Category: visual

With a current high estimate of $60.9 million, “the work had been scheduled to be sold by the Lloyd Webber Foundation at Christie’s New York in November 2006” but “was withdrawn after a German academic claimed it was forcibly sold to the Nazis in the mid- 1930s.” The dispute was later settled.

“A third of last year’s exhibitors are skipping Art Dubai, including dealerships such as London’s Lisson Gallery and New York’s L&M Arts. With booth rates discounted by 20 percent, there are 72 exhibitors — four more than in 2009. About 40 percent are first-timers.”

The managers of the lengthy, expensive, complicated rehab of Moscow’s landmark theater are looking for artisans skilled in a specialized Russian gilding technique to restore the Bolshoi’s lavish golden décor.

An installation at the Barbican’s Curve gallery features a set of microphoned guitars and cymbals being “played” by a flock of zebra finches who flit about and perch on the instruments.

“In fact, in all the interviews with and biographies of great artists I have read, this is how they talk about art. The truth is that overanalysing art, as opposed to intuitively rating it, carries its own dangers.”

“The museum was less secure than the average 7-Eleven or bank that night, [Ulrich] Boser said. According to a previous Globe investigation, the Gardner was equipped with only one alarm button and two young guards.”

“Assistant US Attorney Brian Kelly, who prosecuted [South Boston gang leader turned fugitive] Bulger and his criminal gang, said that investigators had specifically looked at a possible Bulger link to the crime, including interrogating former Bulger associates Stephen Flemmi and Kevin Weeks, but found no links.”

“In the women’s coffins, the Chinese archaeologists encountered one or more life-size wooden phalluses…. Looking again at the shaping of the 13-foot poles that rise from the prow of each woman’s boat, the archaeologists concluded that the poles were in fact gigantic phallic symbols,” corresponding to “symbolic vulvas” on the men’s.

“Austrian neurologists say analysis of the masterpiece shows her face appears to shift depending where a person focuses their gaze. If her eyes are stared at, it appears she has a subtle smile on her lips. But if the onlooker shifts their gaze to her mouth, then the smile disappears.”

“[B]eginning today Clear Channel Outdoor is running an FBI poster on two of its digital billboards announcing the $5 million reward for the stolen art and urging anyone with information to contact the FBI and go to gardnermuseum.org for more information.”