LONDON (AFP) -- A London auction of music legend David Bowie‘s art collection has ended with sales totaling almost 33 million pounds ($41.5 million), after exhibits of the works drew record crowds, Sotheby’s said Saturday.Every item in the collection, which included over 130 works of modern and contemporary British art, was sold in a series of sales as buyers’ enthusiasm for the late musician’s collection exceeded expectations.Exhibitions of the works in London attracted some 51,470 visitors, th

Classical MusicA scene from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Macbeth” (Sejong Center)“Macbeth Opera”: The Sejong Center is gearing up to host its latest opera production, Verdi’s operatic rendition of the Shakespeare classic “Macbeth.” Verdi’s rendition of the Shakespearean tragedy is often hailed as the best of the composer’s earliest works, expressing the cruelties and ambitions of humans through a powerful score. The production will star baritones Yang June-mo and Kim Tae-hyun as Macbeth; and sopranos Oh Mi

LONDON (AP) -- He's one of the most colorful figures in rock ‘n’ roll, but when it comes to photography, Elton John embraces black and white.Scores of vintage images from the musician's collection are on display in “The Radical Eye,” an exhibition opening this week at London’s Tate Modern. The show displays more than 190 photos that usually line the walls of John's 18,000 square foot (1,670 square meter) Atlanta apartment, one of his several homes.If stark black and white seems too plain a palet

NEW YORK (AP) -- Works by Gerhard Richter, Willem de Kooning and David Hockney will highlight Sotheby's contemporary art auction later this month. The Nov. 17 auction also will feature paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Sotheby’s expects a large-scale landscape by Hockney titled "Woldgate Woods, 24, 25 and 26 October, 2006" to set a new auction record for the British artist. It believes the painting will bring between $9 million and $12 million.The current Hockney auction record

The state-run National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art rejected forgery allegations against the late Korean artist Chun Kyung-ja’s renowned painting “Beautiful Woman” on Nov. 4.　After visiting the museum to gather information about other collections by Chun in September, the Paris-based Lumiere Technology reported to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul last week that “Beautiful Woman” was not a genuine work by Chun.　The French company came to that conclusion after inspecting some 1,60

France’s only erotic museum is closing its doors, its owners said Thursday, after passions flagged in the “city of love” for its titillating though surprisingly tasteful collection of artefacts.Just down the street from the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret in Pigalle, the closure hastens the shift of Paris’ naughtiest neighborhood toward respectability.Owners Jo Khalifa and Alain Plumey, a former porn star, who founded the museum nearly 18 years ago, said the double whammy of falling tourist numbers

MILAN (AFP) -- New York’s Eighties art scene is coming to Milan with a show dedicated to the late Haitian-American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose works now sell for phenomenal sums.From his child-like skull and crown paintings to his poetic and enigmatic anatomical depictions, the Museum of Culture in the north Italian city is holding a retrospective until February into the works of the art prodigy, who died from a drug overdose aged just 27.Born in 1960 in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and P

The Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theater’s latest production “Sin-Si, the Festival of the Sun” is the epitome of stage culture fusion, unifying contemporary and classical ballet movements with traditional Korean music and dance. Depicting the motif of the Dangun Mythology through a hodgepodge of dancing styles, the Sejong Center’s newest performance piece tells the 7,000-year-old tale of Hwanung, the son of heaven, who descended to Earth to provide guidance to the rivaling Ung (bear) and Ho (tiger)