Good morning: It was a week defined by staggering valuations and institutional fragility. In the art market, a Gustav Klimt portrait commanded the second-highest auction price in history at $236.4 million (Washington Post) , while a Frida Kahlo self-portrait smashed records at $54.7 million (The Wall Street Journal). Yet, the ground shook under major organizations: The Phillips Collection faces a firestorm for selling off art to keep the lights on (The Washington Post) , and the Philadelphia Museum of Art accused a former director of embezzlement (ARTnews).
Politics and technology also collided with culture. The Kennedy Center faces a Senate inquiry into alleged “self-dealing” (The Washington Post), and Tennessee libraries are shuttering to comply with a state mandate purging LGBTQ+ books (Common Dreams). Meanwhile, Warner Music Group struck a landmark deal with AI firm Suno (Music Business Worldwide), even as a new survey warns that nearly 40% of novelists are already losing income to the technology (The Conversation).
All of the stories we collected are below.
