culture lane

Dunham is sorry for defending writer

Girls creator and star Lena Dunham has said “every woman who comes forward deserves to be heard, fully and completely”, as she apologised for defending a writer on her show who was accused of sexual assault. Dunham had been widely criticised for weighing in on allegations made against Murray Miller by actor Aurora Perrineau, who accused Miller of raping her in 2012 when she was 17. Miller has “categorically and vehemently” denied the claim.

In their initial response to the allegations, Dunham and Girls’ executive producer Jenni Konner released a public statement of support for Miller, which read: “Our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3 per cent of assault cases that are misreported every year... We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue.”

The defence of Murray drew criticism in part because it clashed with Dunham’s public identity, and past statements, as editor of feminist newsletter Lenny Letter. In August, for instance, she tweeted: “Things women do lie about: what they ate for lunch. Things women don’t lie about: Rape.”

Dunham has now apologised for her initial defence of Miller, writing on Twitter: “As feminists, we live and die by our politics, and believing women is the first choice we make every single day when we wake up.”

Da Vinci painting sells for $450m

Salvator Mundi, the long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ commissioned by King Louis XII of France more than 500 years ago, has sold at Christie’s in New York for $450.3m, including auction house premium, shattering the world record for any work of art sold at auction.

The sale generated a sustained 20 minutes of tense telephone bidding as the auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen juggled rival suitors before a packed crowd of excited onlookers in the salesroom. At one point, Pylkkänen remarked: “Historic moment, we’ll wait” as the the bidding went back and forth, pausing at just over $200m as it rose to break the auction record.

At one point, a telephone bidder jumped in, pushing the price from $332m to $350m. The bidding then resumed: $353m, $355m. A jump to $370. A jump to $400m. “Thank you all for your bidding,” said Pylkkänen. “Four hundred million selling here at Christie’s. The piece is sold.” The saleroom erupted in cheers and applause. The auction house would not reveal the identity of the buyer or even the region from which they came.

Christie’s CEO, Guillaume Cerutti, said he did not know whether the buyer would reveal themselves. “I cannot say if he or she will want to be public.” At the height of the auction, as many of six bidders were in play. The abrupt $20m and $30m jumps in price were indeed unusual, Cerutti said.

Drake threatens fan for groping girls

Drake stopped a performance in Sydney on Wednesday to tell an audience member to stop groping women in the crowd. A fan-filmed video shows the Canadian rapper, who was playing at Sydney’s Marquee nightclub, halt the gig before addressing a member of the audience, saying: “If you don’t stop touching girls I’m going to come out there and f**k you up. If you don’t stop putting your hands on girls I’m going to come out there and f**k your a** up.”

Drake was in the middle of performing Know Yourself, a track from his 2015 mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The rapper is currently on his Boy Meets World tour, and played a full show at Qudos Bank Arena the same evening. He will continue on to Melbourne next week, where the tour concludes.

Drake is the latest musician to call out sexual assault at gigs. Last month, UK rapper Loyle Carner told an audience member to leave his Norwich show for making a sexist comment. In August, Sam Carter, the lead singer of Brighton metalcore band Architects, berated an audience member for groping a woman at a festival in the Netherlands.