– "The Abramovic Method" Is Born: Performance art great Marina Abramovic has plans to rule the future of the genre as well as its past. In an interview to promote her upcoming segment on PBS's "Art21," the Yugoslav-born performance artist discusses the lofty vision for her forthcoming performance art museum on the Hudson: The institution will "leave as my concept what I'm going to call the Abramovic method," she said. "In theater there is the Stanislavski method, but now in performance, it's going to be the Abramovic method." Indeed, "The Abramovic Method" is also the title of the artist's latest exhibition, at the Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan (which even has its own Web site), the press release for which may just give a clue about the mysterious new pedagogy: "In the case of performance, I would say that public and performer are not only complementary but almost inseparable," Abramovic says. [HuffPo, Press Release]
– Getty Buys a (Probable) Watteau: Los Angeles's Getty Museum has paid an undisclosed price for a painting that only some believe to be the work of Jean-Antoine Watteau, the 18th-century painter who died at 36. A panel of experts consulted by the Getty voted 7-3 that the painting, "The Italian Comedians" (ca. 1720), was indeed Watteau's work — though others believe it was left unfinished at the time of his death an completed by his student, Jean-Baptiste Pater. [LAT]
– Art Advisor Couple Bequeaths Major Gift: Prominent New York art advisors Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner have decided to donate their collection of over 800 works of contemporary art to the Whitney Museum and the Pompidou Center in Paris. The Whitney will receive 500 works by some 70 American artists, including Christopher Wool and Cady Noland; the Pompidou will get the couple's European collection. An exhibition of the collection is planned for 2015, once the Whitney moves into its new Meatpacking District home. [NYT]
– Warhol's "Double Elvis" Hits the Block: One of 22 "Elvis" silkscreen paintings by Andy Warhol is heading to Sotheby's in May. Nine of the 22 Elvis works Warhol made are already in museum collections. Keep an eye on this one, though: It could go for well above the $30 to $50 million estimate. Another "Elvis" is said to hold the record for Warhol's work, selling for $100 million via a private sale in October 2008. [Bloomberg]
– Art That Requires Zyrtec: Soon Rirkrit Tiravanija's curry won't be the only thing tickling your nose in MoMA's galleries. In early 2013, the museum's atrium will be filled with hazelnut pollen collected over 12 years by German artist Wolfgang Laib. The artist's largest installation to date and the first in a New York museum, this nutty project will transform the second floor space into a 21-foot-long pollen field. Our eyes are watering already. [NYT]
– France's First Mega Mall Will Include Mega Art Gallery: "Europa City," brainchild of the supermarket chain Auchan, is to be built near Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport and will include a gallery comparable in size to the Grand Palais. [Journal des Arts]
– Benghazi Bank Heist: Interpol is monitoring the black market for antiquities from two treasure chests full of coins and jewels, some as much as 2,600 years old, stolen from the underground vault of the National Commercial Bank of Benghazi during last winter's war in Libya. The thieves likely entered through an underground passage from the adjacent building that had served as a base for dictator Muammar Qaddafi's secret police. [Wired]
– A Blockbuster Return: The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin has been ordered to return a collection of 4,259 movie posters that was stolen by the Gestapo in 1938 — and is worth an estimated $6 million — to the Florida-based son of Hans Sachs, a Jewish dentist who fled Germany in 1940. Sachs's collection was once the largest in the world, numbering 12,500 posters, including works by Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec and Ludwig Hohlwein. [Bloomberg]
– Taos Honors its Women: The small community of Taos, New Mexico, has launched a year-long celebration of the many women who fostered and participated in the desert pueblo's vibrant art community, from Georgia O'Keefe and Willa Cather to Helen Martin, who ran an inn that became a destination for American artists. [AJC]
– Arty "TV Graveyard" for UK Digital Switchover: Video artist David Hall has produced a huge installation comprising 1001 analogue TV sets to mark Britain's switch to digital TV. On April 18, day of the switchover, they will all stop transmitting content. "It is an event as art work," said the artist, "the demise of a cultural life-cycle shaped by corporate output, signing off at a time of seismic change." [Telegraph]
– The Chelsea Hotel's Art Is Missing: Residents of the storied Chelsea Hotel are wondering about the whereabouts of the institution's art collection, which was loaded into a truck and removed from the premises by the hotel's new owner . The move is part of an increasingly bitter dispute between the hotel residents and management. Among the missing works is a piece by Larry Rivers. [Villager]
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