©Associated Press/Kirsty Wigglesworth

(The Wall Street Journal)
“Sotheby’s set a record Wednesday for a work on paper, at least by some measures, when it sold a Raphael drawing for $47,869,045. The sale in London continued the trend of collectors paying high prices for top pieces by household names, while most mid-range works remain unsold.”

(The Art Newspaper)
“If the buzz in Istanbul ten days ago is anything to go by, the city’s contemporary art scene is continuing its rapid expansion. Until recently, the city’s art scene was rooted primarily in its respected biennial, which was founded in 1987. The Contemporary Istanbul fair (22-25 November) entered its seventh year with a strong foundation of local support but is still striving to reach out to a foreign audience.”

(Art Info)
“The contemporary art market continues its upward thrust on the contrails of the big November auctions, with additional strong signs of hunger for both emerging and established artists at the 11th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. New work by Russian-born painter Kon Trubkovich made waves at New York’s Marianne Boesky Gallery, with three 72 by 60 inch paintings from 2012 in oil on linen sold for $25,000 each.”

(The Independent)
“The 2012 Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition at the ICA of work by the latest crop of graduates from art college is not an explosion of raw emotion. It’s rather conservative, in fact. The annual parade of young talent has been going since 1949. It has produced so many young artists who have gone on to make a success of their careers – Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Mark Wallinger and RB Kitaj to name but a few – that it is tempting to view it as a sporting event in which you can pick out the winners for the future.”

(Art Daily)
“The Louvre has embarked on an ambitious quest — opening a €150 million ($196 million) extension in an abandoned coal mining town in northern France that has an unemployment rate nearly three times the national average. The “Louvre-Lens” project — housed in a futuristic glass and aluminum complex — opens this week in an attempt to silence critics who say French art is limited to the country’s Parisian elite.”