Art
In Times Square, Trading Shares of Chinese Art
"You ever heard of Bitcoin?," John Wallace asks, pointing to his companion. "You're looking at it."
Mostafa Heddaya
News
Locals Remain Lukewarm on Guggenheim's Helsinki Grab
An extensive report in the New York Times today dives into the Guggenheim's longstanding bid for a franchise in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, detailing the rocky reception to the project since it was first proposed in 2011.
News
Sotheby's and eBay Join Forces for Online Auctions
Sotheby's auction house has tapped eBay to expand its offerings online, the companies announced in a joint statement today.
News
French Museum Collections in Trouble
A government audit of 1,218 French museums has revealed that some 80% do not know the full contents of their collections, with many collections facing further serious hazards, Libération reported.
In Brief
New Report Values Detroit Institute of Arts Collection at $4.6 Billion
A new valuation of the 66,000-item collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has found it to be worth between $2.8 and $4.6 billion, the Detroit Free Press reported.
News
Why a Russian Nationalist Militia Took Over an Arts Center in Ukraine
An arts nonprofit in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk has found itself, and much of its collection, at the mercy of the Russian nationalist militia of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), an unrecognized self-declared body.
News
Corcoran Group Mounts Legal Challenge to National Gallery Deal
Several concerned parties, including the Save the Corcoran advocacy group, have filed legal briefs seeking to block the Corcoran Gallery of Art's planned integration with the National Gallery, Washington City Paper reported.
In Brief
Lowest Common Denominator: A Kara Walker Selfie Generator
If you enjoy obvious jokes about the way people interact with ubiquitous technological features, you'll love sugarselfie.us, a new website that fights bad taste with worse.
News
Pension Fund Buys Popular Bushwick Studio Building
Long-time landlord Venus Knitting Mills has sold its 90-unit studio building at 117 Grattan Street in Bushwick to an investment firm for $20.8 million, New York real estate website The Real Deal reported.
In Brief
Metropolitan Opera Defaced by Spray-Paint Vandals
The offices of the Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center were spray-painted with obscene messages by vandals overnight, the New York Times reported.
Art
Jeff Koons: The Early Reviews
"There is something nightmarish about Jeff Koons," Peter Schjeldahl began in his 2008 review of the artist's retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago for the New Yorker. This verdict had long arrived — it has always seemed that the critical wagons were circled on the subject of Koo
Opinion
CIA Copies Star Wars for Aborted Osama bin Laden Propaganda Doll
American propaganda has come a long way since genteel writer Peter Mathieesen founded The Paris Review as part of his CIA gig in postwar France. The Washington Post today reported that the intelligence agency tapped Donald Levine, the seasoned former Hasbro executive responsible for G.I. Joe, to cre