Chagall’s Romantic Love Story Leads Sotheby’s Impressionist Sale

 

There was an unmistakable disconnect at Sotheby’s auction Tuesday evening that reinforced the results at Christie’s the night before: despite a low-energy salesroom and few bidders on each lot, some people spent a lot of money on art.

Marc Chagall was the man of the night, with his “Les Amoureux” — depicting the artist in a loving embrace with his first wife, Bella Rosenfeld — which sold for $28.4 million with fees, a high for the artist, over a top estimate of $18 million. It went to a client bidding on the telephone represented by Irina Stepanova, head of Sotheby’s Moscow office [ . . . ] More at NYTimes

The world is eating more Italian cheese than ever before

 

Italy’s cheese exports hit a record high this year, driven by growing global appetite for Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Perhaps surprisingly, the biggest market for Italian cheese is a nation with its own proud tradition of cheese-mongering: France.

The French buy 23 percent of all of Italy’s cheese exports, a figure that has practically doubled in the past ten years.

Italian appetites for Camembert, Brie and other French cheeses, meanwhile, have remained almost unchanged over the same period – which means that Italy exports twice the amount of cheese that it imports from its French neighbours [ . . . ] More: The world is eating more Italian cheese than ever before

Interview: Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin, on her wild childhood and her sister’s death

The daughter of France’s sauciest couple has always struggled with the glare of publicity. As Charlotte Gainsbourg releases her most confessional album, she tells Elizabeth Day about her wild childhood and, for the first time, how she still struggles with the untimely death of her sister [ . . . ]

More: Interview: Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin, on her wild childhood and her sister’s death