LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Record labels say they have
maintained high levels of investment in new music despite
sweeping changes to their business in the digital age and a
decade of falling revenues caused by sliding album sales and
online piracy.

According to a new study from industry body IFPI published
on Monday, record companies invested $4.5 billion in A&R
(artists and repertoire) and marketing in 2011.

LONDON (Reuters) – One of London’s most deprived boroughs decided on Wednesday to sell a Henry Moore sculpture valued at up to 20 million pounds ($32 million) to ease its debts, despite pressure from the art establishment to hold on to the imposing bronze work.

Tower Hamlets says nearly half the children in the area live in poverty, the highest level in the UK, and that the council needs to find 100 million pounds in savings over the next three years to meet government budget targets.

LONDON (Reuters) – An archive of thousands of letters, photographs and recordings once belonging to one of Russia’s greatest film directors will be offered for sale at Sotheby’s in London later this month, the auctioneer said on Wednesday.

The Andrei Tarkovsky collection covers the last 20 years of the film maker’s life and includes the draft of a letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev from the late 1970s urging him to lift a ban on screenings of his 1966 classic “Andrei Rublyev”.

LONDON (Reuters) – Paparazzi favorite Pippa Middleton is already a global celebrity. Now the 29-year-old sister of the future British queen is aiming to become a global brand.

The woman whose appearance at the spectacular 2011 wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William caused as much of a sensation as the bride herself has written a recipe and party planning book which hits the shelves this week.

LONDON (Reuters) – Two Ethiopians who take to the London stage on Monday evening are living proof that dance really can change lives.

Addisu Demissie, 30, and Junaid Jemal Sendi, 28, will perform in “A Holding Space”, a dance collaboration which explores their extraordinary journey from the streets of Addis Ababa to some of the biggest arts venues in Europe.

LONDON (Reuters) – A U.S.-born Italian-Bulgarian curator little known outside the art world has topped ArtReview magazine’s annual Power 100 list, the first female to do so in its 11-year history.

Previously topped by familiar names like artists Damien Hirst and Ai Weiwei and gallery supremo Larry Gagosian, the 2012 title went to Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev best known for curating the marathon Documenta 13 art fair staged in Kassel in Germany.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hilary Mantel, who on Tuesday night became the first woman and first Briton to win the coveted Man Booker prize for fiction twice, vowed on Wednesday to bring her epic trilogy set in the court of King Henry VIII to a satisfactory close.

Her comments could have the bookmakers offering odds on the 60-year-old making it an unprecedented three Booker wins when the final installment, provisionally titled “The Mirror and the Light” hits the shelves, probably in 2015.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hilary Mantel wrote herself into the history books on Tuesday, becoming the first woman and first Briton to win the coveted Man Booker prize for fiction twice with “Bring Up the Bodies”, the sequel to her acclaimed “Wolf Hall”.

Two men had previously “done the double” – J.M. Coetzee who was born in South Africa and Australia’s Peter Carey.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hilary Mantel wrote herself into the history books on Tuesday, becoming the first woman and first Briton to win the coveted Man Booker prize for fiction twice with “Bring Up the Bodies”, the sequel to her acclaimed “Wolf Hall”. India’s Jeet Thayil was also in the running for the prize.

Two men had previously “done the double” – J.M. Coetzee who was born in South Africa and Australia’s Peter Carey.

LONDON, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Hilary Mantel wrote herself into
the history books on Tuesday, becoming the first woman and first
Briton to win the coveted Man Booker prize for fiction twice
with “Bring Up the Bodies”, the sequel to her acclaimed “Wolf
Hall”.

Two men had previously “done the double” – J.M. Coetzee who
was born in South Africa and Australia’s Peter Carey.