‪‬Ai Weiwei life and work profiled in The Economist, discussing his relations with the Chinese government, “Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.”

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‪‬Portland art scene explored in Wall Street Journal, featuring alternative spaces and ideas including a crabbing ship turned exhibition space

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Simon Shaw holds a press conference after the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale. All photos by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed unless noted.

Last night, in a packed salesroom filled with press, chairs, spectators, and security Sotheby’s launched the second major sale of the May auction season. This Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale was a tour de force – the blue chip art market broke several records with staggeringly high sales. Foremost, the world record for the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction was set at $119,922,500 for Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The bidding for The Scream started eagerly and anxiously all over the salesroom, but ended with 7 buyers competing until an undisclosed buyer won. Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman executed the winning bid. In a post-auction press conference, Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s Head of the Department, said of the sale “it was the single greatest draw in his career.” Sotheby’s Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, David C. Norman stated it was “the most exciting sale” of his tenure. Additionally, this was the highest earning Impressionist and Modern Art Sale ever held at Sotheby’s bringing in a total of $330,568,500. It is their second highest sale ever, after a Contemporary Art sale held previously in New York.

Edvard Munch, The Scream (1895)

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‪‬Helsinki city board rejects Guggenheim Museum proposal, which was supported by Mayor Jussi Pajunen, at eight votes to seven, with no reason yet provided

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art to add to wall text of “The Steins Collect” exhibition, explaining Gertrude Stein’s affiliation with Bernard Fäy the “Vichy collaborator and Nazi agent” which may have “contributed to the protection of Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas in France during the war.”

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‪‬Red Dot Art Fair officially cancelled by the venue 82Mercer three days prior to opening due to “labor union disputes”

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‪‬David Hockney technically tops Britain’s annual Giving List (in terms of ratio of worth) by donating £78.1m in paintings and £730,000 in cash to his David Hockney Foundation, 2.3 times his net worth of £34m, while Richard Branson gave the highest numerical amount of £358m

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Paul Cezanne, Jouer de cartes (1892–96). Image courtesy of Christie’s.

Last night’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie’s began this season’s auctions in New York. Christie’s overall sales totaled $117 million—well over their low estimate of $90.5 million. According to Christie’s, they achieved a sell-through rate of 96% by value and 90% by lot. In a post-auction press conference, Christie’s Head of the Department, Brooke Lampley, said that the results were exactly what they had expected, given that they had tailored their sale to match what the market was looking for.

View of the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie’s. Photo by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

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‪‬Picasso’s ‘Femme assise dans un fauteuil’ to be auctioned at Sotheby’s tomorrow night for $20–30m involved in lawsuit for more than $7.5m: after paying late owner Theodore J. Forstmann $7.5m in 2009, American International Insurance Co. is suing Acquavella Gallery for physical damage to the painting

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Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1895). Photo by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

Today marks the beginning of a two week flurry of art sales in the New York auction houses. This week is focused entirely on Impressionist and Modern Art, with next week centered on Post War and Contemporary Art. Chances are that you have already been bombarded with the numerous and impressive highlights that both houses have to offer, as the many of the lots from both houses are iconic, impressive, and will quite possibly break world records left and right.

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‪‬The 2012 Turner Prize nominees have been announced: Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble, and Elizabeth Price. The £25,000 prize is awarded annually to a British artist under age 50, with the four artists showing at Tate Britain each fall.

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‪‬Kehinde Wiley interviewed on his experiences growing up in LA, finding his father in Nigeria and creating art for more than art’s sake in which “symbols matter”

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‪‬Berlin Gallery Weekend coordinated openings at 51 galleries throughout the German capitol, featuring work by Diane Arbus, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, and Rikrit Tiravanija, among others

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‪‬As MAXXI museum in Rome waits 20 day period for government’s final decision on closure of the museum, the Economist features director of Casoria Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Naples burning works in protest of government cuts in arts funding

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‪‬Centre Pompidou plans new international approach, especially targeting Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRIC countries) “with temporary projects in existing venues like museums [and] universities, but why not historical monuments, former industrial facilities or shopping malls?” says museum president Alain Seban

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‪‬Artist David Weiss died this morning of cancer at age 66, half of the Fischli/Weiss duo and represented by Matthew Marks Gallery

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‪‬Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture to renovate a 1960s prefab concrete structure with architect Rem Koolhaas for new 5,400 sq meter ‘Garage Gorky Park’ in Moscow, “we have these traces of Russian history as a partner of the art.”

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‪‬Philanthropist Jo Carole Lauder has headed the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) since 1996, placing artists such as Ellsworth Kelly and Louise Bourgeois in American embassies across more than 140 countries, “the art in our embassies program waves a less obvious cultural flag for America,” says the foundation’s president Eden Rafshoon

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‪‬Glenn O’Brien discusses art, music, TV, politics, Andy Warhol and Basquiat in an interview with Open Ceremony; on his show TV PARTY, “I was rebellious but not angry”

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‪‬CNNCTD+ to launch ‘sound graffiti’ project May 1, installing 100 Playbutton MP3 players and headphones throughout Manhattan with participants including Cindy Sherman, James Franco, and Bill Powers

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‪‬New Museum names curators of third Generational Triennial to be held in 2015: Lauren Cornell, Adjunct Curator at New Museum and leaving her seven-year post as Executive Director of Rhizome; and artist and filmmaker Ryan Trecartin

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‪‬Collector and artist widow Corice Arman has filed a lawsuit against Louise Blouin Media Inc. for shattering a sculpture while setting up for a photoshoot, the 2,630-year-old Nigerian terracotta sculpture appraised post-accident at $300,000

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‪‬Collector Adam Lindemann to open new 3,200 sq foot Upper East Side gallery named Venus Over Manhattan, referencing a 1940s Art Deco sculpture with the opening show of 50 various works titled ‘À rebours,’ translating to “against the grain”

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‪‬Russian oil tycoon and art collector Viktor Vekselberg battles Christie’s in High Court regarding authentication of £1.7 million Boris Kustodiev painting, claiming signature over a decade post-humous

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