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☆ Chris Christie Gets a Super PAC Ahead of His Likely 2024 Bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Christie’s candidacy is likely to to focus in part on drawing a stark contrast with former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Christie supported Mr. Trump in 2016 and worked with him during his presidency, but they split over Mr. Trump’s claims on election night in 2020 that the race was stolen from him. Brian Jones, an aide who advised Senator John McCain’s presidential bid in 2008 and Mitt Romney’s in 2012, will run the effort. William P. Palatucci, a longtime adviser to Mr. Christie and a Republican National Committee member, will be the chair. Another long-serving adviser to Mr. Christie, Russ Schriefer, will oversee messaging as a senior adviser; and Brent Seaborn, a veteran data guru, will focus on voter targeting.

May 19 (Reuters) - Auction house Sotheby's announced Friday seven non-fungible tokens from bankrupt cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital sold for about $2.5 million. The auction was part of liquidating Three Arrows, according to a February memo from Teneo, one of the court-appointed liquidators. Singapore-based Three Arrows was the first major crypto firm to go bankrupt in 2022, brought down by the collapse of cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a blockchain-based asset that represents ownership of a digital item, such as an image, video or piece of text. The market for NFTs exploded in 2021, and auction houses including Sotheby’s and Christie’s joined the craze.

☆ Giant Louise Bourgeois spider sculpture sells for record $32.8 million at auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —A 10-foot-high bronze spider has set a new auction record for a sculpture by a woman artist, Sotheby’s announced Friday. Louise Bourgeois’ 1996 “Spider,” which stands at over 10 feet tall and more than 18 feet across, sold for $32.8 million including fees at a sale in New York on Thursday evening. The sale also set a new auction record for a work by Bourgeois. In May 2019, another sold for $32.1 million with fees at Christie’s in New York. The sculpture sold on Thursday evening was previously owned by Brazil’s Fundação Itaú.

☆ Evelyne Axell was a trailblazer of erotic pop art in the 1960s. Then she died
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Throughout Evelyne Axell’s short but radical career, the Belgian artist revered the female body in psychedelic hues rendered in gleaming enamel. In 1972, only a handful of years into painting, she died in a car crash and faded into relative obscurity. But such sales for Axell are infrequent, according to Sara Friedlander, Christie’s deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art. Her stylistic approach — a mix of pop art influences and dreamy surrealist settings — is still underrecognized, according to Morris. “She acts as a historical bridge (between surrealism and pop art),” she said.

☆ Two rare, unknown Rembrandt portraits worth millions discovered in private collection
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —A pair of unknown and “exceptionally rare” portraits by Rembrandt have been discovered in a private collection in the UK. Signed and dated 1635, the pictures are of an elderly husband and wife who were related to Rembrandt by marriage. In 1635, the year the portraits were painted, the subjects acquired a garden next to that of Rembrandt’s mother in Leiden. They then traveled to Warsaw, to the private collection of Count Vincent Potocki, before briefly entering the collection of Baron d’Ivry in Paris in 1820 and then James Murray, 1st Baron Glenlyon. They had never appeared in any of the Rembrandt literature of the 19th or 20h century, so they were completely unknown,” said Pettifer.

☆ In Battle of Basquiats, Valentino Gets $67 Million for Masterpiece ‘The Nile’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Kelly Crow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fashion designer Valentino Garavani posed in his Fifth Avenue apartment in 2010 with the ‘Nile’ painting in the background. Photo: Jonathan Becker/Art: Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York/ Richard PrinceFashion designer Valentino Garavani sold a nearly 12-foot-wide Jean-Michel Basquiat painting that interrogates the history of slavery for $67 million at Christie’s on Monday. Mr. Garavani paid $5.2 million for 1983’s “El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile)” in 2005, but the triptych came up for bid with a $45 million estimate, according to auction database Artnet . This time around, two dogged bidders chased it higher, with an anonymous telephone bidder winning it.

CNN —Hundreds of jewels once owned by late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten have fetched a combined 176 million Swiss francs ($196 million) to become the most expensive private jewelry collection ever to appear at auction. Heidi Horten pictured wearing the Briollete of India necklace, which sold for 6.3 million Swiss francs ($7 million). The most valuable lot, a ruby and diamond Cartier ring that is “pigeon blood” in color, fetched just over 13 million Swiss francs ($14.5 million), despite Christie’s expecting bids as high as 18 million Swiss francs ($20 million). A 90-carat “Briolette of India” diamond necklace by jeweler Harry Winston also came in below estimate, selling for 6.3 million Swiss francs ($7 million). courtesy Christie'sElsewhere, however, a Bulgari diamond ring more than doubled its high estimate to fetch 9.1 million Swiss francs ($10.1 million).

☆ At Christie’s ‘21st Century’ Auction, the Sound of Records Breaking for Women
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Seven artists achieved new sales benchmarks at Christie’s Contemporary Art sale in New York on Monday night, including Simone Leigh, a star of the 2022 Venice Biennale, and Robin F. Williams, a figurative painter still in her 30s. Lively bidding from inside the sale room at Christie’s helped the auction house sell nearly $99 million worth of paintings and sculptures, with buyer’s fees. Interest in female figurative painters who are not necessarily household names is rising for artists like Danielle McKinney, Rebecca Ackroyd and Williams. in 2017, Roberta Smith wrote that she was “extravagantly in-your-face regarding execution, style, image and social thrust. Lower estimates helped propel prices.

☆ Madonna's 'Sex' photos go to auction for the first time at Christie's
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Carlie Porterfield | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Prints of photographs from Madonna’s wildly popular 1992 coffee table book “Sex” will be available for purchase for the first time at Christie’s New York this fall, part of ongoing projects to mark the 30th anniversary of the controversial publication. In October, over 40 prints first published in “Sex” will go up for sale as part of a special standalone auction. “Thirty years on, ‘Sex’ is still somewhat controversial, but it still reads as a very body-positive, sex-positive book,” Himes said. “Sex” also featured Madonna’s then-boyfriend, rapper Vanilla Ice, and stars like supermodel Naomi Campbell and socialite Tatiana von Fürstenberg. The prints will go on display at Christie's galleries in London, Paris and New York before the October auction.

☆ English island that inspired Agatha Christie is up for sale, along with its luxury Art Deco hotel
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —A tiny island that inspired legendary crime novelist Agatha Christie has gone up for sale, complete with its own Art Deco hotel and helipad. Burgh Island, located just off the coast of Britain’s south-westerly county of Devon, is on the market for “offers in excess of £15m” ($18.9 million), according to real estate agent Knight Frank. Each room at the hotel is named after a notable guest, including "Agatha's beach house." Burgh Island HotelOver the years, Burgh has been a popular escape for the rich and famous. In 1927, it was sold to film producer Archibald Nettlefold, who went on to build a more substantial hotel in the Art Deco style fashionable at the time.

☆ Nazi Cloud Hangs Over One of the Largest Jewelry Sales in History
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One standout piece, the “Briolette of India,” includes a 90-carat diamond and carries a high estimate of $7.8 million. They are among the 700 jewels from the estate of an Austrian heiress that will go on sale at Christie’s on May 3 as part of one of the largest jewelry sales in history. The proceeds are to benefit a charitable foundation established by Horten, whose husband, Helmut, was a German retailing billionaire whose specialty was department stores. “It’s one of the most beautifully curated collections that will ever come up in the jewelry world,” said Anthea Peers, president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East and Africa. That’s important for the estate and for us.”

☆ A Tough Question for Chris Christie: Would Hillary Clinton Have Been Better Than Trump?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Trip Gabriel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

After several gray-haired attendees asked Mr. Christie about Medicare, prescription drug prices and the like, a 15-year-old audience member named Quinn Mitchell — who had also heard Mr. Christie strike similar themes a month earlier in New Hampshire — spoke up. hopeful willing to attack Mr. Trump. Chris Christie’s Answer“Hillary Clinton, in many, many ways, was a huge detriment to our democracy too. So I still would’ve picked Trump.”The SubtextMr. Christie’s answer was revealing. As much of a threat to democracy as he had just declared Mr. Trump to be, Mr. Christie, the former New Jersey governor, could not bring himself to say that Hillary Clinton would have been the better choice to preserve democracy.

☆ Hong Kong sharpens fine art edge over Singapore
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Thomas Shum | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, March 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Chinese collectors are piling into Hong Kong for Art Basel this week. As the financial hub jostles with rival Singapore, its vibrant art market could help it grab a bigger slice of Asia’s wealth management pie. The cream of that crop tends to go on the block in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is hardly out of the economic woods. But the chattering crowds at Art Basel should remind investors that the city retains a profitable artistic edge.

☆ Hong Kong’s office landlords face a tough rebound
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Thomas Shum | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Hong Kong offices are emptier than in other Asian financial centres. Singapore and Tokyo boast rates well under half of Hong Kong’s level, and figures there are either improving or roughly unchanged. Last year, mainland-based companies accounted for less than 6% of all leases in Hong Kong’s key Central business district, from nearly 30% in 2019. Hong Kong’s economy shrunk for three of the last four years, and its population is slimming too. However, the plan to reduce its office footprint may not apply to Hong Kong, a person familiar with the situation told Breakingviews.

☆ Is This a Real Raphael Painting? AI Says Yes, But Humans Aren’t So Sure.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Kelly Crow | Photographs Evan Jenkins For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Anything Raphael created would be worth a fortune. The last work to be auctioned, a sketch titled “Head of a Muse,” sold for $48 million at Christie’s in 2009. But art historians have disagreed about whether the find is a real Raphael.

☆ Peter Doig’s Art of Getting Lost
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Tobias Grey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The artist Peter Doig, born in Edinburgh in 1959, has led a peripatetic existence, living and working in Trinidad, Montreal, London and New York. He secured his early reputation in the 1990s with a series of large-scale landscape paintings full of atmospheric foreboding. One of these, “Swamped” (1990), set an auction record for the artist in November 2021, when it was sold at Christie’s New York for $39.9 million. Mr. Doig, 63, can take years to finish one of his distinctive figurative paintings. “Peter Doig,” a show of 12 new paintings and 20 works on paper that opened at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London earlier this month, provided him with just such a challenge.

☆ Publishing Magnate Si Newhouse’s Art Trove Could Sell for Near $150 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Kelly Crow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The estate of publishing magnate Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. took note last fall when collectors clamored after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $1.6 billion record-setting estate sale. Heartened by the art market’s resilience, the publisher’s family said Tuesday it plans to follow suit—auctioning off more of Mr. Newhouse’s own trove this spring. The move marks the third time the Newhouse estate has plied his pieces into sales since he died six years ago at age 89—a trickling strategy that contrasts with the theatrical, everything-must-go atmosphere conjured when Mr. Allen or the Rockefellers before him sold off vast art holdings all at once. The 16 latest works consigned to Christie’s for its coming New York sales in May represent a fraction of the art amassed over the decades by Condé Nast’s chairman emeritus, but the batch is estimated to top $144 million and will showcase his taste for a broad sweep of artists, including Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns and Lee Bontecou.

☆ From Rihanna to Chloë Sevigny, Fashion Week Prioritized Charisma Over Clothes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Rory Satran | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In “Iron Man 3,” superhero Tony Stark is haunted by the existential question of whether the suit makes the man or the man makes the suit. The fashion industry depends on the former—selling clothing that it promises can transform and complete you. And recently, garments have continually trumped their wearers, with interchangeable influencers modeling attention-grabbing trends like micro-kilts, Big Red Boots and bra tops. But these past few days at New York Fashion Week, the message is that, though fashion can help, ultimately it’s the wearer that elevates a look. Even larger-than-life Rihanna in a notably casual, yet punchy, Super Bowl halftime look echoed the theme from afar.

☆ Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi fooled the art market — and made millions
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Oscar Holland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

“The forgery was almost incidental,” Wolfgang told Fischer. “They are storytellers, together, which is why they did a lot of research,” Fischer told CNN in a video call. Wolfgang told her that he only produced pictures he considered beautiful, and he believed the owners enjoyed them as much as the art market profited from them. In 2014, Wolfgang told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that in addition to the court-imposed damages, he had settled lawsuits worth $27 million. From her conversations with Wolfgang, Fischer concluded that both of his parents were “severely traumatized” by their experiences during World War II.

Persons: Wolfgang Beltracchi, Heinrich Campendonk —, Steve Martin, Wolfgang, Helene, Heinrich Campendonk, Peter Endig, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Kees van Dongen, Derain, Jeannette Fischer, Fischer, ” Wolfgang, “, ”, ’, ” Fischer, Paul Hahn, Hendrick Avercamp, Christie’s, Robin Hood, hadn’t, CNN Fischer, Picasso, —, aren’t, Leonardo da Vinci’s, Salvador Mundi, Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh Organizations: CNN, New York Times, Der, Art, CBS, Scheidegger Locations: Halle, Germany, Hitler’s Germany, Switzerland, France, Cologne, ”, Stalingrad

The lawsuit tackles a business at Google that is responsible for 80 percent of its revenue. The Justice Department asked the court to compel Google to break up its ad technology business. Eight states joined the department in Tuesday's lawsuit, including Google's home state of California. The lawsuit says "Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry." In addition to its well-known search, which is free, Google makes revenue through its interlocking ad tech businesses, which connect advertisers with newspapers, websites and other firms looking to host them.

REUTERS/Benoit TessierWASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google on Tuesday over allegations that the company abused its dominance of the digital advertising business. "Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," the government said in its antitrust complaint. The Justice Department asked the court to compel Google to divest its Google Ad manager suite, including its ad exchange AdX. The lawsuit is the second federal antitrust complaint filed against Google, alleging violations of antitrust law in how the company acquires or maintains its dominance. The Justice Department lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 focuses on its monopoly in search and is scheduled to go to trial in September.

☆ Is it the time to buy The Birkin bag over bonds?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailIs it the time to buy The Birkin bag over bonds? Rachel Koffsky, head of Christie’s luxury department, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss investing in luxury goods, the buying and bidding strength behind collectible high-end goods and the people interested in luxury collecting.

☆ ‘Agatha Christie’s Hjerson’ Review: A Character’s Character Comes to Life
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

‘Agatha Christie’s Hjerson” is one more indication that the venerated Christie was the gift to crime fiction that will never stop giving. The novelist never wrote a Hjerson book, but Ariadne Oliver did and Oliver—novelist, confidante of Hercule Poirot , apple-munching avatar of the author—was a Christie creation herself. It’s an audacious thing to conjure up a mystery series about a character created by a character created by a writer who has been gone for 46 years. But in terms of plots, twists and mortality rates, Christie and “Hjerson” couldn’t be closer, never mind their three or four degrees of separation. When Klara bravely takes a stand and says, “We’re better than this,” she’s told no, we’re not and she’s welcome to clean out her desk.

☆ Access to alternative investments have never been easier, but some VCs don't think that's a good thing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider's Asia Martin spoke to some VCs who were skeptical about startups broadening access into these risky, illiquid assets. It's a common dilemma in fintech, as Asia pointed out to me, as access often takes precedence over education. Click here to read more about opening up access to alternatives and why some VCs are questioning it. From political donations to sports teams, this is everything the FTX founder spent money on. We asked top VCs to identify the best startups that help developers build apps for the cloud.

☆ Netflix's best Thanksgiving movie is not streaming: 'Glass Onion'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Ani Bundel | Ani Bundel Is A Cultural Critic Who Has Been Writing Regularly Since Her Work Can Also Be Found At Elite Daily | Weta'S Telly Visions | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is a bit of a clunky title. But the film itself, which only ever calls itself “Glass Onion” on screen, is a delightful trifle of a mystery movie, a laugh-out-loud comedy that deserves to be a mass market theatrical hit. Perhaps “Glass Onion” is better experienced on streaming — at least philosophically. But perhaps “Glass Onion” is better experienced on streaming — at least philosophically. That being said, “Glass Onion” is as wonderfully enjoyable as its predecessor, even though there’s little need to connect the two.

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