The sale of Alberto Giacometti's 1960 Walking Man I sculpture at Sotheby's London on Wednesday night for GBP65 million (US$104.3m) has eclipsed the previous world auction price record of US$104.2m achieved at Sothebys New York in 2004 for Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait Boy with a Pipe.

This result confirms two things: firstly that the international art market is alive and kicking for the 'right' material and secondly that there are still huge legs in the market for fresh stock by the 'right' artists.

Let's face it, there is not a lot of arts philanthropy in Australia.  So when someone builds a four storey art gallery filled to the brim with artworks that they have purchased over the past decade, opens the doors to invite the public in for free and says 'this is my gift to Sydney', one has to take note.  This is exactly what Judith Neilson has done at White Rabbit Collection, her recently opened art gallery in inner suburban Sydney that part houses (along with a couple of other warehouses) the results of her buying spree on Chinese contemporary art since 2000.

The 3rd Lorne Sculpture Exhibition is currently on display (October 17th - November 9th 2009) along the beach front at Lorne on Victoria's Great Ocean Road.  A total of 33 major sculptural works are carefully situated along the coastal path towards the jetty and 17 smaller works are displayed in shopfronts on the promenade.  The artists are of local, national and international significance.  Despite only being in its 3rd year, the Lorne exhibition is of an extremely high standard and demonstrates the great diversity that is current in Australian three-dimensional art practice

Concrete Forest, an artwork comprising 36 concrete human busts each incised with a delicate foliage design created by Beijing born artist Ah Xian, has won the $50,000 Clemenger 2009 Art Award.

This highly prestigious exhibition and prize was established by Joan and Peter Clemenger in 1991 through a generous gift to the National Gallery of Victoria.  Presented as a series of triennials, this is the sixth and final award in the series.