Art + The New Money

According to The Art Newspaper, the huge wealth from oil and mining in the Middle East and Russia is flowing into fine art, with a rush of new buyers entering a market that was already booming. Roman Abramovich, the Russian metals and minerals tycoon, was the buyer of two of the three most expensive paintings sold at Sotheby's big May sale in New York, paying $86m (£43m, €55m) for Francis Bacon's 'Triptych, 1976' and $34m for Lucian Freud's 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping'. Sheikh Saud al-Thani, from the Qatari royal family, is building an art museum and the sheikh has emerged as one of the biggest collectors in the world. According to Art Market Report's Contemporary Art 100 index, the rise in the contemporary market has been especially strong, with prices up by 300 per cent in the past three years. I think the Russians will turn out to be the Japanese of the early 21st century. In the 1980s, Japanese property developers were famously among the biggest buyers, mopping up Impressionist works only to offload them at much lower prices just a few years later when the Japanese asset bubble burst. The art market has changed, thanks to globalization + the new money; amazingly there is still demand for the best works. Again, thanks to emerging economies of China, India, Russia, Mexico and Brazil.

Useful links:
www.theartnewspaper.com
www.arttactic.com
www.sothebys.com
www.christies.com
www.phillipsdepury.com
www.mutualart.com

The Art Of The Incredibles

The Art of The Incredibles by Mark Cotta Vaz is a beautiful companion to the film. The inspirational artwork is brilliant.

Random Thoughts

It’s important to hire people with diverse experiences and viewpoints, which you don’t necessarily get if you just hire straight -A Harvard MBA’s. Getting good grades and having courage are not the same thing. Being really smart and having good judgment are not the same thing. People – men or women – shouldn’t be winnowed out so early in life.

- Susan Byrne
Westwood Holdings

How true!

The Band Wagon Movie

The Band Wagon (1953) is a musical comedy film. It stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan. The film was written by Comden and Green and Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Vincente Minnelli, and produced by Arthur Freed. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. In 1995, The Band Wagon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.

One of the best MGM musicals. What a show! Definitely a must-see + a film to cherish forever.

Useful links:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0045537
www.loc.gov/film

Art Market Update

Souren Melikian has written an excellent article on the state of the art market @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/28/arts/melik28.php

Art lovers with millions to spare, do not despair in these lean times. Even when there is not much left to sift through, great works of art can still be found, if only because so few buyers have the eye needed to recognize them.

How true!

Good Guys And Bad Guys

Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind the Scenes with the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business by Joe Nocera is great book, a collection of his best business writing over the last quarter-century. A must-read. I think he has a unique talent to paint the human drama behind the economic trends. He offers a fresh perspective on these characters.

Boryeong Mud Festival

(via Wiki) The Boryeong Mud Festival is an annual festival which takes place during the summer in Boryeong, South Korea. The first Mud Festival was staged in 1998 and, by 2006, the festival attracted 1.5 million visitors to Boryeong. The mud is dug up near Boryeong, trucked to the Daecheon beach area, and dumped at a 'Mud Experience Land'. The mud is considered rich in minerals and used to manufacture cosmetics. Most of the participants are foreign tourists, attracted by clever marketing by the town who discovered that it is more lucrative as a tourist attraction than using the muddy fields for agriculture. The economy generated from the festival supports the many hotels and restaurants along the waterway and several blocks inland.

Useful link:
www.mudfestival.or.kr

A must-visit.

Green Festivals

(via Guardian) Leo Hickman writes: A survey of 1,407 festival goers earlier this year by AGreenerFestival.com and Buckinghamshire New University found that 80% considered noise at festivals had an environmental impact, 82% thought waste had a negative impact, 56% thought festivals had a negative carbon footprint, 60% were worried about water, 53% were concerned with land damage and a whopping 84% thought travel and transport had a negative environmental impact.

Useful links:
www.agreenerfestival.com
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/2008/06/heading_for_the_green_fields.html

Leo Hickman was spot on.