– Bay Psalm Breaks Book Record: The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in America, is now the most expensive book ever sold with a $14.2 million price tag achieved at Sotheby’s. The Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony printed the tiny book in 1640 in a run of about 17,000. Boston's Old South Church, which had 2 of the 11 existing copies, sold one to financier David Rubenstein, who plans to loan the book to libraries across the U.S. [BBC]
– Olympic Art Thieves Get Gold — in Jail Time: A court in Greece sentence seven men for stealing almost 80 archaeological objects from a museum in Olympia devoted to the Olympic Games in an armed robbery in February 2012. The robbery's three ring-leaders each received seven-year sentences, while two Greek accomplices were handed six-year sentences, and two Bulgarian men copped shorter sentences. [AFP]
– Constable Pried Off Another Constable: Conservators at the Victoria & Albert Museum have discovered a previously unknown oil painting by John Constable glued to the back of another Constable painting — "Branch Hill Pond: Hampstead" — while preparing for the museum's fall 2014 retrospective of the celebrated British artist's work. A ghost painting had shown up during an x-ray of the painting, but conservators figured the typically thrifty artist had simply painted over an earlier work. "It was very exciting," conservator Nicola Costaras said. "We obviously knew that no one had seen it since… well, certainly since it came in to the collection. It was very lucky that the paint wasn't more damaged given it had been ironed on to a layer of glue." [Guardian]
– Saatchi Cries Drug Habit: The mud-slinging continues as Charles Saatchi accuses Nigella Lawson of a daily cocaine habit in London court. [National Post]
– Art Recovery Rate Low: The rate of recovery of stolen art is as low as 1.5 percent internationally as police forces give low priority to recovering pilfered works. [TAN]
– Oman Funds Smithsonian: The Omani Sultanate has donated $1.8 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art for the institution to study Oman. [WP]
– Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts has settled a long-running dispute with former director Peter Noever. [TAN]
– Sicily has banned loans of 23 of its most famous artworks — including a Caravaggio and a number of ancient Greek sculptures — out of fear that they are too often out on loan. [NYT]
– Pace Gallery now represents the estates of Kenneth Noland and Richard Pousette-Dart, and will be showing both artists' work in their booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach next week. [Press release]
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Kunsthal Rotterdam Heist Ringleaders Sentenced to More Than 6 Years
VIDEO: 9th Vienna Art Week Shoots a Mozartkugel at City’s Stuffy Image
VIDEO: Luxembourg & Dayan Welcome César Back to the U.S.
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