Lucian Freud

From the fan-dancing women wearing python costumes to the multimedia display that projected David Hockney's image around the walls, MOCA's gala celebrating the opening of the Lucian Freud retrospective was -- to say the least -- memorable. It started humbly enough early Friday night, with a cocktail reception at the museum on South Grand Avenue downtown.

Joan Collins is portrayed lying enticingly on a sofa, Dominick Dunne writing intensely in one of his little green notebooks, Billy Wilder staring forth with owlish authority. As captured in oil on canvas by Sacha Newley, Hollywood's rich, famous and intriguing were on display along with other portraits by the young British artist at a cocktail reception opening his first American show at the Chateau Marmont on Thursday night.

Francis Bacon's portrait of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud fetched $37 million at a London auction Thursday. Auctioneer Sotheby's said that the triptych, "Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud," was bought a bidder who wished to remain anonymous. The crimson-toned artwork captures a distorted vision of Freud, who like Bacon was one of postwar Britain's leading artists. ?Associated Press Singlehood in sight for Sheen Charlie Sheen can go back to being single, but he'll have to wait a few months before it's official, a judge ruled Thursday.

Unlike David Hockney, Lucian Freud is inaccessible. He rarely grants interviews, and has chosen an emissary to speak for him. William Feaver is James Boswell to Freud's Samuel Johnson, Morris Engelberg to his Joe DiMaggio. Sitting in his home office in Clapham, a less fashionable area miles from Freud's studio, Feaver is surrounded by the painter's life. His desk is strewn with upcoming projects, assorted correspondence and art catalogs. A whippet related to Freud's Pluto sleeps in the corner.

FASHION Week started here on Monday with more talk about the models than the clothes they were wearing. Debate is raging over whether reed-thin models should be banned from the runways (as they were in Madrid last week) because they might encourage eating disorders.

When Pontius Pilate led Jesus before the throng demanding his crucifixion -- gaunt, brow bloodied by a crown of thorns, his body scourged -- Pilate mocked the implausible claims about the Son of God and King of the Jews by announcing Ecce homo: Behold the man. The broken wreck arrayed before them was the picture of human suffering and mortality. Ecce homo was a favorite subject of European Baroque artists.

Two days, two modern art masterpieces, two record-breaking auction prices -- and one buyer: Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. A respected art publication says London-based Abramovich was the anonymous buyer of Francis Bacon's "Triptych" and Lucian Freud's "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping," which sold at separate New York auctions last week for a total of $120 million. Abramovich represents a new breed of super-rich collector from emerging economies -- such as China, the Middle East and, especially, Russia -- that is buoying the art market through tough economic times.

Lady Caroline Blackwood, 64, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat who wrote wry, macabre novels. Blackwood published nine books, including "The Stepdaughter" and "The Fate of Mary Rose." Her most recent book was "The Last of the Duchess," an eccentric, Kafkaesque account of her vain attempt to visit the ailing Duchess of Windsor.