A Modigliani painting that shocked Paris in 1917 could now fetch £45 million.
In 1917, police shut down Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani’s only solo exhibition on its opening night, on the grounds of indecency. Over a century later, one of the paintings that caused the scandal is heading to Sotheby’s with a £45 million estimate. Nu assis au collier (Seated Nude with Necklace) will headline Sotheby’s June 24 evening sale as part of the Lewis Collection, the single-owner collection of British billionaire Joe Lewis. Its combined estimate in excess of £200 million marks the highest ever placed on a single-owner collection at auction in Europe.
Chanel has restored a historic independent cinema.
Close to Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, in the heart of the neighborhood that once nurtured the French New Wave, Le Saint-Germain-des-Prés has reopened, and Chanel is behind it. The historic 208-seat independent cinema, a onetime haunt of Jean-Luc Goddard and François Truffaut, has completed a year-long renovation sponsored by the French luxury house, returning one of Paris’ most storied cultural addresses to its rightful place on the Left Bank.
For the fourth time. Baccarat’s Global Creative Studio designed a speakeasy at Radio City Music Hall for the Tony Awards.
Baccarat and Dewar’s transformed a hidden space inside Radio City Music Hall into an invitation-only speakeasy for the 2026 Tony Awards, marking the fourth year of Baccarat’s Tony Awards lounge and the second year of its partnership with the Scotch whisky brand. The intimate venue, designed by Baccarat’s Global Creative Studio, featured dark wood paneling, rice-paper accents, brass details, crystal barware, and portable Zenith Nomade chandeliers, welcoming roughly 200 VIP guests including nominees, presenters, celebrities, and Broadway insiders. Guests were served three custom cocktails—The Stage Door Canteen, The Curtain Call, and The 21st Measure—each paired with specific Baccarat crystal pieces and made with premium Dewar’s expressions, reinforcing the brands’ shared focus on craftsmanship, luxury hospitality, and theatrical storytelling.
The Paris Opera opened its closets for a three-day sale.
With over 5,000 costumes and 2,000 accessories, the Paris Opera recently opened its jewel-encrusted closet to the public, staging a three-day sale at the Opéra Bastille that drew devoted opera-goers, costume collectors, and the curious. On offer: voluminous ball gowns, military uniforms, tunics, and bejeweled robes from products spanning the 1960s to the present, priced from €2 for a scarf to €800 for an elaborate ensemble, each labeled with its production, designers, and occasionally, the name of the performer who first wore it.
70 artists have transformed a vacant L.A. hospital into an art experience.
St. Vincent Medical Center, a historic Los Angeles hospital vacant since 2020, has been transformed into the “Hospital of Emotions,” a pop-up exhibit turning 80 rooms into immersive installations by 70 artists. Organized around eight emotional states—including joy, love, fear, anger, hope, sadness, compassion, and resilience—the show reimagines a space once built for the body into a landscape of feeling.
Today’s attractive distractions:
Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya has transformed the rotunda at Bourse de Commerce into a living fog sculpture.
Lego marks the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s death with its largest set ever, a replica of the Sagrada Familia.
Madonna turned Times Square into an indelible Pride Month moment.
Two architects inherited a townhouse in Žatec and reinvented it as a Wes Anderson-coded guesthouse.
