With the Met's spring 2013 Costume Institute exhibit, "Punk: Chaos to Couture," having just kicked off, forthcoming openings include a collection of portraits by Boris Chaliapin in Washington DC and an exhibit by Michael Landy as artist-in-residence at the National Gallery of London. Punk: Chaos to CoutureMay 9 - August 14Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA

An Impressionist oil painting depicting a chef in his whites has fetched a tasty $18 million -- the most ever paid at auction for a work by the artist Chaim Soutine. Soutine's "Le Petit Patissier" (The Little Pastry Chef), was the highlight of the Christie's auction in New York on Wednesday. It was estimated before the sale to be worth $16-22 million.

An Impressionist oil painting depicting a chef in his whites has fetched a tasty $18 million -- the most ever paid at auction for a work by the artist Chaim Soutine. Soutine's "Le Petit Patissier" (The Little Pastry Chef), was the highlight of the Christie's auction in New York on Wednesday. It was estimated before the sale to be worth $16-22 million.

Works by Soutine, Cezanne, Picasso and Modigliani were expected to shine this week at red-hot spring auctions of Impressionist and Modern art in New York. Rivals Christie's and Sotheby's say the market, long recovered from the post-2008 financial crisis slump, is in better than buoyant mood. Last year, Sotheby's Modern and Impressionist auction notched up a record-setting $119.9 million sale of a version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream."