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13 Gorgeous Works Of Art Made From Google Maps Images

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Jenny Odell satellite collections tourist

Can photographs taken by satellites be considered art?

They can in the capable hands of Jenny Odell, a San Francisco-based artist who collects Google Maps images of inanimate structures and arranges them on blank backgrounds.

At first glance, Odell's Satellite Collections merely appear to be snapshots of similar objects placed together.

But looking more critically, what she creates is undeniably human. She chooses man-made objects that are indicative of our presence on the planet — from pools to power plants — and arranges them as though they were specimens and she was an "alien anthropologist" sent down to catalogue our existence.

She has been working on the project since 2009, inspired after collecting images of empty San Jose parking lots and seeing how different each one was, she told The Atlantic in an interview.

Since then, Odell has made 18 different compositions, often composing more than one collage at once as she peruses Google Maps searching for satellite images that intrigue her.

Her work will go on exhibit tomorrow at SOMArts's Electronic Pacific show in San Francisco. You can see more of Odell's Satellite Collections over at her website, or visit her Satellite Tourist Tumblr to check out bizarre Google Maps images she has come across in her "travels."

Landmarks from around the world

Click here for the key



Chlorine swimming pools



Water slide configurations



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Thai University Apologizes For Including Hitler On 'Superheros' Mural

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Thai Hitler billboard

Thailand's premier university has apologized for displaying a billboard that showed Adolf Hitler alongside Superman and other superheroes, saying it was painted by ignorant students who didn't realize Hitler's image would offend anyone.

The huge billboard was placed outside the art faculty of Chulalongkorn University as part of a tribute to this year's graduating class.

It said "Congratulations" in bold white letters and showed Hitler with his arm raised in a Nazi salute next to Batman, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.

"[We] would like to formally express our sincere apology for our students' 'Superhero' mural," art school dean Suppakorn Disatapundhu said in a statement issued on Monday. "I can assure you we are taking this matter very seriously."

The billboard was up for two days before being removed on Saturday in response to criticism. Online photographs showed graduating students in their robes, mimicking Hitler's raised arm salute.

Dr Suppakorn said that freshman art students had painted the banner as part of a traditional send-off from incoming students to the graduating class, and it was one of dozens of banners and billboards across the campus during the university's commencement period.

The artistic vision behind the picture was to show that good and bad people coexist in the world, Dr Suppakorn said after summoning the students for an explanation.

"They told me the concept was to paint a picture of superheroes who protect the world," the dean said in a telephone interview.

"Hitler was supposed to serve as a conceptual paradox to the superheroes," he said, noting that the superheroes were painted in vivid colors, while Hitler's image was in grey scale. "This kind of thoughtless display will not happen again."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights group, had criticized the banner prior to its removal.

"Hitler as a superhero? Is he an appropriate role model for Thailand's younger generation – a genocidal hate monger who mass murdered Jews and Gypsies and who considered people of color as racially inferior," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the centre, said in a statement on Friday. "The Simon Wiesenthal Center is outraged and disgusted by this public display at Thailand's leading school of higher education."

The study of history in the Thai school system revolves primarily around the history of Thailand and its long line of kings. World history is glossed over, with little or no mention of the Holocaust.

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Sorry, But The MoMA 'Rain Room' Exhibit Is Not Worth The Wait

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MoMA rain room installation

A couple of weekends ago, I decided to see what the fuss was about and go to the "Rain Room" at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

The exhibit, in which visitors can walk through falling water without getting wet, is supposed to give visitors the feeling of "controlling the rain." It's received a huge amount of hype this summer, with lines running three and four hours (and longer) to get in.

I'm a museum member, so I thought I would be able to take advantage of extended member hours, which start before the museum opens to the public. I arrived at the entrance to the Rain Room, which is in a separate building from the actual museum, at 9:00 a.m., 30 minutes before the member hours started.

What I found was a line around the block, made up entirely of MoMA members.  

Having already gotten out of bed early on a Sunday, I decided to stick it out. I ended up waiting for more than three hours in the increasingly hot summer sun. I was told that this was on the low end of the wait: Some said they had stood outside for five hours or more. MoMA staff members were nice enough to distribute umbrellas for the sun, and also had water and soda for sale by the line.

By the time I actually got inside the building, I was tired, hot, and looking forward to walking around the cool Rain Room. However, once I got inside the building, there was still more line! There were another 30 or 40 people in front of me, but at least at that point I could see the actual Rain Room. Seeing the exhibit was a double-edged sword, though, because I still had to wait to enter, knowing that each person in there (and everyone in front of you) had to get in and then leave.

When I was next in line, I was informed by a staff member that I had to be careful about how quickly I walked, because if I went too fast the sensors would not be able to pick me up, and I would get rained on. I was also advised that the "recommended" time in the room was ten minutes, though you are allowed to stay as long as you would like.  

The exhibit space is probably about 40 square feet, and as soon as I walked in, I got wet. After slowing down to the appropriate pace, which was about that of a leisurely walk, I was able to experience the sensation of walking around in the rain without getting wet. It was an interesting sensation, and a cool concept, but I don't think I'd wait more than 30 minutes for the experience.  

The area of rain was so small that even with only ten people allowed in at a time, it was never really raining enough to get the magical feeling of standing dry in a storm. It seemed like half of the system was off at any given moment, because each person created a three-foot ring of dryness around them.  

I left after less than 10 minutes.There's only so much one can do in a room while trying not to get wet, and I felt terrible for the other people still outside in line. I couldn't warn them, though, because the exit sent me a block away from the line.

If the actual area of rain were about twice the size, and the sensors were more attuned to the normal pace of human movement, the exhibit would have been a lot more interesting, and I might not have minded waiting for the experience (although it still would not have been worth a three-hour wait).

With the lines the way they are now, you are better off going for a walk with an umbrella next time it rains.

Editor's note: In response to high demand, the museum recently instituted a "viewing only" line. The exhibit runs through July 28; additional information is available on MoMA's website.

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What It Would Look Like If You Dropped Manhattan Into The Grand Canyon

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largest1

When Swiss photographer Gus Petro took a trip to the United States last year, he was struck by the juxtaposition of "emptiness and density."

Petro is used to seeing plains and mountains (staples of Switzerland's landscape), but massive skyscrapers in the same country? "One is so full and the other so empty," he says. "One goes up, the other down."

Petro came up with a clever way to highlight this phenomenon during his visit to the Grand Canyon, one week after seeing New York City.

The "contrast between the two was so strong and overwhelming that I had to express it somehow," he says.

So he created a photo project he calls Merge. To make it, Petro took the photographs he had of the two sites, matched their perspective points and lens angles, then put them through a process he calls "Photoshop magic." And he's been surprised by the reaction.

"After showing the images, most of the people who haven't been in either place thought it was real," he says. "They began questioning me where it is. I didn't expect that for sure."

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All images courtesy Gus Petro.

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More From The Atlantic Cities:
Gorgeous, Surreal Photos of Mount Fuji Show Why It Deserves UNESCO's Respect
A Glimpse of Nature, Via Downtown Billboards
This Is Not a Watermark: Meet French Street Artist Mathieu Tremblin

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The 15 Greatest Masterpieces At The Louvre

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Louvre Museum, Paris

Paris's Musée du Louvre is consistently the world's most visited museum—and for good reason.

The grand art museum houses 35,000 masterpieces, from prehistory to contemporary works. But with over 600,000 square feet of exhibition space, navigating the enormous museum can be overwhelming if you don't know what to look out for.

Christine Kuan, the chief curator at Artsy, selected 15 must-see works of art at the Louvre. 

"The world-famous Musée du Louvre houses thousands of priceless masterpieces," Kuan said. "Every year more than 8 million people flock here to enjoy its magnificent treasures. It is one of the reasons Paris is the international arbiter of taste and culture."

Kuan also provided commentary on the works of art and told us why they're not to be missed.

"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1506). "The most famous painting in the world, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (aka La Gioconda or La Joconde) with her mysterious smile and cutting-edge illusionism for the early 1500s. This masterpiece has been on display at the Louvre since 1797. Millions make the pilgrimage to Paris to see the real thing each year."



"Nike of Samothrace" (c. 190 BC)."The Nike of Samothrace (or Winged Victory) depicts the Greek goddess of Victory as if soaring to new heights. Astounding in its expressive quality, it is considered a Hellenistic tour de force. Certainly would inspire anyone to want to win!"



"Raft of the Medusa" by Théodore Géricault (1818-1819). "Based on a true tabloid-like tragedy of shipwreck and cannibalism, Théodore Géricault painted this icon of French Romanticism at the age of 27. The blood and gore depicted here was based on Géricault’s tireless study in morgues. Of course, everyone then (and now) had to see the painting in the flesh."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

REAL OR FAKE: These Computer-Generated Images Look Like Just Like Actual Photographs

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photorealistic 3d rendersCGTrader, a marketplace for 3D artists, modelers, and engineers, has rounded up a collection of stunning computer-generated imagery.

These are pictures created by professionals in the field, and the end results nearly look like actual photographs.

But nothing you're about to see is real.

The attention to detail is staggering.



But it's not all about making pictures of people.



Notice the subtle motion blur on the tires.



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Bankrupt Detroit Could Sell Its Billion-Dollar Art Collection

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Van_Gogh_Self Portrait_with_Straw_Hat_1887 Detroit

Detroit's bankruptcy cites more than $18 billion in debts, but the city has one asset that could help its balance sheet considerably: its art collection.

The Detroit Institute of Arts has one of the nation's oldest and most valuable public art collections, with pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Rembrandt van Rijn. Experts say the collection is easily worth more than $1 billion.

In May, the city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, sparked an uproar when he requested an inventory of the collection. Orr's spokesman, Bill Nowling, told reporters that while Orr doesn't want to sell the collection, all of the city's assets had to be valued and considered as part of its financial plan.

(Read More: Detroit joins list of failed US towns)

"We have to look at everything on the table," he told the Detroit Free Press in May, adding that the city has a "responsibility to rationalize all the assets of the city and find out what the worth is."

Pamela Marcil, a spokeswoman for the Institute, said a team from Christie's auction house visited the museum in May, though their purpose remains unclear. While Christie's requested to send a larger team in June, it's unclear whether the second group ever visited the Institute, the spokeswoman said.

Christie's declined comment.

Local cultural supporters and museum groups say selling any of the collection would be a crime. The Institute issued a statement after the bankruptcy filing that said it is "disappointed that the emergency manager determined it was necessary to file for bankruptcy." It added that the "collection is in trust for the public and we stand by our charge to preserve and protect the cultural heritage of all Michigan residents."

(Read MoreWhat's Next for Detroit? Long Court Battle)

At the moment, it appears the state agrees. Michigan Attorney General Bill Shuette said, in a statement, the Detroit Institute of Arts' collection is held by the city in a charitable trust for the people of Michigan. He said "no piece in the collection could be sold, conveyed or transferred to satisfy debts or obligations."

What's more, experts in art law say that many of the pieces in the Institute were bequests from wealthy collectors that could contain restrictions on their sale.

Still, bankruptcy experts said the collection's fate could be determined by a bankruptcy court. While creditors can't force the city to sell any particular asset under Chapter 9, they can reject a plan that they conclude doesn't include sufficient asset sales or payments. 

"We can't ask for the art to be sold, but we can ask for more asset sales and then it's up to the city," said one attorney representing Detroit's creditors.

(Read More: Detroit bankruptcy could hit millions of retirees)

While the museum, which is expected to draw more than 500,000 visitors this year, is owned by the city and is funded with support from a special tax from three counties that's expected to raise about $23 million a year for the next 10 years. Residents who pay the tax get free admission. 

Among the museum's top works is a Van Gogh "Self Portrait" from 1887. Experts said it could be worth more than $100 million. A Van Gogh self-portrait sold at auction in 1998 for $71 million, but prices for top art works have soared in the past decade.

(Read More: Art Is the Next Gold: Novogratz)

The museum's other classics include Rembrandt's "The Visitation," James Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold," and "The Wedding Dance" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, as well as works by Claude Monet, Matisse and Caravaggio.

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Art Lovers Are Going Crazy For A New Condo In Downtown Manhattan

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Schumacher Arrival36 Bleecker Street was built in 1885 to house the Schumacher and Ettlinger printing business, but it's currently being remodeled to house new luxury residences — and the art world is scooping them up.

Famed art collector Alberto Mugrabi, who owns one of the world's largest collections of Andy Warhol's art, is in contract to buy two triplex units (one full floor) in the Schumacher for $20.695 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. He will reportedly combine the units and display his Warhol collection on a windowless south wall.

Real estate developer and renowned art collector Aby Rosen is also in contract to buy an $8.5 million condo in the building, according to the WSJ. 

The building even has an art curator, Cristina Grajales, a SoHo gallerist who has commissioned works by artists like Jose Parla and Christophe Come to be permanently on display in the building. The courtyard is being designed by famed landscape architect Ken Smith.

The Schumacher will not be finished until December 2014, but half of its 20 units are already in contract. 

The Schumacher, also known as 36 Bleecker, was once a large printing house that helped turn NoHo into a major printing district during the 19th century. Architect Morris Adjmi will turn it into a luxury residence.



A doorman will be on-call 24 hours a day, and there will also be a part-time porter; fully-equipped, 750-square-foot fitness center; and a custom-built, pirate-themed children's playroom.



Ken Smith, the landscape architect best known for having designed the rooftop gardens at the MoMA, is behind this design for The Schumacher's courtyard.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This 97-Year-Old Man Creates Artwork Using Microsoft Paint From Windows 95

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Hal Lasko Pixel Painter Artwork

Hal Lasko, age 97, first started creating art with Microsoft Paint back when Windows 95 was still popular.

The legally blind grandfather was drawn to computers as an artistic medium because the 18-year-old software enabled him to zoom in on his artwork, allowing him to better see.

Lasko's art is described as "a collision of pointillism and 8-bit,"ThisIsColossal reports

And instead of trying to eliminate the visible pixels from his artwork, Lasko revels in them.

Lasko first worked creating weather maps and other guides for military bombing runs during World War II before pursuing a career as a typographer. Now happy to no longer have to please "the client," Lasko spends his time thinking up new ideas to bring to life with MS Paint.

Once finished with a piece, Lasko visits a local Kinko's to see his work transformed from the screen to print.

 You can view available prints on Lasko's website, or watch his eight minute documentary "The Pixel Painter" below, directed by Josh Bogdan.

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Here's What Wi-Fi Would Look Like If We Could See It

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Wi-fi. It's all around us, quietly and invisibly powering our access to the world's information. But few of us have a sense of what wi-fi actually is, let alone what it would look like if we could see it.

Artist Nickolay Lamm, a blogger for MyDeals.com, decided to shed some light on the subject. He created visualizations that imagine the size, shape, and color of wi-fi signals were they visible to the human eye. 

"I feel that by showing what wi-fi would look like if we could see it, we'd appreciate the technology that we use everyday," Lamm told me in an email. "A lot of us use technology without appreciating the complexity behind making it work." 

To estimate what this would look like, Lamm worked with M. Browning Vogel, Ph.D., an astrobiologist and former employee at NASA Ames. Vogel explained the science behind wireless technology, which is provided in captions under each illustration.

wifi visualizationThe caption for the above illustration describes the size of a wi-fi energy field, and how a signal is transmitted:

Wifi is an energy field that is transmitted as waves. The waves have a certain height, distance between them and travel at a certain speed. The distance between wifi waves is shorter than that of radio waves and longer than that of microwaves, giving wifi a unique transmission band that can't be interrupted by other signals. Wifi waves are about 3 to 5 inches from crest to crest. The crests of waves is translated to a 1 by a computer, and the the troughs equal a 0. Chains of 1s and 0s that can be translated into the letters, numbers and codes that make up websites, email and other internet content. Typical wifi waves decrease in amplitude as they travel further from the source which is why the waves are larger to the right and smaller to the left, assuming the source is somewhere near the right of the image. This image shows an idealized wifi data transmitted over a band that is divided into different sub-channels, which are shown in red, yellow, green and other colors

The wi-fi visualizations are set in Washington, DC. Lamm used data from a map on DC.gov to approximate the size and shapes of wi-fi networks over the National Mall.wifi visualization

Wifi waves travel through space as rapid, data encoded pulses or waves. A freeze frame of these pulses would show that the pulses are about 6 inches apart (as shown by the lightly colored bands traveling through space in this image). Wifi routers are basically antenna that can send data over multiple frequencies all at the same time.

These multiple frequencies are shown as blue, green, yellow, and red colors that pervade the space around the mall. The data from these multiple frequencies swirls around in space as shown here, but can be translated using a common tag system understood by wireless devices.

Wifi occupies the radio frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum between actual radio waves and microwaves (used to listen to the game, and cook your dinner, respectively).

This frequency band means that wifi boxes and computers can send and receive data as electromagnetic wave that have a 3 to 5 inch distance distance between each pulse of the wave. The wifi pulses are shown here as multicolored spheres radiating out from the source, near the right of the image. Wifi transmitters are basically an antenna equipped with a transmission protocol that splits the frequency band into several segments, referred to as channels.

Data can be transmitted over each channel or in order to send and receive greater quantities of data at faster rates. Although color represents its own unique, visible segment of the electromagnetic spectrum, we use red, orange, yellow and other colors to show the invisible wifi channels that make up the overall wifi signal. Wifi fields are usually spherical (like the one here) or ellipsoidal and extend about 20-30 meters, assuming a typical off the shelf wifi box.

wifi visualization

wifi visualization

Wifi routers or antenna can be attached to trees, buildings, lamp posts and other structures. A typical outdoor router can project its signal 300 feet or more from its location. Objects such as trees can obstruct the signal such that it has to be augmented by multiple wifi routers placed in different positions. Multiple routers can create a field that extends all the way across Washington DC's National Mall as shown here.

wifi visualization

Wifi routers affixed to buildings, lamp posts and other object create a circular data field around them. These antenna have an omnidirectional signal that extends equally in all directions, shown as the circular bands. Wifi broadcasts at a frequency between radio and microwaves, meaning that the waves or pulses are about six inches apart, as shown by the colored, circular bands. 

Lamm, a 24-year-old student from Pittsburg, is focused on using illustrations to bring attention to topics that are otherwise overlooked, he writes on his website. His projects combine art and research, and he often collaborates with other artists, including his mother.

In the last couple months, his projects have visualized what Barbie would look like as a normally proportioned woman, what the average human might look like in 100,000 years, and what New York City would look like on other planets.

As far as wi-fi goes, he's not the first artist whose curiosity was piqued by the invisible force.

Early this year, Austrian artist and architect Peter Jellitsch measured radio waves to record the wifi activity in a New York apartment over 45 days. (You know, the maddening pattern of how it cuts out and then comes back and is really strong and then is barely working again.) He used the data to sculpt an object that's a physical depiction of a wifi signal.

A couple years before that, a team from the from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design visualized wifi signals in a Norwegian town by "light painting" them. They created a long rod with 80 lights that lit up according to the signal strength of the wifi network, and filmed the result.

Lamm's depiction might be the most comprehensive, though. It's the first to incorporate shape, size, and color into the image, he told me. "I was surprised, wi-fi isn't as simple as I thought it would be." 

Now Read: 'Cut Up' Brings The Best Of YouTube To The Museum >

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There's A Gigantic Blue Rooster In London's Trafalgar Square

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A 15-foot blue rooster was unveiled in central London's Trafalgar Square today.

Rising up amid the serious military monuments and statues of British heroes, the playful statue is by German artist Katharina Fritsch and is appropriately titled "Hahn/Cock."

The rooster currently perches on the vacant "Fourth Plinth"— which has been the location of a series of artworks lately— and should probably just stay there forever.

Blue rooster in london trafalgar square

SEE ALSO: 10 Billionaires Who Spend A Ton Of Money On Art

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Jay Z Raps For 6 Hours In The Trailer For 'Picasso Baby' Music Video

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jay z music video picasso baby

Fresh off his video-diary-like promotional campaign for "Magna Carta Holy Grail," Jay Z gets even more vulnerable in a music video for "Picasso Baby."

In an empty white room at the Pace Gallery in Chelsea, Jay Z performed the track over and over for six hours, according to art critic Jerry Saltz, who was in attendance.

The rapper sang one-at-a-time to individuals and pairs he pulled from the small audience. Cameras rolled during the marathon serenading session, and voila, art.

"Concerts are pretty much performance art,"Jay Z said in the teaser, released over the weekend. "The smaller venue is a bit more intimate so you feel the energy of the people."

Alan Cumming, Judd Apatow, and artist Marina Abramovic were in attendance.

The video premieres August 2 on HBO after his appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher."

Wife Beyonce teamed up with the network earlier this year for her documentary, "Life Is But a Dream."

Watch the teaser for hubby Hova's video below:

SEE ALSO: Jay Z Officially Drops The Hyphen In His Name

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Business Insider's Favorite Stories About Art, All In One Place

An Artist Used Detroit's Famous Fist Statue To Make A Brilliantly Crude Statement About The Bankruptcy

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It's one thing to write about how badly Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing is going to hurt citizens.

It's another thing to see the impending pain brought to life.

Yesterday, Detroit artist Jerry Vile installed a giant can of Crisco (for international readers, a cooking oil and occasional lubcricant) front of Robert Graham's iconic statue of Joe Louis' fist.

Check it out:

jerry vile detroit crisco fist

Reached by phone, Vile said he preferred to let the piece speak for itself.

Unfortunately, authorities have already removed it.

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Anthropologie Says This Phone Case Wasn't An Intentional Copy Of An Artist's Print

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A phone case sold by Anthropologie appears to be a carbon copy of a print by an independent artist. 

Consumerist points out that the iPhone case looks exactly like this print by Australian artist Amy Borrell. The company said it is investigating what happened in a statement to Consumerist.

“We’re currently looking into the iPhone case, which we purchased from a market vendor," the company told Consumerist. "Anthropologie takes the matter very seriously as we pride ourselves on the strong relationship we have with the creative community and the opportunities we offer to artists and designers."

Here's Borrell's print, The Big Bang, which retails for $130:

amy borrell print

And here's the "Pixiegram" iPhone 5 case by Anthropologie: 

anthropologie iphone case

SEE ALSO: 19 Fast Food Hacks That Will Change The Way You Order

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Amazon Is Now Selling Fine Art

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willie gillis norman rockwell

Amazon unveiled yet another business line Tuesday as it works to expand its appeal: Art.

The 19-year online retail juggernaut, which began as a bookseller but now does everything from groceries to patio furniture, launched "Amazon Art" to market works from galleries in Miami, San Francisco, New York and other US cities.

The site showcases more than 40,000 works from over 150 galleries and dealers that run the gamut as far as subject, genre and period are concerned.

Works range from modest canvasses like a $44 cat portrait to Norman Rockwell's "Willie Gillis: Package from Home," which retails for $4.85 million.

"From gallery walls to your walls," boasts the site, which enables users to quickly click through works by period and genre.

"Amazon Art gives galleries a way to bring their passion and expertise about the artists they represent to our millions of customers," said Peter Faricy, vice president for the Amazon Marketplace.

Consumers can navigate the site through medium (drawings, photographs, prints); subject (abstract, nautical, "the body") and style (Realism, Impressionism, 19th-century), as well as by size, frame and color.

There are currently 503 works for under $99 and 2,517 works at $10,000 or more. The vast majority of offerings fall between those price extremes.

The art venture is Amazon's latest effort to expand into new business areas, a strategy that has of late yielded more impressive growth in revenues than in profits.

In the most recent quarter, Amazon's revenues jumped 22 percent to $15.7 billion, but the company reported a $7 million loss, down from a $7 million profit in the year-ago period. Analysts have varying opinions on the company strategy, which emphasizes growth first in the belief that profits will follow later.

Separately, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos shook up the newspaper business Monday by announcing a $250 million purchase of the Washington Post and other publishing assets from the Washington Post Company. Amazon was not a party to the deal.

Amazon shares were off 0.4 percent in late-morning trade.

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Amazon Is Selling This $1.45 Million Monet In Its New 'Fine Art' Section, And The Reviews Are Hilarious

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Amazon's new Fine Art and Collectibles section just launched yesterday, and it is already getting less-than-stellar reviews.

One of the most vocal opponents is economist Tyler Cowen, who says that much of the art is low quality and overpriced. "It looks like dealers trying to unload unwanted, hard to sell inventory at sucker prices," he wrote on Marginal Revolution.

Most of the items by famous painters — including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Míro — are lithographs, mady by a delicate printing process that uses oil and water on an aluminum plate to make copies. Since there are multiple renditions available, these are usually much less expensive than a typical painting.

But there are a few original paintings for sale. The most expensive is a Norman Rockwell for $4.85 million. There's also a Claude Monet painting titled "L'Enfant a la tasse, a portrait de Jean Monet" from 1868 available for $1.45 million.

The Monet is getting particular attention from Amazon reviewers who find the new section — and its prices — absolutely ridiculous.

Below are some of the best comments about the painting.

monet painting amazon fine art jean monet

"USED? PAINTING HAS CRACKS!"
"For as much as I paid I'm a little upset that this isn't a new painting. You can see OBVIOUS cracks and I'm worried that the artwork has had several owners before me. I might return to Amazon if I can't get in touch with the seller. 1 out of 5 stars."

"stupid"
"BUYER BEWARE: THIS ITEM IS IN FRENCH. There is no English version. I purchased this product and couldn't understand a word of it."

"The meme has no caption!"
"Pros: Delivered as promised, packed well.

Cons: Stupid picture of some kid, and it's old. And the kid that painted it left their signature right on the painting where everyone can see it; ego much?"

Overall: This was a waste of money, I'll never buy any memes by this Jean woman ever again."

"Eww, as if"
"My friend Dionne advised me against buying a Monet, and I should have listened. From far away, it's okay, but up close it's a big old mess."

"THIS IS THE REAL THING, BEWARE OF "MANET" RIP-OFFS!"
"I've been a fan of Monet since the early days and this is a serviceable example of his mid-period stuff, not too fancy but gets the job done and gives an idea of what he's like for people who aren't ready to make up their minds about Waterlilies or Impression, Sunrise. But I really wrote this review to warn casual searchers that some bunch of opportunists are trying to rip off the unwary or inexperienced browser by flooding Amazon with their cheap replicas, under the confusingly similar name "Manet". Remember, it's "Monet", with the "o" that is the real thing. Apparently it's permitted by the Terms of Conditions for people to sell "Manet" product, as long as (when pushed!) they admit somewhere in the fine print that their "Manet" paintings aren't genuine Monets. Seems as unethical as hell to me, but I guess all we fans can do is warn the gullible."

"Amateur Hour"
"I was seriously considering purchasing this item, but I can't get beyond my suspicion that the artist doesn't know how to draw hands. The clumsy attempt to hide them behind a misshapen bowl just screams AMATEUR."

Amazon also has a helpful "In Room" feature in the new section that shows what the art would look like in your (minimally-decorated) home:

amazon "in room" feature monet painting

SEE ALSO: The 15 Greatest Masterpieces At The Met In NYC

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Teeny Tiny Mona Lisa Painted On A Canvas One-Third The Width Of A Human Hair

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mini mona lisa

The enigmatic image is perhaps the most reproduced in art history, but it's never before been painted on such a small canvas.

Using a novel nanotechnique, researchers have made a miniature Mona Lisa that stretches 30 microns across, just a third of the width of a human hair.

A team from Georgia Tech created the molecular masterpiece using an atomic force microscope and a process dubbed ThermoChemical NanoLithography, or TCNL for short.

Each 125-nanometer pixel of the "Mini Lisa" represents a confined set of chemical reactions. The technique allowed the researchers to control the amount of heat applied over each pixel to vary the number of new molecules created in each spot. More heat resulted in more molecules and lighter shades of gray. In this way, the team made the tiny copy of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work, pixel by pixel.

atomic forceThe microscopic art is essentially a demonstration of TCNL's ability to make variations in molecular concentrations on this extremely small scale, and the researchers think this technique could have applications for nanoscale manufacturing.

"We envision TCNL will be capable of patterning gradients of other physical or chemical properties, such as conductivity of graphene," study researcher Jennifer Curtis said in a statement. "This technique should enable a wide range of previously inaccessible experiments and applications in fields as diverse as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics and bioengineering."

The process is described online in the journal Langmuir, and it isn't the first time the iconic image has been used to demonstrate a feat of science. NASA researchers recently beamed the Mona Lisa to the moon with a powerful, well-timed laser.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

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The Detroit Institute Of Arts' Possible Fire Sale Raises Ugly Questions About The 1 Percent

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detroit art museumNote: This letter originally appeared in the New York Times and was republished with the paper's and author's permission.

The choice being debated in Detroit — whether to sell works from the Detroit Institute of Arts to help pay the city’s debts — is agonizing.

How can we equate a few pieces of canvas with paint on them with the pensions of thousands of firefighters, nurses, police officers, teachers and other civil servants?

The same choice is being played out in many other communities across the country. In a sense, we have always had this dilemma, but this time, there are several special factors.

One is that cities and towns are going bankrupt, and they can’t continue to provide basic services, let alone support for art museums. Another factor is the stunning rise in prices for works of art. Thousands of works go for over a million dollars every year; eight- and even nine-figure prices are common.

Mixed into this is the fact that museums have become dependent on support from federal, state and local government in the form of tax subsidies, tax exemptions, especially from real estate tax, and, most important, tax deductions. At the same time, private donors are being asked to give more and more; how long will the 1 percent agree to subsidize a service for the 99 percent? There are more than 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations in this country, all with their hands out.

How can museums justify this kind of support? We claim to be moral institutions, open to all, providing the best to the most, and we all work hard to do just that. But is that really our audience? Don’t we, for the most part, serve the affluent, the educated, the converted, those who are on our side of the income and education gap?

Museums make a determined effort to widen their audience — the Detroit Institute of Arts is a leader in that effort — but we are still falling short. The shortfall is where that agonizing question arises: How many lives is a Rembrandt worth?

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Detroit May Have To Sell These 11 Masterpieces To Ease Its Debt Problem

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Van Gogh Self Portrait with Straw Hat

>Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is trying to come up with ways to plug the city's estimated $18.5 billion debt problem.

So this week, he announced he had engaged Christie's to appraise the city's art collection. 

The move has generated controversy — both from those who say the collection should remain untouchable, and from camps who believe the city should never have owned the works in the first place.

Unusual among major cities, Detroit owns the entire collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Detroit Free Press reached out to art dealers in May to provide a rough estimate of the collection's overall value. The group came up with a final tally of at least $2.5 billion. 

We wanted to dig into the collection to get a better sense of what the city could end up losing.

"Visitation" by Rembrandt (1640). Produced in Rembrandt's prime, this painting is actually quite small, which makes its detail even more stunning.



"Mary And Child With Angels" by Fra Angelico (~1425). Fra Angelico helped kick off the Renaissance with enigmatic depictions of classic religious subjects.



"Self-Portrait" by Vincent Van Gogh (1887). Van Gogh painted this self-portrait just a few years before he committed suicide — and you can tell.



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