Gauguin painting sells for record $300mlnFebruary 7, 2015 - 11:08 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A painting of two Tahitian girls by the French artist Gauguin has been sold for $300mln, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold, BBC News reports. “Nafea Faa Ipoipo, or When Will You Marry?” was painted in 1892 and had been owned by a Swiss collector.Unconfirmed reports suggest it was sold to a museum in Qatar. The small oil-rich state paid the previous highest price for a painting, a work by Paul Cezanne which sold for $259mln. Before its sale, the Gaugin artwork had been owned by Rudolf Staechelin, a collector from Basel. For decades it had been on loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel but Staechelin decided to sell the painting after a disagreement with the museum. Staechelin told the New York Times he would not divulge the identity of the buyer. It was not immediately clear where the sale had taken place. However the paper, which first reported the sale, quoted sources saying the painting had been sold to Qatari buyers. Officials in Qatar have not yet confirmed the purchase. The sheikhdom's royal family has in recent years spent vast amounts of money on Western art. Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani, a former minister of culture who died last year, lavished more than $1bn of the country's money on artworks. Qatar sponsored a 2012 Damien Hirst retrospective in the UK which later moved to the country's capital Doha, and has invested large sums of money financing museums of Islamic and modern Arab art. Photo: EPA Related links: Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | OSCE vows support for Armenia “in all three directions of security” Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. 151 detained as civil disobedience campaigns continue in Yerevan Citizens have been blocking streets in the Armenian capital, demanding Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation. IDBank issues 2nd tranche of dollar bonds of 2024 On May 13, 2024, IDBank placed registered coupon bonds under the abbreviation AMANLBB2PER9. Russia provides info about arrested Armenian ex-MP Russian law enforcement agencies have provided information about the arrest of Tigran Urikhanyan. |