Basquiat painting sells for a record $110.5m

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Basquiat painting fetches record price at auction | Untitled (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $110.5m at Sotheby’s New York last night, almost doubling the late artist’s previous auction record. The buyer was the Japanese entrepreneur and collector Yusaku Maezawa, who will eventually display it in the private museum he is planning in his home town in Chiba. The Art Newspaper reports that there was ‘outright cheering’ at the sale.

Conservative manifesto pledges ‘strong support for the arts’ | Britain’s Conservative Party has  published its election manifesto, in which it promises to ‘continue [its] strong support for the arts, and ensure more of that support is based outside London’. However, despite promising a cultural development fund for local communities and to ‘promote British culture around the world’, the manifesto does not cite any specific funding cultural funding pledges. The party has also reaffirmed its commitment to staging a ‘Great Exhibition of the North’ in Newcastle and Gateshead in 2018.

Chris Dercon ropes in Tino Sehgal for inaugural season at Volksbühne | Former Tate Modern director Chris Dercon has revealed details of his first season at the helm of Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre, giving prominent billing to contemporary artists (German language article). The opening performance will feature Turner Prize-nominated artist Tino Seghal, while Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Yael Bartana, and Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff also appear on the programme.

Susana Bautista appointed director of Pasadena Museum of California Art | The Pasadena Museum of California Art has named former Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles director Susana Bautista as its new director. She replaces interim director Jay Belloli, and will take up the position next week.

Recommended reading | In Rolling Stone, performance artist and musician Cosey Fanni Tutti talks to Judy Berman about pornography, her time as a member of avant-garde rock group Throbbing Gristle, and being a ‘wrecker of civilisation’. In Pakistan, archaeologists are excavating the ruins of what they believe may be one of the oldest cities in the world. Read more in Le Figaro (French language article). Finally, Artnet News investigates the ethics of curators exhibiting their partners’ work in major exhibitions.