Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s $15 million De Kooning will lead a new auction-style sale.
Lévy Gorvy Dayan is launching LGD Hammer, a new live-bidding platform designed to combine the discretion of private sales with the competitive energy of auctions. The inaugural sale on May 16 will be led by a 1984 Willem de Kooning painting estimated at $10–15 million. The initiative leverages the founders’ auction-house expertise to create a more engaging, high-touch buying experience for collectors while reshaping traditional sales formats.
Ahead of the Met Gala, a history of fashion’s relationship to art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will open its spring 2026 exhibition, “Costume Art,” on May 10, spanning prehistory to the present and pairing fashion with works from The Met’s collection—in order to explore the enduring relationship between clothing and the human body across cultures and time. The show, inaugurating the museum’s new gallery space, will be preceded by the Met Gala on May 4, where the dress code “Fashion is Art” reflects the exhibition’s central theme. Framing fashion and art as deeply intertwined for centuries—through art’s documentation of dress and designers’ continual inspiration from visual culture—the exhibition highlights their ongoing dialogue, celebrated through key historical intersections between the two disciplines.
A.I. analysis says Holbein portrait may depict Anne Boleyn.
A.I. analysis of two Hans Holbein sketches has upended long-held assumptions about Anne Boleyn’s likeness, suggesting that a drawing traditionally labeled as her may actually depict her mother, Elizabeth Howard, while a separate “unidentified woman” could be the real portrait of the Tudor queen. Researchers at the University of Bradford used machine learning to cluster visual similarities across Holbein’s works, finding the unidentified sitter aligns more closely with Boleyn and her relatives, while inconsistencies—such as hair color and complexion—cast doubt on the long-accepted attribution. Because fewer than 15 percent of Holbein’s portraits have firm historical documentation, the findings don’t settle the question but instead reopen debate around Boleyn’s true appearance, highlighting how A.I. is reshaping art historical scholarship.
Christie’s will auction a rare Audemars Piguet chronograph hidden for 90 years.
A rare 1930s Audemars Piguet monopusher chronograph—with only three known examples from this first generation and just six ever produced—will headline Christie’s Geneva auction. Encased in platinum with a cushion-shaped design and a two-tone dial, the watch integrates all chronograph functions into a single crown—an advanced technical achievement for its time. It is estimated at CHF 200,000–400,000 ($260,000–$510,000).
Saks Global is setting up a litigation trust with creditors.
Saks Global’s Chapter 11 restructuring has led to the creation of a litigation trust, initially funded with about $20 million, designed to pursue lawsuits and recover additional funds for creditors who are otherwise unlikely to be repaid. The trust is part of a broader bankruptcy plan following the company’s January 2026 filing, which came after heavy debt tied to its Neiman Marcus acquisition and ongoing financial strain across its luxury retail operations. Overall, the move underscores the complexity of Saks Global’s restructuring, using legal claims as a potential value-recovery mechanism while the company works toward emerging from bankruptcy later in 2026.
Today’s attractive distractions:
At Atelier Fouquet’s, design-led pieces translate the hotel’s aesthetic for everyday life.
NASA produced a simulation of what it’s like to approach a black hole’s event horizon.
Over the past five years, the Met Gala has raised $113 million.
SpY Studio’s “HALOS” installation glistens within a Florence railway station.
