In January, one of the art world’s brightest young stars, Julie Mehretu, was put on display in a highly unusual way—on the stand in a Manhattan courtroom, where she’d been called to testify by her dealer, who’s feuding with a collector over her work.Born in Addis Ababa to an Ethiopian father and a white mother…

Peter Bacanovic and I have been close friends for sixteen years, and we speak six times a day. For the past twenty months, he dreaded reading newspapers and watching TV news, so he called me every morning for a précis, which I tried to deliver gently. It’s been tough. On Friday afternoon, I realized that…

“I’m impressed Al has the courage to show his face,” says a wealthy Fifth Avenue collector, glancing in awe at A. Alfred Taubman, the embattled former Sotheby’s chairman. “In his position, I’d be home, not answering the phone.”

I know we’re not supposed to curtsy in America,” says Nan Kempner, who nevertheless sank to the floor amid the frenzied throng as Diana, Princess of Wales, swept into Christie’s on Park Avenue to promote the sale of her castoff gowns for charity. “I love a good curtsy,” adds an unrepentant Kempner.

Central Park West has become Manhattan’s new gold coast. Prices for luxury apartments along the western avenue—from Donald Trump’s flashy new condominium at Columbus Circle to the dignified Beresford at 81st Street and beyond—are now actually exceeding those for comparably sized spreads on Park Avenue and are inching closer than ever to sales figures on…