Art and Entertainment News: E-Book Fight, World Record Set, $250 Million Raised for Art Collection and More

The art and entertainment world has been featured in the news quite a bit this week. Money has been raised, art has been sold setting a new record, fights over e-book pricing and studio buy outs have all headlined in the art and entertainment industry. Here are some noteworthy items you might have missed:

2-05-2010 Amazon Lists Macmillan Books After Fight Over E-Book Pricing-

According to Entertainment Daily, Amazon and book publisher Macmillan books have been in a dispute about Amazon's e-book pricing which is set at $9.99 for best-sellers. Macmillan books were available through Amazon but only in limited quantities as the publisher argued that Amazon's e-book pricing for best-sellers threatened the value of books overall. CEO of Macmillan books, John Sargent, said a resolution was near in a memo on Thursday and on Friday MacMillan books started appearing back on Amazon. New Macmillan titles worthy of checking out include "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel, "The Politician" by Andrew Young and "Plum Spooky" by Janet Evanovich. These books are currently available in the print edition at Amazon but not in the electronic versions.

2-06-2010 Walking Man Sets Auction RecordAn auction at Sotheby's created some stir in the Britain art market when sculpture L'Homme Qui Marche I (Walking Man 1) by Alberto Giacometti sold in a record 8 minutes for $103.7 million USD. (£65 million). It is considered to be the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. Art auctions have been worried about the art market because of the recession and lack of sellers coming forward with high quality art. The Walking Man record seems to have kick-started the market into high gear.

2-07-2010 Art Museum Raises $250 Million to House Art Collection

According to an article written by Stephen West of Bloomberg News, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art announced that it raised $250 million to go toward an expansion project. Gap Inc. founders Donald and Doris Fisher will have their art collection shown in the new wing built with the funds raised. The expansion project will include adding 150,000 square feet of space and the consolidation of offices currently spread around the neighborhood. Donald Fisher passed away at age 81 just 2 days after an agreement was reached to show off the art collection at SFMOMA. The 1,100 art piece collection which has works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder, and Ellsworth Kelly, will be housed at SFMOMA for 100 years with a renewable contract.

2-08-2010 Lionsgate Wants Miramax

In a report by the New York Post and Reuters, film studio Lionsgate wants to buy out Walt Disney's Miramax unit. Currently, Lionsgate was trying to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) but they are not considered serious contenders for MGM with the richer studio Time Warner also playing ball. Miramax films like "Clerks", "Good Will Hunting" and "Pulp Fiction" no longer fit in Disney's strategy for producing big event films.