Category: visual

“Italian police recovered the paintings during a raid of a Naples country house belonging to Raffaele Imperiale, a 41-year-old businessman linked to the Amato-Pagano clan, one of Italy’s notorious mafia groups. According to Reuters, police were first tipped off to the location of the paintings after arresting 11 of the group’s suspected members. Imperiale, however, remains at large and is believed to be hiding in the United Arab Emirates.”

“The volume is so vast that it comes with its own adjustable bookstand and is as heavy as an armchair.”

“I like to start with a premise. The one that sells best is Sleazy Slice #5, with the comic ‘Big Girls, Big Battle.’ It’s basically giant naked girls battling each other in Vancouver. You just show the panel of one of them holding the Skytrain like it’s nun-chucks and people say, ‘OK here’s my money please.'”

“The crates had been delivered early that morning from Ukraine, where they were discovered in the hands of an ultranationalist militia group last year.”

“The sprawling scale of the event, centered on a five-day fair here, in Regent’s Park, that opens to the public Wednesday, reflects how dramatically London, and its commercial relationship with art, has changed.”

“Scaffolding will cover the Taj Mahal’s main dome next year while a ‘mud pack’ is applied to its yellowing marble, authorities said Thursday as they battle the effects of smog on the country’s top tourist attraction. The famed monument to love, which attracts millions of visitors, has for years been acquiring a yellow tinge despite a ban on coal-powered industries in the area.”

“Amid an ongoing controversy surrounding the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis’s Kelley Walker show, which includes works that some have alleged are racist and offensive, a staff member was verbally, and nearly physically, attacked Monday morning.”

“Another photography exhibition in Moscow was raided by protesters dressed as Cossacks, others in camouflage and a municipal legislator – the third such attack in the Russian capital this week. The back-to-back attacks centred on images of Ukrainian soldiers who fought against pro-Russian rebels that are part of a photojournalism show at the Sakharov Center.”

“Experts now believe that there have been a recent spate of forgeries on the market, and that unwitting collectors may have spent up to £200 million ($255 million) on fakes masquerading as the work of Frans Hals, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Orazio Gentileschi, and other artists.”