Muse Arts

Investors Buy Art as Markets Stall; U.K. Auctions Make Record $1.1 Billion London auction houses sold a record 558.8 million pounds ($1.1 billion) of art including fees over two weeks, with buyers coming into the market seeking to make money as other investments stalled.

`Gonzo' Traces Wild Trip From Hell's Angels to Cannon Fodder: Rick Warner ``Buy the ticket, take the ride'' was one of Hunter Thompson's pet sayings.

Banksy's Road Barrier, Drinking-Club Mural Offered in U.K. Urban-Art Sale A mural from the Colony Room, a club frequented by artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst, and a traffic barrier spray-painted by Banksy, will be the star lots of a London urban-art sale in September.

Jamie Oliver Goes Italian in Oxford; Eatery Worth the Wait: Richard Vines It's hard to miss Jamie Oliver's eatery in Oxford. Just look for the crowd.

Eunuch Sleuth Defies Death in Venice, Chases Missing Bellini in Mystery Yashim is an Ottoman sleuth.

Wyndham Lewis, Hard Man of Modernism, Shows Tender Side in London Art Show In 1951 the writer and painter Percy Wyndham Lewis wrote a moving piece explaining that he would have to give up his column on art for ``The Listener'' magazine.

Paisley Diva, Callow's Mozart, Soldiers' Violent Beauty: Warwick Thompson I thought I'd seen every ``Tosca'' possible: set in a wind turbine, in an abstract black box and even in the era and locations Puccini intended. Now comes a new version of the 1900 opera bursting with surprises.

UN Gives Dresden Last Warning: Scrap Bridge or Lose `World Heritage' Label Dresden's Elbe Valley, a landscape of palaces, villas, vineyards and parks, will lose its status as a United Nations World Heritage site next year unless the city halts construction on a four-lane bridge across the river.

Hitler Returns to Berlin With Marlene Dietrich at Tussauds New Wax Display Adolf Hitler is slumped at his desk, lost in thought, a broken man confined to his bunker.

Adam Smith's Bronze Statue in Edinburgh Marks First Major Public Monument Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, will be honored today with a statue in the center of Edinburgh, the first major public monument to the 18th-century philosopher.

Dark Chocolate Sales Jump as Health-Conscious Britons Drop Milkier Option U.K. sales of dark chocolate jumped 96 percent to 85 million pounds ($168.5 million) between 2005 and 2007 as health-conscious Britons switched from the milk-chocolate option, according to research published today.

Terrorist Pays Stripper, El-Erian Buys Pizza: Our Most-Read Book Reviews Andre Dubus III's ``The Garden of Last Days,'' a strange tale about a 9/11 terrorist who pays $7,000 to chat with a stripper, led the list of the most-read Bloomberg book reviews in June.