– Shaq Targeted by Art Collective: Julian Garcia and Matt Goerzen, members of the Montreal-based digital art collective Boca Gallery, have launched a new online project dubbed "Shaq Attack!" in hopes of catching the attention of former NBA star, collector, and curator Shaquille O'Neal, and then selling him an artwork that they have designed to appeal specifically to his tastes — a "dunk ring" they will manufacture from exotic woods, once they secure their hoped-for commission. By using Google AdSense to buy advertisements for the artwork on sites they suspect O'Neal frequents — like one that reads "Are you Shaquille O'Neal - Want to see your dream artwork? Shaq saves 20%!" — and engaging with him on social media, the pair hopes to hook its dream patron through a process it has dubbed "Artisanale Data Mining." [Gizmodo]
– Auction Sellers May Remain Anonymous: On Tuesday the New York Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that auction houses operating in New York State need not reveal the identities of sellers — reversing an October 2012 decision by a four-judge panel in New York Supreme Court's Appellate Dvision, which ruled that buyers be allowed to know sellers' identities after an auction. Had the earlier decision — which was delivered in a case stemming from a 2008 auction of a 19th-century antique box from czarist Russia — not been reversed, auction companies in New York may have been forced to provide more details about sellers than the standard "private collection." [NYT]
– Aussie National Gallery Shows Stolen Statue: A 900-year-old statue of the Indian deity Shiva that is valued at $5 million and is known to have been stolen from a temple in India in 2006 is currently on public display at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, which acquired it (along with 13 other objects) from New York antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor— who is being held in India for his role in a $100-million antiques-smuggling ring. While the National Gallery of Art has filed suit against Kapoor, and contacted India's high commission in order "to discuss avenues or restitution," according to a statement from the gallery, the stolen work remains on view. [Guardian]
– Smithsonian Acquires Indie Video Games: Following in MoMA's footsteps, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has acquired its first video games, though its acquisitions are very contemporary and indie: Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago's 2009 pastoral "Flower" and Ed Fries' 8-bit shooter "Halo 2600" from 2010. [Press release]
– Italy Helps Alexandria: The Italian government, through direct funding and a debt-swap program, will contribute $8 million to the renovation of Alexandria's Greco-Roman Museum, which closed in 2008 so conservation work on its building, and has been closed ever since. [TAN]
– Norton Simon Won't Share Memling: Pasadena's Norton Simon Museum has developed a reputation for not loaning out works from its collection to other institutions, and it recently even refused to lend one of its prized works — Hans Memling's "Chris Blessing" (1478) — to the nearby Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens for its new exhibition devoted to Renaissance painting in Northern Europe. [LAT]
– James Jenkins, the executive director of Printed Matter, is leaving the New York non-profit — where he has been since 2011 — to be the director of enterprise management for the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which is a part of the Clinton Foundation. [AiA]
– The heirs of Dutch art dealers Nathan and Benjamin Katz are auctioning off Ferdinand Bol's 1642 painting "Portrait of a Man" — which was restituted to them in 2012 — in order to fund their fight for 188 works the dealers sold to the Nazis under duress. [TAN]
– Philadelphia Inquirer co-owner H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest has made good on a promise to donate $27-million to the Philadelphia Museum of Art if other donors could match his gift, thus completing the institution's $54-million capital campaign to endow 29 staff positions. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
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