— Zaha Hadid Sues NYRB for Defamation:Zaha Hadid has filed a suit against the New York Review of Books and its architecture critic, Martin Filler, for accusing her of “showing no concern” about worker deaths in Qatar. The article in question examines Hadid’s comments that architects "have nothing to do with the workers" and the hundreds of deaths that have occured on construction projects in the Gulf state, where her Qatar World Cup stadium is now going up, within a review of Rowan Moore’s “Why We Build.” "Nearly all of those references are used to call our client's success into question or to characterize her personally as difficult," Hadid’s lawyer Oren Warshavsky said in a statement. “It is a personal attack disguised as a book review and has exposed Ms. Hadid to public ridicule and contempt, depriving her of confidence and injuring her good name and reputation.” [The Guardian]
— 5Pointz Demolition Begins: 5Pointz is finally gone. Demolition on the building complex began Friday and, according to a statement by owner David Wolkoff to DNAinfo, will continue for the next three to four months. He also verified that demolition would begin at the back of the building, working its way towardsJackson Avenue. [DNAinfo]
— Missing Brooklyn Bridge Flags Returned to U.S. Embassy in Berlin: The American flags that were removed from the Brooklyn Bridge and replaced with white ones in a controversial July 22 art project by artists Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke have been turned over to the United States embassy in Berlin. Though many suspect the act was politically charged, or even a security threat, the artists told the New York Times’s Michael Kimmelman in an interview it was to honor the 145th anniversary of the death of John Roebling, the bridge’s designer. The NYPD has yet to make a decision about charging the artists with felony burglary. [NYT]
— Swedish Art Gets Six Months: Swedish artist Dan Park has been sentenced to six months in jail for “defamation and inciting hatred against an ethnic group.” [The Guardian]
— Monkey Selfies Can’t be Copyrighted: An official decision by the U.S. Copyright Office has officially declared that it “will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants” meaning that photographer David Slater can’t claim the rights to that monkey selfie. [Slate]
— Is this the Art Market’s Golden Age?:Scott Reyburn investigates “the unstoppable momentum of the globalized art market” and how unstoppable it really is. [NYT]
— A $25.4 million earmark on Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s recent capital facilities bond bill has given Mass MoCA the funding it needs to finish renovations on the museum. [NYT]
— The Iraqi National Museum, which was looted in 2003 during the U.S. occupation of the city, has reopened to inaugurate two renovated halls. [AP]
— After all the merger hooplah, visitors can now go the Corcoran Gallery of Art for free. [WashPo]
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