Are the most expensive paintings ever worth their prices? A definitive ranking
On Monday, Modigliani’s Reclining Nude joined an elite band of artworks that have commanded over $150m at auction or private sale – but are they worth it?
Culture
Sex sells: why Modigliani’s 98-year-old hymn to lust is worth $170m
Painted through an absinthe haze as the first world war raged, Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché mixes modernist thrills with age-old hedonism. No wonder it still seduces
The beauty of bikes – redesigning two wheels
The bicycle’s technical evolution and symbolic power are soon to be celebrated in Cycle Revolution at London’s Design Museum
Dutch museum achieves the impossible with new Hieronymus Bosch show
To mark the artist’s 500th anniversary, the director of small Dutch museum secures 20 of 25 surviving panels by ‘the devil’s painter’
‘It’s an insult’: Chinese property developers race to the top of London’s skyline
Giant luxury towers (with their own karaoke rooms) to spring up around the city as eastern investors look to Britain. But residents fear deals will force them out
Swiss couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth top art power list
Wirths praised for changing model of how art is bought and sold, while Ai Weiwei ranks second and Nicholas Serota falls to fifth