Nude painting sets record

A Lucian Freud painting sold for $33.64 million at Christie's art auction on Tuesday, shattering the record for a piece by a living artist.

The British painter's 1995 portrait of a nude woman sleeping on a sofa, "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping," sold for just under its high presale estimate of $35 million.

The previous record of $23.6 million was set last November for a Jeff Koons sculpture, "Hanging Heart."

Contemporary art sold strongly, defying erratic financial markets at a $350 million auction marked by a surprising preponderance of American buying.

Records fell for seven other artists as well.

"It was stupendous," said Christie's contemporary and postwar art international co-head Amy Cappellazzo, noting it was Christie's second-best contemporary result.

The sale's total was just above the midrange of its presale estimate.

"So much for the weak dollar," Cappellazzo quipped after the auction. US buyers snapped up 70 percent of the $348,263,600 worth of art sold, while Europeans bought nearly all the rest.

Madonna to build girl's school

US pop diva Madonna plans to start building a multi-million-dollar girls' school in Malawi for underprivileged children this year, her local lawyer said yesterday.

"A task force of four prominent Malawians has already been formed to head the project which will be on the scale of what Oprah Winfrey has in South Africa," Madonna's lawyer Alan Chinula said.

"It is a multi-million dollar project and we will get the real costs in the next two weeks."

Billionaire US television magnate Winfrey has built a $40 million all-girl leadership academy in South Africa which boasts state-of-the-art facilities including laboratories, a yoga studio and beauty salon.

Malawi's High Court is expected to approve Madonna's bid to adopt two-year-old Malawian David Banda today. Malawi's government and David's father - his only surviving parent - have endorsed the adoption.

Madonna will not attend the final court ruling on her adoption bid because she is busy with other engagements, Chinula said yesterday.

The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been ravaged by an AIDS epidemic that has produced more than one million orphans.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/15/2008 page10)