How The Arts Coped With Life Behind The Iron Curtain

“The cultural responses to totalitarianism and the censorship of the arts differed from country to country. But one common thread through the undergrounds of the Eastern Bloc was that artists wanted their ideas to spread and be considered by the general population. A freedom of speech, however constrained, was very much fueled through the arts.”

Recession? Naw! Auction Market Races Forward

“This week, those attending Christie’s and Sotheby’s evening sessions traditionally reserved for the most important works might have briefly thought that there never was a recession. No awareness of it appeared to linger in the bidders’ minds as they ran up paintings, drawings and sundry three-dimensional works to three times the estimate, or more.”