At $142.4 Million, Triptych Is the Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold at an Auction

At $142.4 Million, Triptych Is the Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold at an Auction

2013 Estate of Francis Bacon/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London

Auction Highlights From Christie’s: Some of the notable works at the Christie’s sale of postwar and contemporary art on Tuesday night.

It took seven superrich bidders to propel a 1969 Francis Bacon triptych to $142.4 million at Christie’s on Tuesday night, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. William Acquavella, the New York dealer, is thought to have bought the painting on behalf of an unidentified client, from one of Christie’s skyboxes overlooking the auction.

The price for the painting, which depicts Lucian Freud, Bacon’s friend and rival, perched on a wooden chair, was more than the $85 million Christie’s had estimated. It also toppled the previous record set in May 2012 when Edvard Munch’s fabled pastel of “The Scream” sold at Sotheby’s for $119.9 million and broke the previous record for the artist at auction set at the peak of the market in May 2008, when Sotheby’s sold a triptych from 1976 to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich for $86.2 million.

When the bidding for “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” finally stopped, after more than 10 fraught minutes, the overflowing crowd in the salesroom burst into applause. Two disappointed bidders could be seen leaving the room. “I went to $101 million but it hardly mattered,” said Larry Gagosian, the super-dealer who was trying to buy the painting on behalf of a client. Another contender was Hong Gyu Shin, the director of the Shin Gallery on Grand Street in Manhattan, who said he was bidding for himself.

“I was expecting it to go for around $87 million,” Mr. Shin said. Although he explained that he collects mostly Japanese woodblock prints and old master paintings, he found the triptych by the Irish-born painter, who died in 1992, irresistible. “I loved that painting and I couldn’t control myself,” he said. “Maybe someday I’ll have another chance.”

¶ For more than a month now, Christie’s has been billing the sale as a landmark event with a greater number of paintings and sculptures estimated to sell for over $20 million than it has ever had before. The hard sell apparently worked. Nearly 10,000 visitors flocked to its galleries to preview the auction. The sale totaled $691.5 million, far above Christie’s $670.4 million high estimate, becoming the most expensive auction ever. It outstripped the $495 million total set at Christie’s in May.

¶ Of the 69 works on offer, only six failed to sell. All told, 10 world record prices were achieved for artists who, besides Bacon, included Christopher Wool, Ad Reinhardt, Donald Judd and Willem de Kooning.

¶ The sale was also a place to see and be seen. Christie’s Rockefeller Center salesroom was standing room only, with collectors including Michael Ovitz, the Los Angeles talent agent; Aby Rosen, the New York real estate developer; Martin Margulies, from Miami; Donald B. Marron, the New York financier; and Daniel S. Loeb, the activist investor and hedge fund manager.

¶ The Bacon triptych was not the only highflier. A 10-foot-tall mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture that resembled a child’s party favor, Jeff Koons’s “Balloon Dog (Orange)” sold to another telephone bidder for $58.4 million, above its high $55 million estimate, becoming the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction. The pooch was being sold by Peter M. Brant, the newsprint magnate who auctioned the canine to raise money to endow his Greenwich, Conn., foundation. In the 1990s, Mr. Koons had created the sculpture in an edition of five, each in a different color. Four celebrated collectors own the others: Steven A. Cohen, the hedge-fund billionaire, has a yellow one; Eli Broad, the Los Angeles financier, owns a blue one; François Pinault, the French luxury goods magnate and owner of Christie’s, has the magenta version; and Dakis Joannou, the Greek industrialist, has his in red. Christie’s had estimated Mr. Brant’s sculpture would fetch $35 million to $55 million.

¶ (Final prices include the buyer’s premium: 25 percent of the first $100,000; 20 percent of the next $100,000 to $2 million; and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)

¶ Another strong price was set for a classic image in contemporary art history — Andy Warhol’s “Coca Cola [3],” one of only four paintings of a single Coca-Cola bottle that the artist made in 1961 and 1962. Jose Mugrabi, the New York dealer, bought the painting from S. I. Newhouse Jr. in 1986 and he was said to be selling it on Tuesday night. That painting made $57.2 million. It had been estimated to sell for $40 million to $60 million.

¶ Three bidders went for Rothko’s “No. 11 (Untitled),” one of the artist’s abstract canvases, this one in an orange palette and created in 1957. It was being sold by the estate of Bruce J. Wasserstein, the financier who died in 2009. Christophe van de Weghe, a Manhattan dealer, bought the painting for $46 million, above its high $35 million estimate. Mr. van de Weghe also bought “Apocalypse Now,” a seminal painting by Mr. Wool, whose work is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. Bidding on behalf of a client, he paid $26.4 million for the painting. Created in 1988, the white canvas is filled with the words “Sell the House Sell the Car Sell the Kids,” a line from the Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same title. The painting belonged to David Ganek, the former New York hedge fund manager and Guggenheim board member. Mr. Ganek has since resigned from the board.

¶ After the sale, Jussi Pylkkänen, chairman of Christie’s Europe and the evening’s auctioneer, noted how international the bidding was. Besides a healthy showing of American bidders, there were also a lot of potential buyers from Asia and Europe trying to get into the action. “There were more players from the New World than ever before,” he said, “and more people spending over $20 million.

¶ “But,” he warned, in order to have such a successful sale, “you have to have the material.”

Source : http://www.nytimes.com

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Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer

Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer

Evan Spiegel, left, and Bobby Murphy founded Snapchat, which lets people send messages that vanish after viewing.

What business makes no money, has yet to pass its third anniversary and just turned down an offer worth billions of dollars? Snapchat, a social media service run by a pair of 20-somethings who until last month worked out of a beachfront bungalow in Venice, Calif.

Thanks to today’s rabid rat race for the hottest social media start-ups, Snapchat has joined the list of tech companies — like Tumblr and Instagram — with no money coming in but multiple sky-high takeover offers. So far, Snapchat’s leaders have balked at the offers, according to three people with knowledge of the overtures, including a recent multibillion-dollar proposal from Facebook, the biggest social network of them all.

¶ It’s not that they don’t want billions of dollars. In part, it’s because they think making a deal now would leave many billions more on the table.

¶ The service, started in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, 23, and Bobby Murphy, 25, two former Stanford fraternity brothers, lets users send photo and video messages that disappear after they are viewed. Snapchat quickly gained a reputation as an easy way to send sexually suggestive photos, but it also picked up steam as a fun and easy way to trade photo messages.

¶ The company has in recent months become one of the most sought-after businesses in the tech industry, getting attention from top Silicon Valley companies and venture capital firms, as well as international technology companies.

¶ In the past, several start-ups found even greater success by passing up a billion dollars or more, including Facebook and Twitter. Even Twitter, with its red-hot debut on the public market, still has skeptics who question whether it can grow enough to justify its current market capitalization of more than $20 billion.

¶ But Silicon Valley is littered with many more entrepreneurs whose big dreams went unfulfilled, people who were at the helm of the next big thing and lost momentum before they could cash out.

¶ “I think this is classic bird-in-hand versus bird-in-bush,” said Julie A. Ask, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Snapchat must believe the bird-in-bush is bigger.”

¶ There are some suggestions about why Snapchat thinks it will be worth far more later than it is now. For one thing, Snapchat’s leaders think it might be one of the first social media companies in the United States to build its business largely around revenue beyond advertising.

¶ On stage at an industry event in September, Mr. Spiegel said that he wanted to duplicate the success of overseas chatting applications like WeChat.

¶ Many such companies, particularly WeChat and Line, have found ways to make money from their applications through virtual goods and games. WeChat, which is based in China and operated by a company called Tencent, allows its users to subscribe to brands like Starbucks and Nike and receive messages from them. Line, a Japanese messaging app, has $10 million a month in revenue from selling stickers that users can send to each other while chatting with friends.

¶ But the decision appears to have also been influenced by one of Snapchat’s big venture backers, Benchmark Capital, according to a person close to the talks. Before leading an investment in Snapchat, Benchmark led an early bet on Instagram, a photo service, and was disappointed when Instagram’s founders decided to sell to Facebook for $1 billion last year. Despite the high price tag, the firm thought Instagram could have succeeded as a stand-alone company, or at least could have brought a higher offer.

¶ Eight months after the Instagram sale, Benchmark switched tactics and placed an initial $13 million bet on Snapchat. Benchmark executives thought they might be able to profit from Facebook fatigue by investing in services like Snapchat that offered users — particularly teenagers — greater privacy.

¶ It is those teenagers who most interest Facebook. In an earnings call this month, Facebook said that its youngest users were using its service less.

¶ Still, the news about Snapchat rejecting Facebook’s offer, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, sent a small shock through the industry. Both Snapchat and Facebook declined to comment.

¶ Snapchat and applications like it represent a coming sea change in social media, one not necessarily defined by shared or public interactions. These services present an antidote to mainstream services that are meant to capture life moments so they can be shared, liked and commented on. Snapchat’s appeal lies largely in the lack of permanence. It offers a reprieve from worrying about awkward or unflattering photos turning up unexpectedly.

¶ Snapchat recently said that it now processed upward of 350 million messages a day. In February, the company was processing only 60 million a day.

¶ Other messaging services similar to Snapchat are also quickly gaining in popularity. WhatsApp, KakaoTalk, Kik, WeChat and Line, to name a few, have added hundreds of millions of users in the last few years, and each continues to grow.

¶ That rocketlike growth has emboldened Snapchat’s leaders to hold out for a better deal, and with a suitor of their choice, at least for now. One person with knowledge of the talks, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said one roadblock in the talks with Facebook was that Mr. Spiegel questioned whether he wanted to work for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s young billionaire chief executive.

¶ In addition, Snapchat relishes being a successful company outside Silicon Valley. In December, when the company was still getting its footing in the social media market, Mr. Zuckerberg requested a meeting. But he traveled to Venice, Calif., to meet with the company, according to Snapchat’s founders, instead of them visiting him at his headquarters in Northern California.

¶ Shortly after the meeting, Facebook started a similar product called Poke. But Poke never took off. Even Facebook’s stand-alone messaging product, called Messenger, has struggled to attain the same kind of momentum that rivals have gained. Facebook released a new Messenger mobile app on Wednesday.

¶ And in Silicon Valley, where something new could pop up at any time, tech companies and investors are often compelled to act when they can — sometimes with fear and little regard for the number of zeros involved.

¶ Another potential suitor for Snapchat is Tencent, one of the three Internet giants in China. In September, Pony Ma, one of the founders of Tencent, spoke of that constant tension when discussing his interest in Snapchat.

¶ “I’m facing a crisis in this industry, said Mr. Ma. “Young people, the things they like on the Internet, increasingly I don’t understand it. This is my biggest worry.”

¶Nick Bilton, David Gelles, Vindu Goel, Nicole Perlroth and Shanshan Wang contributed reporting.

Source : http://www.nytimes.com

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'Maleficent' Trailer: Angelina Jolie Is a Shadowy Menace (Video)

'Maleficent' Trailer: Angelina Jolie Is a Shadowy Menace (Video)

The first footage from Disney's upcoming film about the origin of its "Sleeping Beauty" villain has debuted.

Angelina Jolie stalks a magical forest in the teaser trailer for Disney's Maleficent.

In the clip, Elle Fanning's Aurora provides the main voiceover as scenes of her playing and enjoying her childhood are interspersed with shadowy images of Jolie's villain, who places a curse on Aurora after she suffers a ruthless betrayal.

"I know who you are. You've been watching over me my whole life," she says. "I know you're there. Your shadow, it's been following me ever since I was small. Don't be afraid."

STORY: Angelina Jolie Bewitches in First 'Maleficent' Poster

It's then revealed that she's talking to Maleficent in a dark forest, leading to this telling exchange. After Maleficent says she's not afraid and Aurora then tells her to come out, the villain says, "Then you'll be afraid."

Jolie's then revealed in her full Maleficent glory.

The trailer also shows Maleficent conjuring up intertwined trees and thorned branches as green smoke emerges from her hands.

There are also foreshadowing shots of Aurora tentatively approaching the iconic spinning wheel spindle from Sleeping Beauty and her, um, sleeping.

EXCLUSIVE: Disney's 'Maleficent' Enlists John Lee Hancock for Reshoots

The film reveals the events that hardened Maleficent's heart, focusing on her early life, in which she rises to be her forest kingdom's fiercest protector before she's betrayed and seeks revenge by placing a curse on Aurora.

Maleficent hits theaters on May 30, 2014.

Source : http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

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Behind the scenes at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Behind the scenes at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

We're backstage with the supermodels as they discuss their nerves and preparations.

NEW YORK — Welcome to heaven.

OK, maybe not exactly, but if you go backstage to the hair and makeup prep area for the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, you'll be surrounded by angels. (That's what the supermodels are called.)

They'll tape two run-throughs of the catwalk strutfest, parading to the music of Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy, at Manhattan's 69th Regiment Armory on Wednesday. Those two shows will be edited into a one-hour special airing Dec. 10 on CBS at 10 p.m ET.

In years past, this has been Heidi Klum's turf. This year, there are other big model names sitting in director's chairs and getting hair, nails and makeup done: Alessandra Ambrosio flashes a peace sign and kisses for cameras in between dabs to her lips. Erin Heatherton, who dated Leonardo DiCaprio for 10 months until they broke up last year, has earphones in and eyes closed while she gets her makeup done. Behati Prinsloo, who is engaged to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, doesn't want to talk because she is about to grab some lunch. And Candice Swanepoel, who will be wearing the special $10 million Fantasy Bra, isn't anywhere to be found, but her bra is on display for all to see.

MORE: 11 spoilers from the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

"It's really crazy," says French-born model Constance Jablonski, who struggles to keep her head exactly straight while two people work on her hair.

All of the models are wearing short, silky Victoria's Secret robes. Most are wearing flip-flops, while black and white bras are visible on many, peeking out from the robes. Press crews roam from station to station chatting up the angels, who all say they are excited and a little nervous.

But not Jourdan Dunn, who will featured in the "British Invasion" part of the show. "At this precise moment, I'm pretty calm, actually. I'm not nervous yet, but I will be," the British model says.

Even though it will be her second time on the VS catwalk, she does have some fears. "I hope I don't show my nipple. I hope I don't fall. I hope I'm an angel gliding on the runway."

So what did she do to prepare for the show? "Absolutely nothing."

What about working out? "No."

Did she stop eating weeks ago? "No. I had big, fat burrito the other night. So, no, I haven't done anything," she says with a laugh.

She's just naturally beautiful and ready to go? "Something like that."

At the end of the long room, a buffet table offers chicken, beef, fruit, shrimp and various salads. Some of the models sit and eat. Chocolate-chip cookies are strewn about the tables.

Supermodel Adriana Lima has seen it all many times. "It's been 13 years I've been doing this," she says, her hair up in big curlers. The secret to surviving the day, she says, is to enjoy it. "I'm just having fun with this. That's how I roll."

Lais Ribeiro of Brazil gets a pedicure from Nelly Khaimchayeva, left, and a manicure from Ilona Yagoudaief, middle, backstage before the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2013 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City.(Photo: Eileen Blass, USA TODAY)

Lima, who is a mother of two, revealed in 2011 to The Daily Telegraph that she had eaten nothing but protein shakes for nine days leading up to the show. But this year, she insists she hasn't done anything strict to get in shape.

"I'm eating whatever I want, just watching portions." And she didn't do any particularly intense workouts, either, she says. "Because I have been working, I didn't work out as much as I wanted. Also because of the kids. But I did a little boxing."

But she's not sweating it. The show isn't about long legs, amazing bodies and sexy lingerie, to hear her tell it. "It's all about personality," she says. "That's what the Victoria's Secret show is all about — enjoying yourself. I'm not worried. We're all going to do a good job."

Lima adds, "I'm about to go have lunch now. You are more than welcome to join me if you want."

Model Constance Jablonski gets her hair done backstage before the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2013 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City.(Photo: Eileen Blass, USA TODAY)

Source : http://www.usatoday.com/

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Walmart Black Friday 2013 Ad Includes Incredible iPhone 5s Deal

Walmart Black Friday 2013 Ad Includes Incredible iPhone 5s Deal




The Walmart Black Friday 2013 ad includes a great iPhone 5s deal and will actually pay shoppers to buy an iPhone 5c on a two-year contract with Verizon or AT&T.

Apple Black Friday deals are the highlight of many retailer ads this year and Walmart is going big with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in a deal that might be worth getting in line for.

The Walmart Black Friday 2013 ad arrived online yesterday showing off a iPad mini deal that shoppers cannot pass up thanks to the $100 gift card which effectively cuts the price to $199 and the promise that it will be in stock for one hour or delivered to you by Christmas at the Black Friday price. This guarantee takes the worry out of waiting in line for nothing, and shows that the Walmart Black Friday 2013 plans are bigger than in year’s past.

The Walmart Black Friday 2013 ad includes incredible iPhone deals.

Walmart opens at 6PM on Thanksgiving Day for Black Friday, but the iPhone 5s Black Friday deal doesn’t start until 8 AM on Black Friday proper. If Walmart remains open overnight it would not be a surprise to see people lined up for this deal on Thanksgiving Day.

Not all Walmart Black Friday 2013 deals include the guarantee, which is the case with these incredible iPhone deals. Walmart is cutting the price of the iPhone 5c dramatically and with the gift card bonus the iPhone 5s is just over $100 on a two-year contract.

All of these Walmart Black Friday 2013 iPhone deals are limited to the stock on hand and are only available on Verizon and AT&T. T-Mobile and Sprint shoppers are out of luck, and shouldn’t bother waiting in line.

This iPhone 5s deal is a star of the Walmart Black Friday 2013 ad.

The iPhone 5s Black Friday deal at Walmart is only $10 off the retail price of a new iPhone 5s, but it includes a $75 Walmart gift card which effectively drops the price to $114. That’s $86 less than you would pay on a regular day at a carrier or Apple. You will need to sign an agreement and quantities will be limited, so be prepared to arrive early. This looks like it is only good on the 16GB version and will cover all colors, even though a gold iPhone 5s is still tough to find.

The iPhone 5s features a 4-inch Retina display, Touch ID fingerprint reader, 8MP camera, Apple A7 processor and LTE connectivity. Read our iPhone 5s review for more.

Read: Apple Black Friday 2013 Deal Predictions

The iPhone 5c Black Friday deal is even better. Walmart drops the price to $48 on contract, which pairs up with a $75 gift card to basically pay you to take the iPhone 5c. After taxes you may almost break even, but that’s still a good deal if you want this colorful iPhone with older internals.

The iPhone 5c comes with an Apple A6 processor, 4-inch Retina Display and 8MP camera. There is no Touch ID and some iOS 7 camera features like Slo Mo and Burst mode are not available.

Target is offering the iPhone 5s for $179 with a $30 gift card, which is the only other leaked iPhone 5s deal worth mention at this time. It’s not clear if Apple and carriers will respond with deeper discounts on iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c Black Friday deals.


Source : http://www.gottabemobile.com/

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Ryan Ferguson Update: Mo. man jailed for nearly 10 years released

Ryan Ferguson Update: Mo. man jailed for nearly 10 years released

Ryan Ferguson, a Missouri man jailed for nearly a decade for a murder he says he didn't commit, was released from custody Tuesday night.

His release came after Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced Tuesday that his office will not re-try Ferguson, 29.

PHOTOS: Ryan Ferguson released from prison

WATCH: 48 Hours' coverage of the Ryan Ferguson case: "The Accuser"

READ: If Ryan Ferguson gets out, what happens to his accuser?

Ferguson spoke at a press conference shortly after his release, appearing before a throng of media and supporters who clapped and cheered as he thanked family, friends and supporters.

"I didn't know this morning I'd be standing here tonight," Ferguson said. "It was very scary, very daunting. I'm very glad to be here. I want to thank the Attorney General for looking at the facts of the case and making decisions based off those facts and doing the right thing."

Last week, an appeals court threw out Ferguson's 2005 conviction in the killing of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt. The appeals court ruled that Boone County prosecutors violated federal law by failing to share several pieces of evidence with Ferguson's defense team during his trial, reports the Columbia Daily Tribune. 

Ferguson's family, friends and thousands of supporters have always maintained his innocence. Ferguson drove away from the Boone County jail in a car bearing his picture with his parents, Bill and Leslie, according to  "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty.

Ferguson was arrested for Heitholt's 2001 murder in 2004 after a friend, Chuck Erickson, told police he and Ferguson committed the crime. But Erickson struggled with important details when being interrogated by police, and later recanted his trial testimony. An eyewitness who testified that he saw Ferguson at the scene also later recanted.

Hair, fingerprints and bloody footprints were found at the scene, but none of them pointed to Ferguson.

"48 Hours"  has covered Ferguson's case extensively. Moriarty interviewed Ferguson in prison hours after his conviction was vacated last week.

"I know what it is to be a teenager, I don't know what it is to be an adult in the real world, as nearly a 30-year-old," Ferguson said. "I look forward to finding myself out and learning what it is I enjoy and what I love about life and finding what my passion is and acting on it."

Complete coverage of the Ryan Ferguson case on Crimesider

Source : http://www.cbsnews.com

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