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To Flee Mob, Italian Museum Seeks Asylum in Germany

Mafia threats spark plea for museum and staff

(Newser) - The director of a Naples museum is urging Germany to grant asylum to the museum and its staff seeking to flee the mob. Antonio Manfredi says the contemporary art museum has been plagued by vandalism and threats from the local Mafia. The museum has put on exhibitions dealing with social...

Confederate Flag Painting Booted From Georgia Exhibit

Website labels painting by Stanley Bermudez 'despicable'

(Newser) - A Confederate flag painting has been removed from a Georgia college's gallery following a public outcry, Gawker reports. Heritage?, which features the flag decorated with images of a lynching and a Klansman, was displayed at a Gainesville State University campus gallery until the administration called for its removal. University faculty...

Mona Lisa Was Da Vinci's Gay Lover: Expert

Boy apprentice featured in other paintings, erotic sketches

(Newser) - No wonder she has such a mysterious smile: the lady was a scamp. Mona Lisa isn't the portrait of a local merchant's wife, but was inspired instead by a beautiful boy apprentice who later became Leonardo da Vinci's lover, argues an art expert. Silvano Vinceti, the head of an Italian...

Museums Bet Paintings on Super Bowl

Friendly wager made between Milwaukee, Pittsburgh institutions

(Newser) - Two museums are making Super Bowl XLV a little more interesting. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum are betting two comparable French impressionist paintings on the big game. If the Steelers prevail, Milwaukee will give up Gustave Caillebotte's Boating on the Yerres, whereas if the Packers...

Art Historian Identifies Mona Lisa's Home Town

Bobbio, Italy, depicted in background

(Newser) - Bobbio, Italy, should probably brace itself for a wave of tourists. Art historian Carla Glori has identified the tiny northern town as the place depicted in the background of the Mona Lisa, based on a numerical code hidden within the painting. In the past, many assumed the background was plucked...

Damien Hirst's Latest: Bejeweled Baby Skull

At least one parents' group is offended

(Newser) - Has bad-boy British artist Damien Hirst finally gone too far? The head of a parenting group says his latest work, a baby skull covered in platinum and bejeweled with 8,000 diamonds, will be “deeply disturbing” to bereaved parents. The skull used in For Heaven’s Sake is believed...

Sotheby's Halts Sale of Looted Nigerian Mask

Protests, complaints cause withdrawal of $7M piece

(Newser) - Sotheby's has canceled the planned auction of a 16th-century ivory mask from West Africa after online protesters and the Nigerian government complained that the precious artifact had been looted from the country by British troops, reports the Independent . The mask, believed to have been worn by the king of Benin...

Smithsonian Could Lose Funding Over Jesus Video

Warhol Foundation wants video restored

(Newser) - The Smithsonian Institution could lose some of its funding over the uproar that ensued after the National Portrait Gallery removed a controversial video. The video by David Wojnarowicz, featuring ants crawling on a crucifix, was pulled after complaints by the Catholic League and some House Republicans. The Andy Warhol Foundation,...

Hidden Mona Lisa 'Code' Could Reveal Her True Identity

Real-life Da Vinci Code plays out in Italy

(Newser) - Want to know the true identity of the Mona Lisa? Just look deep into her eyes. Art historians have discovered miniscule numbers and letters painted there, and believe they might give a clue as to who sat for Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old masterpiece. A group in Italy magnified high resolution...

Frenchman to Met: Gimme Back My Cezanne

He claims Bolsheviks stole it from his family in 1918

(Newser) - A Cezanne masterpiece on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art actually belongs to a Frenchman's family, he alleges in a lawsuit. Pierre Konowaloff claims the Bolsheviks looted his grandfather's art collection after the Russian Revolution in 1918, and that "Madame Cezanne in the Conservatory," worth between $50...

Model for Michelangelo's Pieta Found

12-inch sculpture was covered with tape

(Newser) - A US art historian says he’s found the model for Michelangelo's great statue the Pieta at the Vatican, the Daily Telegraph reports. An Italian art collector picked up the 12-inch terracotta model at an antiques shop; before restoration, it was covered in paint and dotted with Scotch tape. But...

Gallery Pulls Jesus Video After Cantor, Boehner Object

Smithsonian-run museum pressured over 'sacrilegious' image

(Newser) - Bowing to pressure from top Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has removed artwork containing a 4-minute video showing ants crawling on a crucifix, CNS News reports. Cantor had demanded the artwork be "pulled," calling it "an outrageous use of taxpayer money...

Warhol Coke Piece Sells for a Fizzy $33M

Work sells beyond Sotheby's estimate, capping $222M sale

(Newser) - Recession? What recession? It's apparently not happening in the world of art auctions, where Andy Warhol's Large Coca-Cola went for a fizzy $33 million to cap a $222 million pop art sale at Sotheby's in New York. The auction also included top-selling works by Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, and Willem...

Prince Sues Over 'Grotesque' Versailles Art

Takashi Murakami says his works highlight palace's fanciful style

(Newser) - Off with their heads! A descendant of King Louis XIV is suing the managers of Versailles for a "vile" modern art exhibit in the hallowed halls of the famous abode of French royalty. Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme has taken the action to jettison Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami's cartoon...

Nazi Records Help Victims Get Stolen Art Back

New database contains details on some 20K pieces

(Newser) - Some 20,000 works of art looted by the Nazis are one step closer to being returned to their rightful owners. Today marks the launch of an online database of art taken in Germany-occupied France and Belgium between 1940 and 1944, allowing survivors, their relatives, art collectors and museums to...

Family Kept Michelangelo Painting Behind the Couch

Buffalo's Kober family called it 'the Mike'

(Newser) - They called the painting “The Mike,” because legend had it that it was an original Michelangelo painting—but the Kober family didn’t really believe it. When their kids knocked it off the wall with a tennis ball, they wrapped it up and stashed it behind the couch,...

Christo Battles Coloradans Over River 'Curtain'

Environmentalists blast outdoor artist as 'eco-terrorist'

(Newser) - What may be "open air artist" Christo's last major masterpiece is the focus of a tense battle with angry Colorado environmentalists. Christo, 75, plans to drape some 42 miles of the Arkansas River beneath a silvery curtain. Foes says the self-indulgent ego exercise by the "eco-terrorist" artist will...

Recovered $50M Van Gogh Actually ... Still Missing

'Poppy Flowers' was taken from museum in Egypt

(Newser) - Despite reports of a quick recovery , a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting is still missing from Egypt's Mahmoud Khalil Museum. The minister of culture said police confiscated the artwork, known as Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers, at an airport in Cairo from an Italian couple just hours after...

Chef Makes Jam Out of Princess Di's Hair

All for the sake of art

(Newser) - Alongside exhibits by Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte at a surrealist art show in London sits jam supposedly made from Princess Diana's hair. The preserves, on sale for $7.60, were made by the owner of a catering company who was asked by the show's organizers to create a food...

'Painter of Light' Busted on DUI Suspicion

Bankrupt Thomas Kinkade impaired but 'very polite': cops

(Newser) - "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade was arrested Friday on suspicion of DUI after being pulled over near his California home. Kinkade is having a rough month, Scripps Howard notes—his company has filed for bankruptcy in the wake of a multimillion-dollar federal fraud claim against him. "Tom is...

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