Category: visual

“Only 10 days ago, Sotheby’s reported a loss of $15 million in guarantees — the undisclosed amount that the houses promise to sellers regardless of the outcome of a sale — from recent auctions in Hong Kong and London… Since then auction house officials have been busy trying to get sellers to lower their expectations.”

“After 10 years of detective work, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts has concluded that a $2.8 million painting it has owned for decades was stolen by the Nazis. The museum has returned the 1911 painting, Fernand Leger’s ‘Smoke Over Rooftops,’ to the French heirs of a Jewish art collector who died in 1948.”

Architect David Fisher is designing a tower in which each floor rotates independently, giving the building different profiles throughout the day. Groundbreaking is set for a first version of the skyscraper in Dubai (of course); Fisher is working on a similar structure for Moscow and hopes to build one in Manhattan as well.

“On Wednesday, two artists installed a 1,500-pound ice sculpture carved to spell the word ‘Economy’ in Manhattan’s financial district. The ‘Main Street Meltdown’ will remain in Foley Square until it melts – about 24 hours.”

“A competition to pick a designer for the National Eisenhower Memorial, slated for a site just off the Mall in Washington, D.C., is down to seven finalists, including Frank Gehry and Moshe Safdie.”

“A Frank Gehry-designed museum can rise in Jerusalem on a site that was once a Muslim cemetery, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled today, clearing the way for L.A.’s Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Holy Land counterpart to its Museum of Tolerance on Pico Boulevard.”

Rafael Viñoly Architects has had a difficult time of it in Great Britain, with various high-profile endeavors either delayed or rejected. This month, at last, Viñoly has a completed project: the Curve Theatre in Leicester, a £61 million building with two performance spaces (750 and 350 seats, both reconfigurable) and a striking curved façade of louvred glass. “Quite literally, a coup de théâtre.”

“Berlin has been something of an art mecca in recent years, with artists flocking to the city to make use of cheap space and a vibrant culture while international galleries jostle to establish a presence in the German capital. This week the scene kicks into overdrive with the opening of a new contemporary art gallery, three major retrospectives – and no less than five trade fairs.”

Prospect.1 New Orleans, a new and eclectic art biennial in the Crescent City, opens this weekend. “Billed as the largest exhibition of contemporary art ever held on American soil, the biennial is intended to help restore the cultural vibrancy of a city that remains on its knees three years after Hurricane Katrina. “

Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch returns to display in Florence next month after a decade-long restoration process – and the transformation is every bit as striking as the results of cleaning Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes. (Article includes before-and-after photos.)