Daily Pampering: An evening in Paris with Lucian Freud

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Is there any greater luxury than art? Nothing compares to dropping several million dollars on a single canvas, arranging to have it shipped home and having it suspended from your wall. Beyond an aesthetic decision or an investment, it’s also a reminder of a trip that will stay with you forever. So, if you’re planning an art-related trip, Paris needs to be on your mind. Though Lucian Freud failed to deliver on his black eye at auction last month, you can enjoy his work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from March 10 to July 19, 2010.

Lucian Freud, a pround member of the Francis Bacon “supply chain,” is among the poster-children of the art market boom that ended with the near-collapse of the global financial system in Septemer 2008. The hype around Freud began in 2002, when London‘s Tate was home to a retrospecive. Today, we aren’t seeing the eight-figure price tags for Freud’s work common through May 2008 , bu he’s still shown that he can rake in prices in the millions of dollars.

True decadence, of course, can only be found in snatching up one of these pieces and bringing it home.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

Louvre, Versailles, Mont Saint-Michel on strike alert tomorrow

by Alison Brick on

Workers at Paris’ modern art center Pompidou are already on strike over planned job cuts, but those at other French museums and landmarks could join in their fight tomorrow.

Seven unions are threatening to walk off the job on December 2nd if their demands aren’t met by the MInistry of Culture. They’re boycotting the government’s plan to cut cultural positions, which would replace only one out of every two civil servants who retire.

The Pompidou Center is Paris’ second most popular museum. If the cuts move forward, 400 of the museum’s 1,100 jobs could be cut over the next 10 years. More than 40 percent of workers there are 50 years or older.

Other tourist sites potentially shutting down during the strike are Notre Dame, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Pantheon. However, the Eiffel Tower would not be affected.