More stories from the weekend ended April 21:

  • Ugo Rondinone’s giant human-shaped stone sculptures go up at Rockefeller Center.
  • Helly Nahmad gallery raided and family charged with international gambling and money-laundering operation.
  • Spanish court sends Chinese businessman, art dealer & fraud/money laundering suspect Gao Ping back to jail.
  • Ai Weiwei + Serge Spitzer collaborative sculpture damaged when elderly woman tripped and fell into the work.
  • €1million stolen gold egg recovered near French-Swiss border during a routine police roadblock.
  • Student who killed chicken as part of a performance piece may face charges.
  • North Korean ambassador to China uses occasion of art exhibition in Bejing to attack the United States.
  • South Street Seaport Museum will continue being open another three months, but long-term outlook dire.
  • Lynn Orr sues San Francisco’s Fine Art Museums, saying her firing was unjust.
  • Despite protests and petitions, Istanbul University’s art collection auctioned for less than it cost to acquire.
  • Plans for Anthony McCall’s Column abandoned after 15 months of failed attempts to make it materialize.
  • Obama’s budget proposal for coming fiscal year would boost federal arts spending 10% over current number.
  • MOCA says it has hit $75-million mark for endowment and names donors.
  • Tate Modern has 80% of what it needs for funding of new expansion after The Wolfson Foundation’s £5mil gift.
  • National Gallery of Art acquires artwork by Artschwager, Haacke, Dijkstra & Ruscha for its collection.
  • The Museum of Modern Art has acquired several major works by Lynda Benglis for its collection.
  • Smithsonian and National Archives adjusting summer hours because of budget cuts due to sequestration.
  • No censorship – curator of the Abu Dhabi branch of the Louvre says no artistic subjects are off limits.
  • Egon Schiele: The Beginning, first study to focus on the early works of the artist, to be released this month.
  • More of an emphasis on art put into this year’s Coachella.
  • Connie Butler, curator at MoMA, has been named a co-curator of the 2014 Hammer Made in LA biennial.
  • Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead will be shown to public at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit on May 11.
  • Urs Fischer works with 1,000 volunteers on giant collaborative clay project with locals for his MOCA show.
  • ICA’s Barry McGee exhibition tour video.
  • Never-before-seen David LaChapelle photo of Angelina Jolie with horse goes up for auction at Christie’s.
  • LACMA spends $3mil. on new acquisitions for the museum, including $1mil. African Gwan sculpture.
  • Mei Moses’ 2012 sale-pairs generated an average compound annual return of 6.7% versus 6.8% for S&P 500.
  • Miniature artworks being sold from vending machines in Leeds for £1 in attempt to make art more accessible.
  • Bumblebee, Shepard Fairey, and Banksy artwork part of Herb & Dorothy of Omaha’s collection.
  • John Baldessari’s art project using a human cadaver could still happen one day.
  • Sneak peak of David Choe and Esteban Oriol on Anthony Bourdain’s new show Parts Unknown.
  • Hsin-Chuen Lin’s instructional YouTube videos gain popularity and has a growing following.
  • Washington Post’s art and architecture writer Philip Kennicott wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism.
  • Prince Charles’s watercolors receive poor reviews.
  • Bette Midler, as well as Madonna and Sister Wendy Beckett auction artwork to help benefit worthy causes.
  • Interview with Leonardo DiCaprio about his interest in art and his upcoming fundraising auction.
  • How to bake a Mondrian cake.