Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s luxury hotel brand is planning to develop a hotel in Russia’s Caucasus region, a report said Friday.

Armani Hotels and Resorts, which opened its first development in Dubai last year, will launch another one in the Stavropol region’s mineral springs resort area, together with other investors, Kommersant daily reported.

Investment in the project, which is to be unveiled at the upscale MIPIM real estate show in Cannes in March, could surpass 150 million dollars, the report said.

Christie’s notched up the biggest sales figures in the art auction industry’s history last year, the firm announced Thursday, with record global sales of $5 billion.

And Chinese collectors continued to increase their prominence in the auction rooms as the number of buyers from China, Taiwan and HK accounted for a fifth of the total.

Sales in 2010 were up 53 percent with the firm selling more than half the world’s works over $50 million, including the most expensive painting ever to sell at auction: Pablo Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust” for $106.5 million.

Following similar moves by fellow fashion brands including Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana, Italian fashion brand Gucci is expanding into cosmetics.

The label has renewed its beauty license with beauty giant Product & Gamble, which to this date only included fragrances such as the latest release, Guilty.

New conditions in the deal foresee that Gucci will shortly branch out into cosmetics and skincare. A launch date and details of the Gucci palette are yet to be disclosed.

A sumptuous painting of the Madonna and child by Renaissance master Titian sold for a record $16,882,500 Thursday in New York.

The Sotheby’s auction easily broke a 20-year-old record of $13.6 million for a Titian.

The painting, “A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria,” depicts the Virgin Mary and the two saints posed around a chubby infant Jesus as he stretches out his left hand.

Hublot has recently unveiled a new version of the La Clef du Temps watch, called “La Clé Du Temps” that is different from any other watch the brand has created before.

The name La Clé Du Temps translates to English as “the key of time”, chosen for this watch due to a special set of functionality.

Upon the owner’s command, time will slow down or speed up as displayed on the watch, ready to revert to the proper time as needed.

Here is a look at the new D&G S/S 2011 campaign with Zuzana Gregorova, Keke Lindgard, Julia Turenkova, Jessica Clarke, Mariana Idzkowska, Tobias Sorensen, Simon Nessman and Alexandre Cunha photographed by Mario Testino.

Shot in a picnic at a park setting, these models are having a time of their lives in fun floral prints, gingham, and denim.