More stories from the week that just ended (click on bolded words for more info):

  • David Cerny flips off Czech president with his floating sculpture pointed at Prague castle.
  • RIP: Anthony Caro passes away at the age of 89.
  • David Franklin resigns as director at Cleveland Museum after affair, suicide, and missing cell phone.
  • Mayor Bloomberg grants Metropolitan Museum of Art right to charge mandatory admission of $25 or more.
  • Damien Hirst artworks censored for sensitive audiences in China and Qatar to avoid controversy.
  • Nigel Milsom wins $150,000 Moran portrait prize, even though he is still incarcerated.
  • Romanian art thief Radu Dogaru claims stolen artworks may be fakes and that museum was negligent. His admission of guilt gets him a reduced sentence.
  • Banksy reportedly paid $50,000 for his guard-protected outdoor space in Chelsea. [Banksy poo-poos the allegation]. Booth of fake Banksy work sells out all 40 of its pieces for $60 each. NYPD cops hassle the Ronald McDonald shoe shiner.
  • Deborah Solomon talks about graffiti and street art in NY and thinks that it should be decriminalized.
  • Ellis Island, ravaged by Hurricaine Sandy, is reopening with damaged museum.
  • Botched restoration of Qing dynasty art prompts outrage in China. Two officials have been fired.
  • Christo facing opposition to Colorado Project and claims that the debate is part of the art.
  • Sotheby’s investor Marcato Capital Management wants it to sell its New York and London properties.
  • Charles Saatchi’s Thinking Big sale of sculptures yielded poor results for many artists.
  • Auction houses are increasingly encroaching on business typically performed by galleries.
  • Oberlin College’s art rental program allows students to borrow work by blue-chip artists for $5.
  • Indian archaeologists find artifacts where a Hindu holy man said he had a dream that a hoard of gold was buried.
  • French parliament votes to reduce import tax on art from 7% to 5.5%.
  • Collaboration between Public Catalogue Foundation and BBC Learning brings masterpieces to the classroom.
  • How spending time looking at a painting can teach us about the value of deceleration and immersive attention.
  • The installations at the Turner Prize exhibition, including David Shirgley and Tino Seghal.
  • All about the Marina Abramovic Institute – a culmination of the artist’s life work.
  • MoMA adds early Rauschenberg and Richter pieces to its collection.
  • Fowler Museum at UCLA receives gift of a collection of African art valued at more than $14 million.
  • Guggenheim receives grant of $1.25mil. to study fabricating or remaking works in Panza Collection.
  • 13 arts and culture groups, including Smithsonian, make list of top 400 fundraisers in America.
  • Jim Dine donates several hundred prints and a number of portfolios to British Museum.
  • Art Review’s 2013 list of the Power 100.
  • Alice Walton and James Turrell honored with Archives of American Art Medals.
  • Jerry Saltz provides an impromptu art class at the site of Banksy’s Oct 20 piece. He also gives his take on NY graffiti and street artists.
  • Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s billboards go up in New Jersey.
  • Martin Andersen’s giant mirrors bring light to Rjukan, a dark town in Norway.
  • Interview with Lucien Smith, who talks about his show at Salon 94 and hints at future plans.
  • Profile of Jeff Elrod, who made a come back as an artist.
  • Dana Schutz talks about painting and her views on religion.
  • Kelly Crow writes about Richard Serra’s new Gagosian show.
  • Interview with Shigehisa Kubota, Director of Ise Art Co. Ltd.
  • Ludo puts up some street art work in London.
  • About FriendsWithYou’s Psychic Stones at PK Shop.
  • World’s largest cut diamond, the Pink Star, expected to fetch at least £37mil. at Sotheby’s.
  • Roger Ebert gets life-size bronze sculpture by Rick Harney that will be placed in front of The Virginia Theatre.
  • Every outfit Walter White wore on Breaking Bad, illustrated individually and by season.
  • Niki Feijen photographs of abandoned farm houses and homes.
  • If men posed like the women in motorcycle photo shoots.