Picture it, 2003: Bennifer (1.0) was in the tabloids, Beyoncé went solo and MySpace kicked off a social media revolution. The U.S. invaded Iraq, human cloning was in the news and Shanghai's Maglev Train became the first high-speed magnetic transit line in the world. A global SARS outbreak presaged an even bigger pandemic that would come 17 years later, and Skype was launched—enabling users to video chat in real time. Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California, Madonna smooched Britney Spears at the VMAs and Love Actually became a new entry to the Christmas movie canon. We said goodbye to Buffy and hello to The O.C. on TV, while cinema-goers saw Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and, at last, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The art market hit the skids in 2003, with average prices for paintings falling substantially, along with sales volumes. The big transaction of the year was Gustav Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee, which fetched €22,633,000 at Sotheby's. And at The Standard, we were still living it up in Hollywood and DTLA.
