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Earlier this week, a 5.5-carat diamond ring sold for over $17 million dollars during Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Zurich. The triangular-cut stone, known as Ocean Dream, thanks to its blue-green color, had an estimate of about $9-12 million. It is set into an 18-karat white gold band and surrounded by pink and white diamonds. Fortune magazine reported that the buyer was an unnamed private client and that the ring took 20 minute to sell. Max Fawcett, Global Head of Christie’s Jewellery, noted in a statement that this is the second time Ocean Dream has been offered at auction. (t sold for nearly $10 million in 2014, also at Christie’s Geneva.) According to the Smithsonian, it is “one of the eight rarest diamonds in the world.” Ocean Dream was one of seven colored stones in the 2003 exhibition “Splendor of Diamonds” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The ring comes with a letter issued by the Gemo...

More than 100 Seattle Art Museum employees announced plans this week to unionize, joining the nationwide labor movement that’s swept through art institutions in the last six years.  The union, called the Seattle Art Museum Workers United, will represent workers in over 20 front- and back-end departments. The union told SAM director and CEO Scott Stulen of its formation in a letter, writing: “Our solidarity is a movement to improve working conditions in alignment with SAM’s mission, vision, and core values.”  The letter continues, “The challenges we face as unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and siloed, top-down decision-making, are undeniable, systemic, and have persisted across administrations.” The Seattle Art Museum did not respond to an ARTnews request for comment.  Details of the bargaining unit will be finalized over the coming months. Union organizers said they have a supermajority of support among eligible workers, including...

In this episode of Vanguard Radio , host J. Richard Jones sits down with Peter Dawe, Vice President of Defence Strategy at Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), to explore why business readiness—not just technology or equipment—is becoming one of the most critical components of Canada’s defence and economic security landscape. Drawing on more than three decades of experience in the Canadian Armed Forces and his current work supporting Canadian SMEs at BDC, Dawe offers a practical and execution-focused perspective on what it really takes for companies to succeed in defence and national-security supply chains. The conversation examines how operational discipline, governance, financial resilience and long-term sustainability often determine whether businesses can compete credibly in complex defence environments. Jones and Dawe discuss the growing intersection between defence and economic security, the realities facing SMEs entering defence markets, an...

Five days before a trove of 16 masterpieces from the late media magnate S.I. Newhouse is set to hit the block as part of Christie’s New York evening sales, the auction house has released a two-minute video promoting one particular sculpture in the sale. The short film, as Christie’s refers to it, was filmed in early May and features none other than Academy Award–winning actress Nicole Kidman starring alongside Constantin Brancusi’s bronze sculpture  Danaïde  (1913). The sculpture, expected to be one of the top lots this season, carries a pre-sale estimate of $100 million, well above the artist’s $71.2 million record, though below the three most-expensive sculptures ever sold at auction, all by Alberto Giacometti. According to a Christie’s spokesperson, the concept for the video was inspired by a Man Ray film of Lee Miller uncovering Brancusi’s controversial sculpture Madame X . (The film, and a marble version of the sculpture,...

Israel advanced a bill on Tuesday that would expand Israeli civilian authority sweeping authority over antiquities and archaeology in the occupied West Bank, a move that human rights groups warned would lead to the annexation of the Palestinian territory. As first reported by Haaretz , the Likud-backed bill would empower a new government body under the purview of the Israeli heritage minister to purchase and expropriate land. The proposed “Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority”—using the biblical term favored by the Israeli government for the occupied West Bank—“will hold exclusive responsibility for all matters relating to heritage, antiquities and archaeology in the area.” Those responsibilities would reportedly include excavating and overseeing heritage sites and archaeological digs, including those currently managed by the IDF-appointed archaeology staff officer in the West Bank Civil Administration. Tuesday’s vote (23-14) was the first of three v...

Alexis Corbière and Alexandre Portier, the French MPs overseeing the government commission investigating the shocking October 19, 2025, Louvre jewel heist , have accused the museum of deprioritizing security at the museum. The full parliamentary report was released today and also casts doubt on French president Emmanuel Macron’s nearly $1 billion plan to revamp the Louvre, which he announced in January 2025 (nine months before the heist) and referred to as a “new renaissance” for the museum, the world’s most-visited art museum.   Macron’s visit followed the release of a leaked memo written by Laurence de Cars, then the director of the Louvre (she resigned in February of this year), alerting French culture minister Rachida Dati (who also stepped down in February) of a “proliferation of damage in museum spaces, some of which are in very poor condition.”  As noted in Le Figaro , the damning May 13 report is based on over 20 hearings and roundta...