Loot and pillaging: As a Klimt painting looted by the Nazis fetches a record-breaking $135 million at auction, the Getty reveals that 350 artifacts–including 35 pieces from its 104-piece catalogue of “masterpieces”–may have been illegally excavated and exported from Italy.
Ruscha mural non-update: The U.S. Department of Labor, which owns the Job Corps building where artist Kent Twitchell’s recently destroyed Ed Ruscha mural, released a not-very-informative statement on what happened to the artwork. “The L.A. Job Corps Center’s first concern is the safety of Job Corps students and staff. For that reason, they made the decision to repair a potential safety hazard posed by the condition of the building faade. We are in the process of assessing how the repair was handled in light of these concerns.”
Minneapolis’ design boom: Citing our new cultural building projects–Jean Nouvel’s Guthrie Theater, Cesar Pelli’s Central Library, Herzog & de Meuron’s Walker, Michael Graves MIA expansion–Newsweek dubs Minneapolis “a design boomtown.”
Haikus for a newly neutered dog: A collaborative writing project by readers of Ze Frank’s site. {Read about Ze’s presentation at PUSH last week, about his Wikicomedy in the Sunday Times; and perspectives on PUSH by Sam Perry, a Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford.}