“The arrests were a major breakthrough for French investigators, who are racing to find the thieves before the jewelry is dismantled and the rare stones and metals can be sold or melted down, as many experts fear they will be.” - The New York Times
It was amazing at first. But “Mu says he doesn’t have any immediate plans to make another Sora imitation, partially because the video quality has gotten so good that it’s now almost impossible to create parodies.” - Wired
Joanna Koerten was regularly visited by nobles and even royalty; a contemporary poet compared her skill with paper to Michelangelo’s with paint; one of her pieces sold for over twice what Rembrandt got for The Night Watch. Her work is now on view at D.C.'s National Museum of Women in the Arts. - Artnet
Sotheby’s said the items to be sold are estimated to draw bids in excess of $50 million. Any extra proceeds not needed to retire the debt and any unsold artworks will be returned to Okada Fine Arts, which is controlled by Okada. - The New York Times
“When you’re in a hurry, the Böcker Agilo carries your heavy treasures,” the ad boasted under a photo of the lift parked outside the Louvre. - The New York Times
There are subtle differences between the images of authoritarians and elected leaders, in body language and other details. Is the leader acting as a quality-control agent, asking questions, studying details? Or surveying his domain in miniature? Is he simply toying with the world? - Washington Post
In the case of $1.7 worth of gold nuggets stolen from the mineralogy gallery at Paris’s Natural History Museum on Sept. 16, a 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested on September 30 while trying to dispose of almost a kilogram of melted-down gold in Barcelona. - AFP (Yahoo!)
“Everybody in the business is talking about this right now,” said Robert Wittman, a former art-crime investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who runs his own art-recovery practice. By everybody, he means both jewelry thieves and the private investigating firms who make a living hunting them down. - The Wall Street Journal
There are actually some good, and even practical, reasons not to insure the Louvre or its contents. By law, in fact, such items are insured only when they travel. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
“(One expert) said that high-visibility safety jackets had become such a ubiquitous symbol of authority — like a clipboard or a reporter’s microphone — that they were like ‘a cloak of invisibility.’” (Not to mention that the screaming yellow or orange fabric distracts the eye from the wearer’s face.) - The New York Times
“Outside, the headlines about Britain are all gloom and doom. Yet Frieze is more energetic than it has been for several years,” said Lars Nittve, the head of the investment committee at Arte Collectum, a $60-million Swedish-based art fund, browsing the fair for potential purchases. - The New York Times
The speed with which the president is moving ahead with building the ballroom, which is expected to cost more than $200 million and to be privately funded, caught the architecture profession by surprise. - The New York Times
“The museum’s president and director, Laurence des Cars, is expected to respond to questions from the senate’s culture committee on Wednesday afternoon, three days after the seven-minute robbery that targeted France’s crown jewels” — whose value is estimated by the museum’s curator at €88 million ($102 million). - The Guardian
“The private, for-profit (Academy of Art University) has had a longstanding presence in the city's core with dozens of buildings ranging from housing to academic uses. ... It has expanded rapidly in recent decades, at times drawing criticism for its aggressive growth and zoning disputes with city planners.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
