— Pussy Riot's Jail Sentence Extended, Again: The three jailed members of anti-Vladimir Putin punk rock group Pussy Riot — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich — were handed a six-month extension to their jail sentence Friday. (The group, of course, is a female-centric spinoff of the award-winning anarchist art group Voina.) Each member of the trio, arrested nearly five months ago, faces up to seven years in prison for a performance at a Moscow cathedral where they asked the Virgin Mary to remove Putin. [Reuters]
— Roberta Smith Tells MOCA to Make it Work: After a few weeks of little to no coverage on the mess at L.A. MOCA, the New York Times gives Roberta Smith some column inches in which to assess the museum's shrinking reputation. A solution will only come, she writes, after board members step up to the plate and give enough money to counterbalance Eli Broad's contributions and views: "You can't have a one-person board any more than you can have a one-person museum." [NYT]
— High Line Terminus Gets Moving: The third and final portion of the High Line, an elevated park in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, has been donated to the city. CSX Transportation, which owned the 0.58-mile portion north of West 30th Street, turned the section over on July 11, clearing the way for the city to license it to Friends of the High Line. [NYPost]
— RIP Herbert Vogel, Middle-Class Collector, 89: The art collector Herbert Vogel, who amassed a formidable collection of more than 5,000 pieces despite his modest means, died on Sunday in New York from natural causes. Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery already has 900 works from the Vogel Collection — which was the subject of major exhibitions there in 1994 and 2001 — and has been promised 300 more. "The National Gallery doesn’t sell works they acquire," Vogel said in a 1992 interview, explaining the donation. "They’ll keep the collection together. And they don’t charge admission." [WaPo, AP]
— Joe Paterno Statue Removed from Penn State: Shortly before news broke this morning that Penn State would be fined $60 million and stripped of its winning record from 1998 to 2011, the university decided to remove a statue of legendary coach Joe Paterno from its grounds. University leaders acknowledged that the 7-foot statue had become "a source of division and an obstace to healing" at the school after Paterno's role in covering up assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's serial sexual abuse came to light last month. The school's Paterno Library will retain its name. [Reuters]
— I'll See Your Hirst and Raise You a Hambling: Anish Kapoor, David Hockney, and Damien Hirst were among the 52 artists commissioned to design playing cards that are now on view at London's A&D Gallery. The two limited-edition decks were made in 1979 and 2005. "I like making things available that are affordable but really high-quality art," said Daniel Brant, the exhibition's curator. [Guardian]
— Inside Geneva's Freeport, and its Forthcoming Competitors: The invaluable trove of luxury goods and art being held in the Geneva Freeport warehouses — a tax- and duty-free storage complex that, according to AXA Art Insurance underwriting director Nicholas Brett, is worth "a huge but unknown number" — is attracting the attention of other countries. Luxembourg's new freeport will open in 2014, and one in Beijing just began construction in March, while Singapore is planning to double the size of its two-year-old freeport near Changi Airport. [NYT]
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— Nigeria Demands Artifacts Back from Boston: Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments has requested the return of 32 artifacts recently acquired by Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, mainly bronze and ivory sculptures, which were looted by the British during 1897's Benin Massacre. The pieces were given to the MFA last month by New York collector Robert Owen Lehman, who bought the pieces in the 1950s and '70s. "These artworks are heirlooms of the great people of the Benin Kingdom and Nigeria generally," said Commission director-general Yusuf Abdallah Usman. "The gap created by this senseless exploitation is causing our people, untold anguish, discomfort and disillusionment." [HuffPo]
— William Morris House Reopening as Museum: The Lloyd Park home of Arts & Crafts movement leader William Morris, which was nearly demolished in 2007 after it fell into disrepair, will reopen to the public following a £1.5 million ($2.3 million) grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a £10 million ($15.5 million) refurbishment of its interiors, artifacts, and gardens. The renovated home, which reopens August 2, will include a museum and a gallery for contemporary exhibits, whose new programing will launch with a Grayson Perry tapestry. [Guardian]
— Ronald Reagan Library Teams Up With Disney: In an effort to attract a younger audience, the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California has fully financed an exhibition in its grounds of Walt Disney memorabilia, half of which has never been removed from the entertainment company's archives. A full reproduction of Walt Disney's office now sits down the hall from the recreation of Reagan's Oval Office. [NYT]
— China Launches Art Research Committee: The Communist nation has formed a research committee dedicated to promoting the country's rapidly-growing contemporary art scene. The group, which is overseen by the Ministry of Culture, has 200 artist members. We think it's safe to assume Ai Weiwei wasn't invited. [China.org]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Clip from "Herb & Dorothy," about the art collecting of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel
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