New and Asian buyers propel Christie's art sales to record high

LONDON - Christie's art sales surged to a record high of £4.54 billion in 2013 as new buyers and rising Asian demand contributed to a buoyant art market in a fragile global economy. Sales at the London-based auction house rose 16 percent from 2012, Christie's said on Wednesday, helped by a push to attract Asian art collectors that included the company's first auctions in China and India in 2013. "Our strategy to invest in new markets such as China, new channels such as private sales and online sales, and to build on our position at the leading auction house, has enabled Christie's to grow," Chief Executive Steven Murphy said. Rival auction house Sotheby's said on Wednesday its sales grew by almost 20 percent last year, making it the fastest growing art auctioneer in 2013 and underscoring a burgeoning art market.
Source: REUTERS


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Feds plan to require car-to-car communications to reduce crashes

A transponder would continually transmit the vehicle's position, heading, speed and other information 10 times per second in all directions using radio signals similar to Wi-Fi. Cars would receive the same information back from other vehicles. "Over time, we'll see a reduction in crashes. Automobile makers will rethink how they design and construct cars because they will no longer be constructing cars to survive a crash, but building them to avoid a crash." Once automakers start adding the technology to all new cars, it would take 15 years or more for half the cars on the nation's roads to be equipped, according to the communications technology company Qualcomm. There are significant technical and standardization hurdles to using cellphones to support connected car technology.
Source: FOX NEWS


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Artist Basquiat's early works to be on exhibit, auction in New York

NEW YORK - Early works by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, known for his provocative, powerful and sometimes controversial paintings, will be exhibited and sold in online and in-house auctions in March, Christie's said on Friday. Approximately 50 works that the Brooklyn-born artist, who burst onto the New York art scene more than 30 years ago, left to his former lover, Alexis Adler, will be included in the exhibit that opens on March 1 in New York. Adler, an embryologist at New York University's School of Medicine, shared an apartment with Basquiat on New York's Lower East Side from 1979 to 1980, when he was a struggling artist. In November, Francis Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud," at $142.4 million, became the most expensive work of art ever sold at Christie's in New York.
Source: REUTERS


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'The Amish: Shunned' on 'American Experience'

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Source: NEW YORK TIMES


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Artists Gather for a Spoken-Word Tribute to the Diabolical Wit and Wisdom of John Baldessari

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Source: NEW YORK TIMES


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City of London to help fund Crossrail art exhibitions

A plan to create permanent art exhibitions in Crossrail's central London stations has come a step closer after the City of London Corporation agreed to put £3.5m towards the scheme. Terry Morgan, chairman of the £14.8bn Crossrail scheme, said: "This programme will enhance London's reputation as one of the world's great cultural capitals." "Businesses will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to associate their brand with an iconic piece of London infrastructure and some of the world's most famed galleries and artists," Crossrail said in a statement. Mark Boleat, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said the project would create "a lasting legacy" for London, which needed "World class infrastructure to succeed on the global stage".
Source: FINANCIAL TIMES


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Ford follows Ka with Figo Concept

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Source: FOX NEWS


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