Newslinks

Art market
One of four versions of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream, (pastel, 1895) fetched $119,9M (Sale price $107M + the buyer’s premium) at Sotheby’s New York on 2 May, a record for auction history. The sale was dominated by two telephone bidders, over a tense ten minutes period. Sotherby’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer was caught exclaiming “I love you!” to one phone bidder when prices soared up to $106M. You can watch an excerpt here. We are all curious to know who won the bidding match for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Petter Olsen, the seller of the painting personally hoped the bidding winner to be MoMA NY…

Art Fairs
The long anticipated Frieze New York art fair kicks off on Friday but no one seems to know how to get to Randall’s island, even most born & bred New Yorkers. So, Frieze made a promo video for people to see how much fun it can be to get there. â–  Other satellite fairs are joining in, from easier to reach locations such as NADA NY, Pulse, Scope, and more. More info on events during Frieze week is available here. â–  New York is now buzzing with art party fever, and here’s a preview of the party list from around the city (many are Invitation Only).

Award
The 2012 Turner Prize shortlist was announced, to include Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble and Elizabeth Price. Who do you think deserves to win the £25,000 cash prize this year? Vote now! â–  Two weeks before the Turner prize shortlist was unveiled, Canada’s own Sobey Art Award announced its long list. This award is virtually unknown to outside of Canada but provides a big leap in profile to a winning artist’s career with a huge $50,000CAD money prize (greater than Turner’s equivalent) The shortlist is to be announced in late June.

Museum
Pompidou decided to go global on a similar branding campaign to Guggenheim, but in focusing on BRIC countries (Brazil, India and China but not Russia). â–  Meanwhile, Guggenheim’s plan to expand to Nordic territories is not going as expected. The City Board rejected the museum’s proposal to build Guggenheim Helsinki. Their Berlin branch is also soon to close, so the Guggenheim franchise is actually shrinking in size. Where will they go next? â–  Vancouver Art Gallery added a 13th work of Jeff Wall to its permanent collection, entitled: “Ivan Sayers, costume historian, lectures at the University Women’s Club, 7 December 2009. Virginia Newton-Moss wears a British ensemble c. 1910, from Sayers’ collection”. VAG holds the largest collection of Wall’s work in a public institution. The museum also recently acquired works by Song Dong and Laurence Paul Yuxweluptun.

Artists
Sadly David Weiss of Fischil & Weiss passed away at the age of 66. Hans Ulrich Obrist wrote this obituary. â–  David Hockney is recognized as the top British philanthropist, having given more than twice his own net worth of $55 million. â–  Ed Ruscha produced a video tribute to Laurence Weiner to mark his honorary award received at the Drawing Center spring Gala in New York on 24 April 2012. â–  Ai Weiwei was honoured for the 1st Richard J. Massey Foundation for arts and humanity award at White Box in Chelsea on 25 April 2012.

Biennale
The 7th Berlin Biennale gets really political.

Festival
Contact, self claimed as the world’s biggest photography festival kicked off in Toronto last weekend, showcasing over 100 artist works in many venues throughout the city. Artinfo Canada provided these recommendations for this year’s must-see shows in Contact festival.

Criticism
The New Criterion’s May issue is dedicated to iconic art critics and the founder of the journal, the late Hilton Kramer.

[From left to right] David Weiss; The Guggenheim Helsinki team; Jeff Wall, Ivan Sayers, costume historian, lectures at the University Women’s Club, 7 December 2009. Virginia Newton-Moss wears a British ensemble c. 1910, from Sayers’ collection, 2009. VAG permanent collection; video till from Frieze NY video promo; The Scream on display at Sotheby’s; the 7th Berlin Biennale; Alain Seban, president Centre de Pompidou at the Pompidou Met; Gwenaël Bélanger, 100, rue Blainville Ouest, 2009; Spartacus Chetwynd, film still from Spend time with her…