Picasso’s Woman Seated in a Chair, which sold for $29.2 million at the same Sotheby’s auction where Munch’s The Scream sold for $120 million, suffered a tear while at a New York gallery in 2008 – damage for which the then-owner’s insurance company paid out $7.5 million. (Sotheby’s says the painting is now in “very good condition.”)
Month: May 2012
Who Complains Most About Political Polarization? The Polarized
“According to a new study, the people who most strongly believe that the political system is dividing into two extreme camps with little to say to each other themselves have relatively extreme views. It’s an interesting form of projection: You don’t think the other guy necessarily agrees with you, but you think he shares your own degree of partisanship.”
Britain’s Coolest Music Joint (Vogue Italia Says So) Serves Up Ale And The Avant-Garde
Cafe Oto, in a former warehouse (naturally) in east London, offers music ranging from the Sun Ra Arkestra to Korea’s Balloon & Needle collective to Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono to experimental opera – all to rooms full of 200 listeners, teenagers to octogenarians, listening in attentive silence.
Swedes Are Spending Their Lunch Hours Dancing At Raves
“It started in the fall of 2010 when 14 friends decided to dance their lunch breaks away in their office garage. They called their gathering ‘Lunch Beat.’ As rumors about this literally underground movement spread, more and more people joined in. Today, Lunch Beat events are being arranged by a core group of organizers at venues around Sweden, attracting up to 600 people each time.”
$2 Billion Of Art Sold In New York This Week?
“The Art Newspaper has calculated that art worth as much as $2bn has been brought to the city for sale through fairs, galleries and auction houses. This number could suggest that the confidence shown in the art market in the mid-2000s is returning at speed. The union teamsters and Occupy protesters seem to think so–but is it really the case?”
Chinese Publishers Start Putting Ads On Book Covers
Publishers have started printing advertisements on book covers in a move to help their industry sustain development and survive.
Wht Digital Rights Management Is Bad For The Book Business
If all DRM did was drive legit customers to pirate downloads, that would be bad enough for publishers. But that’s just the most obvious way that DRM is bad for business.
Top Ten Most-Expensive Auctioned Art Works Of All Time
To get to number 10 you have to go back to 2008. Recession? What recession?
Court Prevents German Artist From Strangling Puppies On Stage
“Titled Death and Metamorphosis, the performance was to take place this week at a small theatre in Spandau. The artist – who has not been identified – planned to use cable ties to strangle the dogs, followed by a brief meditation accompanied by funeral procession music and a giant gong.”
Toronto Theatre Company Amends Mike Daisey’s Apple Piece And Turns It Into Piece About Daisey
It’s Daisey himself who made the production possible. After his This American Life episode became the most popular podcast in the program’s history, with almost one million downloads, he decided to post a version of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs online, inviting groups and individuals to perform the transcript royalty-free and allowing them to amend it “in any way that furthers the needs of your particular production.”