Pablo Picasso‘s largest-ever painting, a 10.4 metre-by-11.7 metre cloth used in a performance of the Ballets Russes in 1924, went on exhibition for the first time in London on Thursday.

The canvas, designed and signed by Picasso but finished by seven other artists, was used in a performance of the one-act ballet “Le train bleu” (The Blue Train) by Bronislava Nijinska.

The piece, which is to be a star exhibition in a show at the V&A Museum dedicated to the Russian ballet company, was bought by the museum in 1968 but never previously exhibited.

Artwork from the European branches of the collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers will go under the hammer in London next month in a two-million-pound auction, administrators said Sunday.

Works by Lucian Freud and Gary Hume will figure at the sale at Christie’s auction house on September 29, which comes two years after the bank’s demise.

“We think that there are many people around the world who would like to acquire some art with a Lehman connection,” said administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The devil may well wear Prada, but at a biennial exhibition of sacred art in Italy, a statue of the Virgin Mary is donning Louis Vuitton.

The veil traditionally covering the Virgin’s head bears the French luxury brand’s trademark “LV” logo in golden letters.

Francesco De Molfetta, 31, said he created the work to “denounce a society based on the cult of appearance through the use of a brand that represents the search for ephemeral happiness.”

A view over Rome painted by artist JMW Turner was sold for 29.7 million pounds in London, setting a new record at auction for the British master.

“Modern Rome — Campo Vaccino” was bought Wednesday for the equivalent of 44.9 million dollars at Sotheby’s by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The previous auction record for a Turner work was 20.5 million pounds, which was set by “Giudecca, La Donne della Salute and San Giorgio” in April 2006.

The statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro was reinaugurated Wednesday after a renovation costing four million dollars.

The renovation of the statue was financed by Brazilian mining giant Vale and the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Rio.

The Christ the Redeemer statue, which has towered over the city for nearly 80 years, is located at the peak of the Corcovado mountain overlooking the city.

Lacoste invited Chinese porcelain artist Li Xiaofeng to create two different polos for their Holiday 2010 Collector’s Series.

Li is a muralist-turned-sculptor who uses shards of broken porcelain recovered from ancient archeological digs to create armor-esque clothing sculptures.

Described as “Post-Orientalism,” the artist’s collaged artifacts often take the form of traditional Chinese dresses, jackets, neckties, and now, a Lacoste Polo.

The printed polo is created from photographs of blue and white porcelain shards with lotus and children designs from the Kangxi Period of the Qing Dynasty.