– Mo' Endowment for MOCA: Since turning down LACMA's offer of a takeover and $100-million funding boost, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art has been on a fundraising tear, securing pledges amounting to $60 million towards a goal of raising its endowment to $100 million. (That's a huge boost given that its endowment had dwindled from $38.2 million in 2000 to $5 million in 2008, and was still just $19.86 million in mid-2011.) Eli Broad, who came to MOCA's rescue in 2008, has pledged to match up to $15 million in endowment donations, though observers remain skeptical of how the money will be spent. "We're concerned that no mention is made of funding for the day-to-day operating costs of the museum and the hiring of new staff, including a chief curator," said MOCA Mobilization co-founders Cindy Bernard and Diana Thater. "We hope that further details are forthcoming." [LAT]
– Is Julian Schnabel Staging a Comeback?: The celebrity artist — synonymous with the late-1980s market boom — has new exhibitions at the East Village storefront Oko and the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, as well as an (unconfirmed) fall show at Gagosian Gallery. Still, not everyone is convinced that the man now making plate portraits of Peter Brant's children is an artist for the ages. "That incredibly grand gesture that he makes," said artist Robert Longo, "the best compliment I can offer Julian is I was incredibly jealous when that...shit actually worked." [Gallerist]
– Steve Cohen's Been Selling, Too: Before purchasing Picasso's "Le Reve" from casino mogul Steve Wynn for a whopping $155 million, the hedge fund billionaire had quietly been offering other artworks for sale through private channels, dealers say. Cohen's sell-off was perhaps an effort to raise cash ahead of his blockbuster purchase, which comes less than two weeks after his hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, agreed to pay $616 million to settle accusations of insider trading. [NYT]
– Age of "Isleworth Mona Lisa" Still Uncertain: Despite carbon dating tests by Zurich's Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the dates of the so-called "Isleworth Mona Lisa" — a version of the iconic Leonardo da Vinci portrait whose owners claim it predates the one hanging in the Louvre — remain uncertain. The latest data suggests with 95 percent probability that the canvas on which the Isleworth version was painted dates from between 1410 and 1455, while the Louvre "Mona Lisa" began in 1503. Not surprisingly, the results of the tests have raised questions about why da Vinci, who lived from 1452 to 1519, would have used canvas between 45 and 90 years old to paint this preliminary version of his portrait. [TAN]
– Sotheby's CEO Makes Less in 2012, But Still More Than You: William F. Ruprecht, Sotheby's CEO and chairman, earned $6.3 million in 2012, down 10 percent from a year earlier in the wake of declining auction sales. The still-hefty paycheck includes an automobile allowance, club dues, and personal financial planning fees. Sotheby's profit fell 37 percent in 2012. [Bloomberg]
– Fruitmarket Seeks Sea Water: As part of Tanya Kovats's upcoming exhibition "Oceans" at Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery, the artist is using word of mouth and social media to bring together water from all of the world's seas that will be used in her aptly-named sculpture "All the Seas." The water must arrive at the gallery — in a container or bottle labeled with the name of the sea in question — by December 15. Each donor's name will be included in the work when the exhibition opens in March of next year. [Artdaily]
– Taiwan Taps Trio for Venice: Curator Esther Lu, working with the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, has selected Taiwanese video artist Chia-Wei Hsu, German-Taiwanese mixed-media artist Bernd Behr, and Czech conceptual artist Kateřina Šedá to represent Taiwan at this year's Venice Biennale. "This project resonates with the context of the historical circumstances and current conditions of the Taiwan Pavilion’s participation in the Venice Biennale," Lu said. [e-flux]
– Artist Loses Copyright Case Over Porn Collage: The Danish artist Kristian von Hornsleth — whose current project involves plunging a giant aluminum sculpture containing 5,000 people's DNA to the bottom of the Mariana Trench — is in hot water over another work. Hornsleth used a photo of art journalist Camilla Stockman (who had just written an article critical of his work) and collaged it onto a pornographic image. Now a Danish high court has ordered von Hornsleth to pay the photographer of the porn scene, Lizette Kabré, nearly €5,000 ($6,300) for using her copyrighted work without permission. [TAN]
– InSight Program Offers Blind Museum Tours: Each month, a group of visually impaired art lovers tour the Museum of Modern Art with an expert guide as part of its Art inSight program. The AFP rode along with the group on its recent visit to the exhibition "Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925." Though most of the works included are fragile paintings and drawings, visitors were permitted to touch some sculptures. "You touch what’s being described to you and it becomes total reality," said Barbara Appel, 62. "I'm still seeing. I’m still taking in the arts as I did. There’s wonderful sight in the mind of a person." [AFP]
– Old Masters Get a Temporary Homecoming: This May, over 70 Old Masters paintings will temporarily return to their original home at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, where they were originally brought together by Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Wapole, in the 1720s. The show marks the first time these works — including pieces by Van Dyck and Rembrandt — have been seen in England for 234 years. Campaigners Art Not Oil called the involvement of lead sponsor BP "a great shame." [BBC]
ALSO ON ARTINFO:
Wood Proves Its Mettle in the Museum of Arts and Design's "Against the Grain"
Stockhausen’s Surround-Sound "Oktophonie" Spellbinds at Park Avenue Armory
Soon-to-Launch Online Biennale Includes 180 Artists, Will Charge for Admission
Jerry Saltz Tells MSNBC That George W. Bush Deserves a Solo Show at the Whitney
New Art Fair “Singapore Menasart” to Launch Next Year
6 Artists Who Made It Big After Turning 70
For more art news throughout the day, check ARTINFO's In the Air blog.