Stories of the week:

  • Cecilia Gimenez restores Elías García Martínez fresco and produces hilariously tragic results.
  • Jonathan Jones wonders what would happen if she continued her career in restoration. Here are some ideas.
  • Fans have launched a petition to save the new work, which is known as world’s worst restoration.
  • RIP Martine Franck.  She passed away at age 74 and was married to Henri Cartier-Bresson.
  • Russian art dealer accuses one of the country’s major art galleries, the Russian Museum, of forgery.
  • Federal prosecutors accuse Sotheby’s of knowingly offering sculpture that was stolen and seek repatriation.
  • Thieves steal $300K worth of Thomas Kinkade paintings and prints in Fresno, California.
  • A Rembrandt etching from 1658 gets lost in the mail.
  • Return of lost Matisse painting revives questioning of unaccounted major works at Caracas museum.
  • Artists fighting eviction orders stemming from regeneration of Rio before World Cup and Olympic Games.
  • Charles Saatchi has yet to find a home to donate his art collection, two years after promising it to Britain.
  • Bravo cancels Work of Art, but the show’s producers are shopping it to other networks.
  • Galleries in the Lower East Side of NYC now expanding to Ludlow Street.
  • High school interns help with conservation at Watts Towers and share their thoughts on the experience.
  • El-Seed has painted Tunisia’s largest ever mural, on the country’s tallest minaret, at the Jara Mosque.
  • Cork Street art galleries in London are being driven out due to luxury apartment deal.
  • Therbia Parker Sr. wants his nearly 100 artifacts donated to the U.S. National Slavery Museum returned to him.
  • Liquid Rarity Exchange is the latest art fund for small time investors looking to put money in the art market.
  • Why you should have 10% of your art portfolio in stable Old Masters paintings.
  • GalleristNY recommends 41 New York Art Types to Follow on Twitter.
  • Huffington Post Arts and Culture has the top ten art galleries in strange places.
  • Popularity of nail art now expanding to feature imagery by artists such as KAWS, Mondrian, and Haring.
  • John Powers’s interesting story on what it’s like being Jeff Koons’s studio assistant.
  • Pip Cummings interviews Peter Schjeldahl.
  • Thomas Kinkade’s girlfriend allegedly holding hostage the artist’s Monte Sereno mansion in San Jose, CA.
  • Victorian Walk Gallery exhibits the last paintings ever made by Thomas Kinkade.
  • Zhang Xiaogang gets profiled and quoted in The Korea Herald.
  • Cyrcle.’s Davey Detail unafraid to demonstrate public displays of affection at Gelson’s.
  • Tom Sachs, Dustin Yellin and others compete in Creative Time’s Artist Sand Castle Contest.
  • Jonathon Keats to clone Barack Obama and Lady Gaga using yeast.
  • Frank Gehry designs expansion for Facebook’s offices.
  • Robert Wilson creates Walking – an installation that involves a three hour tour – in collaboration with others.
  • Patti Smith to present a solo exhibition of work at the Art Gallery of Ontario in February of 2013.
  • Pussy Riot gets a pop-up exhibition and fundraiser in NYC.
  • YesYesNo to turn Hadrian’s Wall into what organizers claim will be world’s longest artwork, spanning 73 miles.
  • 1301PE releases 39″x32″ 5-color screen print by John Baldessari. Limited to 50, it currently retails for $4,000.
  • Artists for Obama print portfolio – featuring 19 artists in an edition of 150 – available for $28,000 donation.
  • The lego bird man – artist Tom Poulsom.
  • Frank Gonzales painting installed at the Ampsersand Hotel in London.
  • Daniel Danger is working on a new letterpress edition.
  • Sarah Joncas working on some new paintings.
  • French street artist Invader working on getting up in space.
  • Hypebeast visits the studio of Madsteez.
  • A look at the Miss Van exhibition in Los Angeles.