Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo Sells Most Expensive Watch in First NY Auction: Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona was sold for $17.7m at Phillips yesterday as Aurel Bacs held the largest watch auction in history totaling $28.8m. …

An Anatomy of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party: Susan Stamberg analyzes the composition and construction of Renoir’s famed painting that is now the centerpiece of a show at the Phillips Collection. Listen Here …

Drug Bust Recovers Stolen Stanley Spencer Painting: Two men whose car was searched in England were discovered to have cash and a kilo of cocaine in the car. Their subsequent arrest let to a search of one of the men’s apartments where a £1m stolen Stanley Spencer painting was found. The work had been missing for five years. …

The Staff of Artforum Issues Public Statement Rebuking Publishers: The staff of Artforum has issued a statement condemning, “the way the allegations against Knight Landesman have been handled by our publishers and repudiate the statements that have been issued to represent us so far.” …

The National Gallery of Victoria Acquires a Francoise Gilot Painting: There’s been a growing interest in Francoise Gilot’s work over the past several years with recent auction sales, a profile on CBS Sunday Morning, and, now, the acquisition of one of her paintings, Les Yeux Bleus at Melbourne, Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria. The work was painted in 1956 and acquired directly from Gilot this year, according to the museum’s curator, Ted Gott:

• “It is a fabulous work done in Paris and it is pretty remarkable that she held on to it […] which would indicate that it is one of her favourites.”
• “So, she is no slouch. She is not just a muse. She has been overlooked, definitely, and she’s been typecast as Picasso’s partner — but hopefully this acquisition will show that she is so much more than Picasso’s partner.” …

Cannes Winning Film Satirizes Art World to Make Broader Point: Ruben Östlund’s The Square is a satire of Sweden’s cultural elite set in a modern art museum, according to NPR’s All Things Considered. The head of programming at Lincoln Center’s Film Society, Dennis Lim, says:

• “I think the film ultimately is not ultimately about the art world,” he says. “I think it’s a film that recognizes that the art world is kind of an ideal setting for what it’s trying to explore, in terms of, you know, the specific conflicts, the specific themes of ego, and privilege and liberal guilt.”