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�Art lending business is booming�, according to the first comprehensive poll of the industry, conducted by the research firm Skate�s and due for publication on Tuesday, 4 August. The report calculates that art loans could account for more than $10bn in 2015, at least twice the 2011 level, and could grow to become a $100bn market.

Driving business is the growth of art sales at the top levels�where lenders feel confident that a work could retain most of its value over the longer term. Skate�s identifies the $1m-$5m and the over $20m ranges as �the most liquid art-market segments today�.

You can lose a lot of money with the wrong art buy � especially if you�re young, naive, and really, really rich.

According to Bloomberg, Citigroup is hoping to prevent such losses by teaching the heirs of its wealthiest bank customers how to invest in art. �You don�t have the birthright to the next generation�s wealth,� Citi Private Bank Managing Director Money Kanagasabapathy explained. �We want to continue to have the relationship with the family.�

Entrepreneur and artist Stephan Vogler wants to change the art world, and he is using Bitcoin to do just that in what�s considered by many to be the epicenter of contemporary art, Berlin, Germany.

Vogler�s novel block chain technology inspired license seeks to change how art is purchased and traded. By creating a system of rights to copyrighted works in digital form, Bitcoin can turn art from mere collector�s pieces to limited and tradable virtual goods.

Christie�s has bought Collectrium, an online collection management tool for the art world. Sources close to the deal say the purchase price was $16 million, although this figure could not be confirmed at the time of publication as neither Christie�s nor Collectrium returned calls. Other former staff members say the sale figure was between $20 and $25 million but that cannot be confirmed. Equity documents for former staffers being paid out list $16 million.

Editorial Note:

May We Always Remember What Artists Stand For ~ Freedom of Speech ~ Libert� d�expression

The four cartoonists killed in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French newspaper, represented a radical, crude and vital strain of that nation�s culture, according to those who knew them and followed their work.

The men � St�phane Charbonnier, Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut and Bernard Verlhac � were among 12 people killed in the attack Wednesday.The newspaper had been insistent on publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, which are banned under some interpretations of Islamic law, and by Wednesday evening, French officials had suggested that the attack had been carried out by Islamic extremists.

Buying art can be a truly intimidating experience. How do you know what's good? How much should you pay? Is that gallerina giving you the stink eye? (Probably.) But you've outgrown those framed posters you kept for too long post-college and you're ready to anoint the blank walls of your new grown-up apartment with something truly special. What to do?
Source: Elle Magazine by Leiah Chernikoff - Editorial Chief Culture News

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The art market continued its upward climb last week with unprecedented results at the New York auctions. But when Jasper Johns's Flag (1983) makes a record $36 million at Sotheby's (see "Rothko Reels In $45 Million at Sotheby's $343.6 Million Contemporary Evening Sale") or Peter Doig's Pine House (Rooms for Rent) (1994) fetches $18 million (also a record), at Christie's (see "Epic Christie's $852.9 Million Blockbuster Contemporary Art Sale Is the Highest Ever"), it may not necessarily be good news for all. In a recent interview with German magazine Monopol, Allianz's art insurance chief Georg von Gumppenberg suggests that the ever-rising art market is putting a damper on the quality of art most museums are able to show.
�Why?� you may ask. The answer is: insurance costs.

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What does it take to become a world-class art collector? These days, you need to build not only a great collection, but a great museum to house it in. Over the past few years, a rash of art-loving billionaires have dedicated themselves, or their foundations, to the construction of spectacular new venues to show off their finest acquisitions.

The trend began in earnest in 2006, when the French billionaire Fran�ois Pinault, the primary shareholder of the luxury conglomerate now called Kering, converted an 18th-century Venetian palace, the Palazzo Grassi, into a showplace for contemporary art. The site has since added two other structures, Punta della Dogana and the Teatrino, both designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Meanwhile, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France and the chairman of the luxury conglomerate LVMH, was busy developing his own idea for a museum, which finally arrived last month, in Paris, in the form of Frank Gehry�s glass-paneled Fondation Louis Vuitton.


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Software is no longer limited to computers, tablets, and phones. Everyday objects from sneakers to refrigerators contain software, which often allow our apparel and appliances to communicate with mobile devices, the internet, and each other. As all of our possessions become �smart,� they are also becoming subject to laws that were never intended to regulate our morning cup of coffee or trip to the gym.

Last week, the US Copyright Office received petitions from consumers, company owners, and educators who believe that their lives and livelihoods are suffering because of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA). And for the first time, the majority of petitions asking for exemptions to the DMCA have nothing at all to do with the original intent of the antipiracy law. We have entered a world that legislators had not envisioned when they drafted the DMCA, and the Copyright Office has to decide how to apply an aging policy in a new century.