Lorne St doesn't really come alive until after midday. There are some coffee joints and a nail bar or two, and an art gallery.

Billionaires from around the world competing for masterpieces propelled Christie's to its biggest ever auction selling $745m worth of art

Until now, the two NZ festivals have co-existed - Auckland on the odd years, Wellington the even. But from 2016, Auckland goes annual for the first time, writes Brian Rudman.

Artworks by Stephanie Key, daughter of the PM, have been criticised as being culturally inappropriate, but he says he is happy to let her "pursue her dream'.

"Kiwi philanthropist to get honorary doctorate." Was it Sir Stephen Tindall or Sir Owen Glenn? Or the arts' very own Sir James Wallace? No, all wrong, writes Janet McAllister.

Dionne Christian previews May's big fat helping of music for Auckland's children.

NZ's art history is strewn with images of the indigenous barbaric, which were frequently used to accentuate the counterpoint to the civilised European, writes Paul Moon.

A group of imaginative artists has shown magic can be made from a few simple lines in the sand.

Almost 600 children were at The Civic in Auckland to vie for the roles of the von Trapp kids in the Lloyd Webber production.

The rugged, scrub-covered hills are unmistakably those of Gallipoli's Anzac Cove. But who depicted them in an extremely rare, nearly century-old painting is a tantalising mystery that an Auckland art gallery director is battling to solve.

The life and work of William Shakespeare will be celebrated in a series of events taking place in 110 countries next year on the 400th anniversary of the writer's death.

"Memorials became increasingly ignored and forgotten objects, presences in the landscapes that were taken for granted and just passed by. It is this period of slow loss of community consciousness that Aberhart's photographs capture so superbly." - Jock Phillips, Anzac: Photographs by Laurence Aberhart

Karlheinz Company's Composing Now concert opened dramatically.