art

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Sotheby's Halts Sale of Looted Nigerian Mask

Protests, complaints cause withdrawal of $7M piece

(Newser) - Sotheby's has canceled the planned auction of a 16th-century ivory mask from West Africa after online protesters and the Nigerian government complained that the precious artifact had been looted from the country by British troops, reports the Independent . The mask, believed to have been worn by the king of Benin...

Smithsonian Could Lose Funding Over Jesus Video

Warhol Foundation wants video restored

(Newser) - The Smithsonian Institution could lose some of its funding over the uproar that ensued after the National Portrait Gallery removed a controversial video. The video by David Wojnarowicz, featuring ants crawling on a crucifix, was pulled after complaints by the Catholic League and some House Republicans. The Andy Warhol Foundation,...

Hidden Mona Lisa 'Code' Could Reveal Her True Identity

Real-life Da Vinci Code plays out in Italy

(Newser) - Want to know the true identity of the Mona Lisa? Just look deep into her eyes. Art historians have discovered miniscule numbers and letters painted there, and believe they might give a clue as to who sat for Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old masterpiece. A group in Italy magnified high resolution...

Frenchman to Met: Gimme Back My Cezanne

He claims Bolsheviks stole it from his family in 1918

(Newser) - A Cezanne masterpiece on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art actually belongs to a Frenchman's family, he alleges in a lawsuit. Pierre Konowaloff claims the Bolsheviks looted his grandfather's art collection after the Russian Revolution in 1918, and that "Madame Cezanne in the Conservatory," worth between $50...

Model for Michelangelo's Pieta Found

12-inch sculpture was covered with tape

(Newser) - A US art historian says he’s found the model for Michelangelo's great statue the Pieta at the Vatican, the Daily Telegraph reports. An Italian art collector picked up the 12-inch terracotta model at an antiques shop; before restoration, it was covered in paint and dotted with Scotch tape. But...

Gallery Pulls Jesus Video After Cantor, Boehner Object

Smithsonian-run museum pressured over 'sacrilegious' image

(Newser) - Bowing to pressure from top Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has removed artwork containing a 4-minute video showing ants crawling on a crucifix, CNS News reports. Cantor had demanded the artwork be "pulled," calling it "an outrageous use of taxpayer money...

Warhol Coke Piece Sells for a Fizzy $33M

Work sells beyond Sotheby's estimate, capping $222M sale

(Newser) - Recession? What recession? It's apparently not happening in the world of art auctions, where Andy Warhol's Large Coca-Cola went for a fizzy $33 million to cap a $222 million pop art sale at Sotheby's in New York. The auction also included top-selling works by Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, and Willem...

Prince Sues Over 'Grotesque' Versailles Art

Takashi Murakami says his works highlight palace's fanciful style

(Newser) - Off with their heads! A descendant of King Louis XIV is suing the managers of Versailles for a "vile" modern art exhibit in the hallowed halls of the famous abode of French royalty. Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme has taken the action to jettison Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami's cartoon...

Nazi Records Help Victims Get Stolen Art Back

New database contains details on some 20K pieces

(Newser) - Some 20,000 works of art looted by the Nazis are one step closer to being returned to their rightful owners. Today marks the launch of an online database of art taken in Germany-occupied France and Belgium between 1940 and 1944, allowing survivors, their relatives, art collectors and museums to...

Family Kept Michelangelo Painting Behind the Couch

Buffalo's Kober family called it 'the Mike'

(Newser) - They called the painting “The Mike,” because legend had it that it was an original Michelangelo painting—but the Kober family didn’t really believe it. When their kids knocked it off the wall with a tennis ball, they wrapped it up and stashed it behind the couch,...

Christo Battles Coloradans Over River 'Curtain'

Environmentalists blast outdoor artist as 'eco-terrorist'

(Newser) - What may be "open air artist" Christo's last major masterpiece is the focus of a tense battle with angry Colorado environmentalists. Christo, 75, plans to drape some 42 miles of the Arkansas River beneath a silvery curtain. Foes says the self-indulgent ego exercise by the "eco-terrorist" artist will...

Recovered $50M Van Gogh Actually ... Still Missing

'Poppy Flowers' was taken from museum in Egypt

(Newser) - Despite reports of a quick recovery , a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting is still missing from Egypt's Mahmoud Khalil Museum. The minister of culture said police confiscated the artwork, known as Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers, at an airport in Cairo from an Italian couple just hours after...

Chef Makes Jam Out of Princess Di's Hair

All for the sake of art

(Newser) - Alongside exhibits by Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte at a surrealist art show in London sits jam supposedly made from Princess Diana's hair. The preserves, on sale for $7.60, were made by the owner of a catering company who was asked by the show's organizers to create a food...

'Painter of Light' Busted on DUI Suspicion

Bankrupt Thomas Kinkade impaired but 'very polite': cops

(Newser) - "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade was arrested Friday on suspicion of DUI after being pulled over near his California home. Kinkade is having a rough month, Scripps Howard notes—his company has filed for bankruptcy in the wake of a multimillion-dollar federal fraud claim against him. "Tom is...

Botticelli's Mars Is on Acid

The sartyr next to him has a suspicious plant

(Newser) - There's a reason Mars looks so out of it in Botticelli's classic painting Venus and Mars. A sharp-eyed art historian tells NPR that he's on what's known as "poor man's acid." Check out the sartyr in the bottom right (the one who's sort of sticking his tongue out...

Bob Dylan's No Fake, Joni


 Bob 
 Dylan's 
 No Fake, 
 Joni 
OPINION

Bob Dylan's No Fake, Joni

Every artist steals, remakes others' work: Sean Willentz

(Newser) - Sorry, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan's no more a phony than any other artist, historian Sean Wilentz writes for the Daily Beast . "The idea that Dylan is a faker, unless everything he wrote came out of his own imagination—word for word, note for note—is absurd," Wilentz writes....

140 'Lost' Masterworks to Hit Sotheby's Auction

Paris art dealer's collection hidden since 1939

(Newser) - A stash of 20th-century artworks hidden for generations because of war and legal wrangling is finally seeing the light of day. The 140 artworks, including works by Picasso, Derain, and Renoir, had been placed in a Paris bank vault by influential art dealer Ambroise Vollard's assistant after Vollard's death in...

Lusty Nude Is Booted From MoMA Exhibit

Male was growing problem at Marina Abramovic exhibit

(Newser) - It's not only spectators who are getting frisky at a Museum of Modern Art show featuring live nude models. One male on display in the Manhattan exhibit was so aroused by the experience that he was asked to leave, reports Page Six . The exhibit by artist Marina Abramovic features a...

Artist Aims to Draw Every Person In New York

Jason Polan populates blog with 2-minute sketches

(Newser) - Drawing the millions who populate the Big Apple might seem like quite the task, but artist Jason Polan is up for it. He’s been at it since 2008, and posting each day’s 2-minute sketches on a blog, Every Person in New York . He’s even left his email...

Morrissey Wants Damien Hirst's Head 'Kept in a Bag'
Morrissey Wants Damien Hirst's Head 'Kept in a Bag'
DEAD ANIMALS AREN'T ART

Morrissey Wants Damien Hirst's Head 'Kept in a Bag'

'How many calves in formaldehyde does world need?'

(Newser) - Damien Hirst’s artwork can be inscrutable to some, but count moody Morrissey as an outright hater. “Hirst’s head should be kept in a bag” for his use of dead animals, the singer opines in Interview —where he’s actually the one supposedly asking the questions of...

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