I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and wanted to share.  What a significant event the auction must have been!

Art auction record shattered

A contemporary art sale at Christie’s in New York makes $495 million (£325m), the highest total in auction history.

The sale included works by Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The sale established 16 new world auction records, with nine works selling for more than $10m (£6.6m) and 23 for more than $5m (£3.2m).

Christie’s said the records reflected “a new era in the art market”.

The sale featured works from institutions and private collections, including that of the late singer Andy Williams.

Paintings from the Williams estate included Edward Ruscha’s Mint, Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XVII and Basquiat’s Furious man.

The top lot of Wednesday’s sale was Pollock’s drip painting Number 19, 1948, which fetched $58.4m (£38.3m) – nearly twice its pre-sale estimate.

Lichtenstein’s Woman with Flowered Hat sold for $56.1m (£36.8m), while another Basquiat work, Dustheads, went for $48.8 (£32.1m).

All three works set the highest prices ever fetched for the artists at auction.

Christie’s described the $495,021,500 total – which included commissions – as “staggering”. Only four of the 70 lots on offer went unsold.

Brett Gorvy, head of post-war and contemporary art, described the amount as “the highest total in auction history”.

“The remarkable bidding and record prices set reflect a new era in the art market,” he said.

Steven Murphy, CEO of Christie’s International, said new collectors were helping drive the boom.

“Twenty-five percent of our buyers last year were new to Christie’s,” he told Reuters. “And four or five of the key lots tonight went to people who have never bought here before.”

Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Black on Maroon) from 1958 was the fourth most expensive sale, raising $27m (£17.7m).

Among the unsold works were pieces by Jeff Koons and Franz Kline.

The Time 100 Issue highlights the incredible and inspiring Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who is an advocate for girl’s rights.

Time commissioned the renowned photographer Mark Seliger to create the covers. The shoots took him and his crew to Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Washington and Birmingham, England, where he took the first formal portrait of Malala since she survived a vicious attack by the Taliban last October. Malala is still so young and small that when Mark sat her on a stool during the shoot, his assistants had to give her a plastic crate and two pieces of wood so she could rest her feet comfortably. The issue was beautifully designed by assistant art director Allison Duda, with stunning photography coordinated by contributing photo editor Bridget Harris, and executive editor Radhika Jones oversaw the project.

My very good friend Erika Brunson is featured in this month’s June 2013 issue of Architectural Digest. She is being highlighted for her heartwarming model of donating profits from her home furnishings line to animal causes.

By donating the profits from her home-furnishings line to animal causes, decorator Erika Brunson offers a heartwarming model of giving.

When interior designer Erika Brunson moved to Los Angeles after growing up in war-torn Germany, she was immediately inspired by the sun, sea, and laid-back lifestyle. “It was heaven,” she says. “So much vibrancy and light after living in such a gray place.” Her remarkable career began in 1980, when she redecorated the Beverly Hills estate of her husband’s business associate, who happened to be a nephew of the king of Saudi Arabia. The next thing Brunson knew, she was designing the royal family’s palace in Riyadh.  Several large-scale commissions followed, and she has been working steadily ever since.  Read the rest of the article (JPG).

Please visit and support her program for Los Angeles animals  www.spay4la.org

As an Executive Board Member of UNICEF I am often exposed to exceptional people who do exceptional things.  I’d like to introduce you to Emmanuel, a Young Ambassador for UNICEF, who was asked to explain UNICEF’s mission and the MNT program to the girls at Archer School, a private school.  He was wonderfully articulate, and he even had jokes incorporated into his presentation.  The girls were thoroughly engaged in asking questions and I was impressed by his eloquence.  He’s a fantastic young spokesperson for UNICEF and children who have few advocates.

Wow – my dear and talented friend Lisa Specht is a stellar choice for Board Chair for the Music Center of Los Angeles! Have a look at her Times Square PR, it doesn’t get better than that.  Congrats Lisa!