Category: visual

Though one might not appreciate Charles Saatchi’s taste in young artists, usually there’s some attitude to sink your teeth into. But the group of Europeans gathered in Saatchi’s new show, are a puzzling lot. What exactly is so “ground-breaking” about them? Indeed, they seem derivative, portentous and dull, writes one critic. – Financial Times

Coloring books drawn by well-known British artists for the children of Kosovo have become a bit hit. – The Telegraph (UK)

Newly released letters and telegrams reveal how Munich art dealer Günther Franke continued to support banned artist Max Beckmann through the Hitler years; how he arranged for Beckmann’s painting to be smuggled from Amsterdam into Nazi Germany, sent payments to the artist and even mounted a secret exhibition. – The Art Newspaper

US bans import of certain Cambodian artifacts. Monuments and sites in Cambodia such as Banteay Chhmar, and Angkor, a World Heritage site, are being damaged and destroyed by the removal of sculpture and architectural elements from ancient Khmer temples for the illicit market, the US Information Agency has found. – The Art Newspaper

Miles Lerman, a businessman who fought against the Nazis in southern Poland during World War II, joined planning committees for the museum in 1978 and has been chairman since 1993, raised nearly $200 million to build the museum just off the National Mall. He directed the transition from proposal to the present full-fledged museum, which has had 14 million visitors in 6½ years. – Washington Post

Preliminary work to take some of the lean out of the tower of Pisa has been completed. – Chicago Tribune (Reuters)

Until recently picture conservation has been a somewhat sensual, hands-on and almost medieval craft. No longer. New scientific methods unlock secrets. “When Rembrandt painted white preparatory ground on his canvases, little did he realise that some 350 years later a scientist would be interested in the tiny fossils it contained.” – Financial Times

The Royal Academy’s fascinating new show looking at what was happening in art at the turn of 1900 recreates the famed Exposition Universelle, that most glamorous of art fairs in Paris. “The idea is to show what was happening in Tokyo and Melbourne, Helsinki and New York at the very moment when Monet was painting Charing Cross Bridge and Picasso was exploring the dives and dance halls of Montmartre.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Sotheby’s will auction off one of 25 original 1776 copies of the US constitution on its website. The document is expected to bring $4-6 million. – Baltimore Sun (AP)

• See the document online and read about this copy. – Sotheby’s

• Charles Saatchi’s at it again, reaching across the Channel for artists for the next big Sensation. – The Times (UK)