French-born painter Balthus, who died in February, rarely gave interviews and maintained that he delighted in being anonymous. His friend of 20 years, the actor Richard Gere, spent a few days at his Swiss home in December last year, where they enjoyed a long discussion, full of twists and turns

London artists Tracey Emin, Gary Hume and Gillian Wearing play bit-parts

Music Television and Madonna sponsor her late lover

A vanished variety of collectors: the priest, the Russian in exile, the actor, the V&A Keeper, the German and Dutch aesthetes—and a millionaire