Nasty divorce leads to highest-priced auction in Sotheby’s history

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

 

Sotheby’s most expensive art sale ever goes for $922 million 

The last 6 months have been monumental for the art auction house Sotheby\’s, as it knocked off its own record of auctioning the most expensive art sale ever at USD 922 million — all thanks to the divorce of high-profile New York couple Harry and Linda Macklowe since 2016. Real-estate billionaire Harry and his (ex) wife Linda invested in many art pieces over their 57 years of marriage. But when they got a divorce, the court ordered the paintings to be auctioned off and the amount to be split between the two. Sotheby\’s had initially estimated the paintings to be worth $700 million. That is about Rs 5,424 crore. The first part of the auction made record sales, as all 35 paintings of the first lot were sold for a total of $676 million (about Rs 5,236 crore). The second part of the auction also made news because the 30 paintings sold for a total of $246 million (about Rs 1,905 crore), thus taking the total value of the collection to $922 million (about Rs 7,142 crore). Daily O breaks it down for you.  

 

Senior citizen steals jacket artwork on display at Musée Picasso  

Catalan artist Oriol Vilanova exhibited a jacket filled with postcards visitors could remove and examine at the Musée Picasso in Paris. But in late March, a 72-year-old woman took the blue work jacket, which had been hanging on a wall, home with her. According to French daily Le Parisien, she then had it altered at the tailor’s so it would fit. Upon returning to the museum to revisit the show a few days later, the woman—who had been captured on surveillance camera putting the jacket into her bag—was arrested by the police, who happened to be at the museum looking for evidence. After a few hours of interrogation, the public prosecutor’s office let the woman off with a warning and dropped the case. According to Le Parisien, the woman had been placed under guardianship. Artnet News narrates the bizarre story. 

  

Art exhibition commemorates Satyajit Ray centenary celebrations 

In collaboration with another art foundation, the Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) recently hosted an exhibition, Iti, Satyajit Da, volume II of The Satyajit Ray Centenary Show, to commemorate the centenary celebrations of the legendary filmmaker. The exhibition was curated by KS Radhakrishnan and it will run till June 8 this year. On display at the exhibition are several letters penned by Satyajit Ray, postcards and notes he wrote to his family friend, Nilanjana Sen. The exhibition exemplifies Ray’s prowess as a visual artist through posters, snippets from his Kheror Khata, covers of Sandesh and also includes iconic photographs taken during the filming of his various movies. The Times of India tells you more.