Vegas mogul Steve Wynn is irritated. Many critics didn’t greet the opening of his new $2.7 billion Wynn hotel casino with the kind of awe he expected. “Comparing a Vegas casino — each of which is likely to be imploded and rebuilt, by the next century anyway — to the world’s greatest and most enduring structures is an invitation to snickering, even if it might actually be true. But if others question whether his Trump-like hubris has brought him this backlash, Wynn himself wonders why few have asked him to explain the claim.”
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Christie’s Reports Record Sales
Christie’s auction house reports record sales for the first six months of 2005. “Sales at Christie’s, which is owned by François Pinault, were $1.65bn in the six months to June – a third higher than last year. It sold 178 works of art for more than $1m, compared with 132 during the same period last year.”
Chinese Power Christie’s Art Sales
What drove Christie’s record sales in the first have of this year? Chinese buyers. “Now if anyone doubts that the Chinese art market is exploding, Christie’s has attributed its record sales of £910m for the first six months of 2005 to the emergence of Chinese buyers keen to buy back their cultural heritage. Asian art accounted for £71.3m of Christie’s sales between January and June, far short of the £232.3m spent on impressionist and modern art but outstripping the £38.5m spent on old masters.”
A Debate About £100 Million For The Arts
Will the Scottish government go ahead with a Cultural Commission report’s recommendations to spend another £100 million on the arts? Not without a full parliamentary debate, says the Scottish executive…
The Latest Scoop? Gossip’s Cool
“Gossip has long been dismissed by researchers as little more than background noise, blather with no useful function. But some investigators now say that gossip should be central to any study of group interaction. People find it irresistible for good reason: Gossip not only helps clarify and enforce the rules that keep people working well together, studies suggest, but it circulates crucial information about the behavior of others that cannot be published in an office manual.”
Rethinking Your Movie Theatre Pleasure
Your movie theatre experience is about to get better. “At a time when movie attendance is flagging, when home entertainment is offering increasing competition and when the largest theater chains – Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment (which has recently announced a merger with Loews Cineplex) and Cinemark – are focused on shifting from film to digital projection, a handful of smaller companies with names like Muvico Theaters, Rave Motion Pictures and National Amusements are busy rethinking what it means to go to the movie theater.”
What Makes A Good Artistic Director?
“Artistic directors are a rare breed: someone who can stoke the fire of their own art output while being charged with the success and leadership of a company – often when that company is going through a dramatic time of change.”
Da Vinci Code Filming Finds Mixed Reception
“British churches are divided over whether to allow filming of “The Da Vinci Code,” an adaptation of Dan Brown’s biblically revisionist best seller. The novel’s claim that Jesus Christ fathered a child with Mary Magdalene has drawn strong protests from the Roman Catholic Church, and the movie version has fanned whispers of discontent in the cathedral city of Lincoln, where Tom Hanks and the crew were filming Tuesday.”
What Becomes An “In-Flight Movie”?
“While many of the movies on different airlines are identical in name, the process of choosing in-flight entertainment is far more complicated than you think. With a cabin full of already edgy frequent fliers, even seemingly benign movies are carefully edited to appeal to the widest crowd possible.”
In The UK: Nice Return On Theatre Investment
“Theatre in the West Midlands creates £264 million for the local economy every year, more than a tenfold increase on its initial public investment, according to a survey by Arts Council England.”