fiction.” Each painting “channels his fascination with the strange and the sublime, blending rebellion and introspection in a way that defies traditional boundaries.” One of them now hangs conspicuously in the brand new Italian American Cultural Center of Iowa. 

November touts

Des Moines Symphony celebrates two of the most loved pieces in the classical repertoire — Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Ravel’s hypnotic “Bolero.” Maxwell Brown brings his violin for Iowa native Michael Daugherty’s “Last Dance at the Surf” with choreography by Eric Trope and dancers from Ballet Des Moines. Nov. 21-22.

Des Moines Art Center continues its three years deep dive into Latino and Caribbean art with “Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” celebrating 58 Latinx painters.

ARTSwork, Des Moines Arts Festival’s sister, is launching an Invitational Art Fair Nov. 6-7 at Val Air Ballroom featuring 50 professional Iowa visual artists, plus live music and food.

Drake Opera Theatre opens its season with a “Rising Stars” concert Nov. 20 at Sheslow. Free and open to the public. ♦

Jim Duncan is a food and art writer who has been covering the central Iowa scene for more than five decades.