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Mario Balotelli Has Ordered A Life-Sized Statue Of Himself

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mario balotelli

Mario Balotelli has ordered a life-sized statue of himself to keep in his Brescia home.

The Milan striker, who was on Tuesday fined €10,000 (£8,600) for making an "insulting gesture" towards Internazionale supporters at the end of the derby on Sunday, has contacted a local artist to make the statue, in order to "immortalize" himself.

"I have received the commission, but I've never met Balotelli so I am working from photos,"Livio Scarpella told Il Giornale di Brescia. "I presented several drawings but Mario wanted to be immortalized in a pose that shows him having scored a goal, highlighting his muscles and with an expression of defiance.

"I have imagined him as an athlete from ancient times and the statue will be a mix of classical and pop style in platinum and colored bronze with the eyes made of stones."

Italian media have suggested the pose wanted by Balotelli is the one he showed off after scoring against Germany in the Euro 2012 semi-final and will reportedly be kept among other contemporary art items in the attic of the striker's new home, designed by the architect Roberto Falconi.

Balotelli has made a successful start at Milan after his January transfer from Manchester City, scoring four goals in his first three games before failing to find the net in last Sunday's derby.

That game finished 1-1 and Inter have been fined €50,000 by Serie A after fans racially abused Balotelli, a former Nerazzurri player. During the match, the Italy striker raised a finger to his lips when Inter fans made monkey calls and waved inflatable bananas at San Siro. The Serie A statement said the abuse started "in the 11th minute of the first half" and continued "in the 11th, 15th, 16th and 19th minutes of the second half".

The club fine was not only for the Balotelli abuse but also for racism towards another former Inter player, Sulley Muntari, as well as offensive banners and fans' use of a laser aimed at players' eyes.

This is the second time this season that Inter have been fined as a result of racial abuse aimed at Balotelli. Italian authorities have long been criticized by anti-racism campaigners for not cracking down hard enough on discrimination in sport.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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China's Government-Run Auction House Is Unstoppable

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Beijing Poly International Auction Co. Ltd Launches Spring Auction Editor's note: This is part of GlobalPost's two-part series about China's Poly Group. Read Part 2 about Poly's powerful art auction house.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — In Huang Hung-jen’s plush office in old-money West Taipei, there hangs a 6-foot oil painting of US Marines manhandling an Iraqi family in their own home. The Iraqis look petrified, the Marines aggressive and overbearing.

The piece, part of up-and-coming Chinese artist Yuan Liang-yu’s "War Series," is a blunt metaphor for how China believes the human rights narrative is skewed in Washington's favor. It's also an example of how Beijing uses the arts to engender soft power at home and abroad.

It goes without saying that Yuan wouldn’t be permitted the same artistic license were he protesting trouble spots closer to home, say in Tibet or riotous Xinjiang.

But Huang, a Chinese art insider, doesn’t care about that. What he cares about is securing pieces for Beijing Poly International Auction Company, the fine arts arm of a powerful and opaque mainland Chinese business conglomerate.

The auction house has rung up mega-deals such as the 293.25-million-yuan ($49.24 million) record set for Li Keran’s "Landscape in Red or Million Red Mountains" at June’s spring show in the Forbidden City. Most of Li’s work celebrates Mao Zedong, and this 1964 piece is no different, inspired by the chairman’s poem "Qin-Yuan-Chun Changsha."

According to Huang, an anonymous Beijing buyer purchased the painting from a Taiwanese collector, who was keen on profiting from China’s exploding fine arts market and auction business.

It’s a business that is largely driven by sales of state-approved pieces. And Poly Auction, which is ostensibly controlled by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is the general at the vanguard of the action in the booming arts market. It's also a company that is a weather vane for the powerful vested interests that dominate China's booming, and largely state-run economy.

Poly has already become the world’s third-largest auction house since opening its doors in 2005. Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the No. 1 and No. 2 houses respectively, took centuries to rise to the top by relying on a global network of auctions to drive sales.

Poly doesn’t need to scour the globe for buyers because it has more than enough of them at home. According to industry market research outfit Artprice, China overtook both the US and the UK as the world’s largest fine art market, with $4.79 billion in sales in 2011.

“It’s exploding because the Chinese have a lot of money and they want to invest. Global stocks are down and art is the hot new investment,” said Huang, who had racked up a decade’s worth of experience in Taiwanese auction houses before he was handpicked by Poly to set up the Taipei office.

Huang also says the need for cash-rich Chinese to hide earlier, and shadier, “investments” is a major driver of art purchases across the Taiwan Strait. “As China beefs up tracking of bribery, taxes and financial crimes, the Chinese buy fewer houses, cars and jewelry and prefer to pump that money into art. It’s very smart.”

The Beijing-based company has a virtual monopoly in China because foreign houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s have only recently been permitted to hold auctions in the country, leaving Poly to dominate smaller local firms.

“If you need to sell an important Chinese vase or painting, then you get a better price discovery at Poly than you get at Christie’s. But you have to remember that a lot of the buying [in China] is artificial,” said Sergey Skaterschikov, founder of Skate’s Art Market Research.

“They’ve set up a fully private museum, which is the equivalent of setting up a captive institutional buyer with very little transparency. In the auction business they call it show bidding,” he added. “Their own captive demand is always available to drive the prices and the volume.”

Show bidding or not, Poly has other ideas about how it has grown to challenge the Western auction houses' hegemony. According to the company website, “The rapid growth of Poly Auction [has] no doubt benefited from the solid foundation and strong support from Poly Group ... [and the] kind solicitudes from leaders of the country and the Party.”

The company’s “P” logo, the website says, is derived from the first letter of the People’s Liberation Army and is shaped like a fist to represent “confidence and power.”

“A government-owned auction house means a lot in China. For regional or city museums it’s mandatory to purchase via Poly. It’s like a ministry of auctions. When you are a ministry of auctions in a tiny European country it means nothing. But in China, you become a huge institution,” said Skaterschikov.

He says Beijing’s soft power art push is “priority No. 1 for decisions like setting up an office in New York. It’s more important than tapping into the US market, and is clearly their mandate. They make no secret of it.”

It’s fitting that such an opaque enterprise is controlled by a highly complex state business empire known for its secrecy and connections to the military, the Communist Party, and “princelings” — the scions of Party heavyweights, reviled as much for their power as the rampant corruption they are routinely accused of partaking in.

“China’s cultural plan is very smart. By encouraging foreigners to appreciate Chinese culture, language and literature, it is producing more foreigners to be sympathetic and supportive of China,” said Lo Shiu Hing, a Greater China political expert at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

He says China’s auction house is similar to the cultural arm of the Confucius Institute, an organization run and funded by Beijing that has centers around the world devoted to teaching Chinese language and culture.

“Art is more passive, whereas the Confucius Institute is a more active arm of the Chinese government. But both are cultural arms of Chinese foreign policy.”

The institute is not all that unusual, and one could look at the UK’s British Council or Germany’s Goethe-Institute for comparison.

More from GlobalPost: Confucius Institutes, education bonus or wily Trojan Horse?

However, critics of Confucius Institutes say they are cultural Trojan Horses, designed to enable a foothold for the Chinese government in Western universities, push China's “soft power” narrative, and gloss over the harsher realities of political and civil life in the Middle Kingdom.

For Poly, its push beyond its borders is a marked shift in direction for an outfit that started life with a mandate to acquire mostly Ming and Qing Dynasty pieces from overseas collectors. Observers say that mandate was designed to stoke nationalist sentiment at home of a rising China reacquiring works that Beijing says were often looted through foreign aggression.

However, savvy businessmen soon realized that auction purchases — and later donations to the state — of prized Chinese artwork were a great way to curry favor with Beijing.

In 2007, Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho paid about $8.9 million for a Qing Dynasty bronze, which he later donated to Poly’s private museum in the Chinese capital. Ho had seen Beijing end his virtual monopoly over gambling in the former Portuguese colony a few years earlier. By 2007, US-based casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corporation had opened its second casino on the new strip. The $2.4 billion Venetian, the world’s largest casino, could have spelled the end for the 90-year-old billionaire.

However, insiders say Ho, an open polygamist who allegedly retains strong ties to Chinese organized crime, was soon reinstated to the good books when a few of his 17 children were awarded new casino licenses in the booming territory.

“We aren’t really focusing on the real high-end priceless antiquities anymore,” said Huang.

“Our CEO in Beijing says he doesn’t want to spend that kind of money because someone else will buy it and give it to us anyway. It’s a good way to get the government to look after you and allow your company to grow.”

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A San Francisco Bridge Is Now The World's Largest Illuminated Sculpture

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Last night, San Francisco flicked the switch on a massive LED light installation on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, illuminating the span with 25,000 separate lights.

The 1.8-mile-long, $8 million installation, by New York artist Leo Villareal, will be on display daily from dusk to 2 a.m. for the next two years.

It's bright enough to cut through the San Francisco fog:

san francisco bay bridge lights

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Facebook Blocks French Art Museum For Posting Nude Photo

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nude facebookPARIS - On Friday, the Jeu de Paume museum's Facebook account was blocked for 24 hours, following a decision by Facebook to remove a photograph the Parisian museum posted on its page and which the social network ruled was a violation of its Rights and Responsibilities guidelines.

[We have removed content you posted. We have removed the following content you posted or were the admin of because it violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.]

The picture of a naked woman by Laure Albin Guillot (1879-1962) was part of a exhibition on the French photographer at the Jeu de Paume contemporary art museum in central Paris, Le Nouvel Observateur reports.

Here is the message the Jeu de Paume museum posted on its Facebook page after the 24-hour ban:

"We’ve missed you! […]

We had already committed other offenses in the past, publishing nudes by Willy Ronis and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. If we receive another warning from Facebook, our account may be permanently deactivated.

We will not publish nudes in the future, even though we believe that they have a high artistic value, and that there is nothing pornographic about these photographs, which are in accordance with "the right to publish contents of a personal nature."

Last year, Facebook removed an image of Gerhard Richter’s “Ema” from Paris’ Pompidou Center’s page, although it later apologized for confusing the painting with a photo –  nude photos are forbidden on the social network,  but not nude paintings or sculptures.

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New York City's Biggest Art Show Opens Amid Growing Competition From Rival Fairs

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armory art show

The Armory Show, New York’s largest art fair, opened to the press under a menacing gray sky, with the Hudson river churning angrily alongside the two piers it requisitions for exhibition spaces.

It seemed a fittingly ominous atmosphere for the city’s main festival of contemporary-art buying and champagne-soaked social climbing, whose future has recently been called into doubt.

On the surface, Armory is in a celebratory mood. The year 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Show, which changed the course of art history by introducing American audiences to Marcel Duchamp and other figures of the European avant garde. The contemporary Armory Show, which borrowed the old fair’s name when it began in 1999, is paying tribute with a series of talks and events highlighting the influence of that early fair.

Several galleries’ booths here also commemorate the 1913 show, the most impressive of which comes from veteran New York dealer Francis M Naumann. Naumann spent a year putting together his presentation, which places works by the French American master alongside pieces by Duchamp-besotted artists such as Larry Rivers and Sherrie Levine. “Collectors are finally warming to Duchamp,” the dealer said. “He’s where everything begins.”

Yet expectations have been restrained among dealers and collectors for this centennial-in-name-only edition of Armory. A planned sale of the fair to Louise Blouin, the Canadian art publisher, fell apart in January; no new buyer has arisen. And three other New York fairs have grown in popularity and profitability in recent years, placing the Armory in something of an identity crisis.

The Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America and the country’s oldest continuous fair, has undergone a considerable revival in the last five years, reestablishing itself as the go-to spot for blue-chip art and the one-percenters who love it. At the VIP preview, dealers who once presented unthreatening painting and sculpture displayed younger, riskier work, such as a tattooed taxidermied pig by the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye.

Thursday marks the opening of Independent New York, the young, rule-breaking fair with no walls between the booths and no admissions charge that’s now attracting young and established dealers alike.

And lurking in the background is Frieze New York, the London fair’s Big Apple spinoff. At its inaugural edition last May, Frieze overcame doubts that collectors would travel all the way to its curvaceous tent on Randall’s Island, in the East river. Dealers who took a chance on Frieze’s first edition are coming back for more this spring. And the success of Frieze has taught Armory that it needs to adapt or sink.

“I wouldn’t have this job if it weren’t for Frieze New York,” said Noah Horowitz, the Armory’s young new executive director, whose task has been to refresh a declining institution. “When they announced they were coming to New York, they really forced us to raise the bar. There's been a huge push to filter – that meant thinning the number of galleries, more solo presentations, curated projects. That’s all something that I’ve overseen and that I’m really passionate about.”

Against the British invasion, Armory is promoting its New York bona fides. Taxicab-yellow chairs are scattered throughout the piers, and at the fair’s press opening Mike Bloomberg himself praised the resilience of the city’s galleries in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which flooded Chelsea and destroyed untold numbers of artworks. This year Armory also teamed up with the website Artsy – the years-in-the-making startup backed by Wendi Murdoch and Dasha Zhukova, among others – to let collectors preview art before the fair began. More than 2,500 works were online before the VIPs trounced in Wednesday morning, ahead of the public opening Thursday.

Horowitz has also attracted several galleries that have stayed away in past years, such as Zurich’s Galerie Eva Presenhuber, whose striking booth included work from the Norwegian provocateur Matias Faldbakken and the late San Francisco painter Jay DeFeo. Hometown heavyweight Larry Gagosian is participating in his first Armory, shrugging off both legal troubles and several artists’ defections. His booth showcases several late Warhols against a monstrously large stretch of the artist’s own wallpaper.

There are also new participants from further afield. “I’m here because of Noah,” confided Meg Maggio, the director of Pékin Fine Arts, a gallery with locations in both Beijing and Hong Kong. “It’s a much better feeling than in years past; the last time I was here I lasted only 45 minutes.” At her booth, ink drawings by the Chinese artist Chen Shaoxiong depict protestors from Occupy Wall Street to Burma’s democracy advocates to Madrid’s indignados movement: yours to keep for $65,000.

Still, many of the most prominent galleries have stayed away. New York dealers such as Marian Goodman and Luhring Augustine have opted for the tonier ADAA fair, while Gavin Brown and Maureen Paley are exhibiting at the edgier Independent. And all four of those will be at Frieze in May, as will Hauser & Wirth, the Zurich-London-New York colossus.

The best hope for the Armory Show may be that the New York art world, thriving off of the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of the super-rich, can probably sustain multiple major fairs. One of the most welcome interventions at this fair comes from Liz Magic Laser, who has used her status as the fair’s commissioned artist to tweak not just the art world, but the city that trumpets its contribution to urban life. Laser chose to design the T-shirts worn by ubiquitous Armory staff, which proclaim that the average household income of fair visitors is $334,000 – almost exactly the cutoff for membership in America’s under-fire 1%. She’s also branded the fair’s VIP cards, which inform bearers that they’ve made it into the inner circle … along with 12,365 other people.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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15 New Sculptures, Paintings, And Photos That Have The Art World Buzzing

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Jeff Koons Tulips sculpture

Art is meant to push boundaries, make people think, and evoke a reaction. A great work of art leaves a lasting impression that people continue to buzz about for years to come.

We asked gallerists, curators, and experts in the art field, such as the folks from Art.sy, to select the best new works of art that have shown in galleries, auction houses, or art shows within the last year or so.

These are the most buzzed about new works of art, just in time for Armory Arts Week, the major contemporary art event that kicks off in New York City today.

"House" (2013), by Julie Cockburn, is a found photograph that the artist hand-embroidered over. The piece will show at the Armory Show in New York.

Source: Artsy; Julie Cockburn, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York




"Perimeter Studies" (Icosahedron; 2012) by artist Conrad Shawcross is made of four aluminum sculptures that are 50 x 50 x 50 cm each. The sculptures, which seem to reference science, will show at the Armory Show in New York.

Source: Artsy



When artist Paul Emsley unveiled his official portrait of Kate Middleton, it generated a lot of controversy and criticism, but became one of the most talked-about works of art this year.

Source: Business Insider 



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Thousands Of Paintings Found In A Long Island Garage Could Be Worth $30 Million

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Arthur Pinajian painting

Tens of thousands of paintings found in a Bellport, New York cottage are estimated to be worth $20 to $30 million, according Sean Bergin of Long Island News 12.

Discovered by Thomas Schultz and investor Lawrence Jospeh when they bought the home in 2007, the artwork was supposed to have been trashed years before. The artist who painted them, Arthur Pinajian, had left instructions for his family members to take the paintings and journals to the Brookhaven Town Landfill after he died.

They never did, and both Schultz and Joseph decided to restore and frame the works after purchasing them from the family for a measly $2,500, Bergin reports.

Peter Hastings Falk, a New York art appraiser and art historian, says that all of the paintings and journals kept by the little-known artist could be worth up to $30 million dollars today.

Some of the pieces have already sold for $500,000, according to AP.

The remainder of the re-framed paintings can be found at Bellport's Gallery 125 owned by Schultz, who also currently lives in the artist's cottage with his family.

SEE ALSO: 15 New Sculptures, Paintings, And Photos That Have The Art World Buzzing

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Previously Unidentified Painting Ends Up Being $30 Million Rembrandt Selfie

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Rembrandt Self Portrait

A painting donated to Britain's National Trust by the estate of a wealthy supporter has been identified as a Rembrandt self-portrait worth 20 million pounds ($30 million), the heritage body said Monday.

The painting was given to the trust in 2010 by the estate of Edna, Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, whose property-developer husband was a major collector of Dutch and Flemish art. It hangs in Buckland Abbey in southwest England, the former home of 16th-century seafarer Francis Drake.

The portrait of the artist wearing a cap with a large white feather was long thought to have been done by one of Rembrandt's pupils and was credited as in the "style of" the 17th-century Dutch master.

But the National Trust said an investigation led by Ernst van de Wetering, the world's leading Rembrandt expert, had determined it was by Rembrandt himself.

"It's amazing to think we might've had an actual Rembrandt hanging here on the walls at Buckland Abbey for the past couple of years," said Jez McDermott, the National Trust property manager at the house.

"We never dared think it might actually be an original."

Van de Wetering, chair of the Rembrandt Research Project, said that researchers in 1968 had concluded the painting — which features Rembrandt's signature and is dated 1635, when the artist was 29 — was likely by a pupil.

"But over the past 45 years we have gathered far more knowledge about Rembrandt's self-portraits and the fluctuations in his style," he said.

He said the painting's crude brushwork and painting technique is observed in other paintings from the early stage of Rembrandt's career.

The painting has been valued at 20 million pounds — but the trust, whose mandate is to safeguard Britain's heritage, is not allowed to sell it.

The trust said the painting would hang at Buckland Abbey for eight more months before being sent for cleaning and further examination, including X-rays, examination of paint pigments, infrared testing and tree-ring dating of the beech panel it is painted on.

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23 Years Later, The FBI Is Still Trying To Solve The Largest Art Heist Of All Time

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manet_cheztortoni

The FBI is once again ramping up its efforts to solve the largest art theft in history, a 23-year-old case in which $500 million worth of paintings and other works were stolen from a Boston art museum.

The agency announced today that it had identified the two people who had committed the crime. It also launched a publicity campaign aimed at uncovering the 13 missing works, for which the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is offering a $5 million reward.

Investigators have said in the past that they hope to crack the case by using tactics like those used to capture notorious gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, who was eventually caught after authorities publicized the case on billboards, TV commercials, and other ads, according to the Associated Press.

As art thefts go, the 1990 heist at Boston's Gardner Museum was one of the most brazen in history. Click through to see the missing works and read how it went down.

The theft took place in the early morning hours of March 18, 1990 – 23 years ago today.

Vermeer, The Concert

Source: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum



It occured at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Saint Patrick's Day, a Sunday when most of the city was preoccupied with celebrations.

Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black

Source: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum



A pair of thieves posing as Boston police officers showed up at the museum and said they were responding to a call.

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait

Source: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum



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The FBI Says It Knows Who Committed The Biggest Art Heist Of All Time

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rembrandt_selfportrait_etch

The FBI announced today that it had determined the identities of the thieves behind a 23-year-old art heist that's billed as the biggest art theft in history.

It was a major development in the case, which is back in the spotlight in a renewed effort to recover the 13 works that were stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

The agency also said it had determined where the works were transported after the theft. They are valued today at $500 million.

Authorities did not identify the thieves by name, but Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said in a press release that they were believed to be "members of a criminal organization with a base in the mid-Atlantic states and New England.”

They likely took the stolen works to Connecticut and the Philadelphia area, where they tried to sell them, according to the FBI. The agency said it did not know the whereabouts of the works since the attempted sale, which took place around a decade ago.

Information is still being sought about the location of the art, which was stolen 23 years ago today in a brazen St. Patrick's Day theft.

The museum is offering a $5 million reward for the safe return of the works, which include pieces by Degas, Vermeer, and Rembrandt.

In addition to today's news about the identity of the thieves, the FBI launched a new website about the crime in an effort to drum up publicity for the case.

Investigators have said in the past that they hope to crack the case by using tactics like those used to capture notorious gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, who was eventually caught after authorities publicized the case on billboards, TV commercials, and other ads, according to the Associated Press.

SEE ALSO: 23 Years Later, The FBI Is Still Trying To Solve The Largest Art Heist Of All Time

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19 Works Of Art Made With Food

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hong yi food art

"Red" Hong Yi is a fan of playing with her food.

The Malaysia- and Shanghai-based artist gave herself a challenge for the month of March: Create a new work of art every day, using only food and a white plate as a backdrop.

 "My 'creativity with food' series has helped me push the limits of my creativity, and has taught me to work within the confines of a very small area," she told design blog designboom."My previous works range from 1 x 2 to 3 x 4 meters. I've learned to slice, dice, stir, boil ... who would have thought I'd need that to do art!"

Red has been posting the works on her Instagram feed and so far, the results are gorgeous. It's hard to believe that some of them are made with items commonly found in the fridge.

We can't wait to see what she comes up with the rest of the month.

An edible take on Banksy.



The iconic Campbell's can, made of ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, and oyster sauce.



The Arctic melting, reflected in a melting popsicle.



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Tilda Swinton Slept In A Glass Box At The Museum Of Modern Art

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tilda swinton the maybe

Museum visitors were surprised to see actress Tilda Swinton live at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). 

The "Moonrise Kingdom" actress was on display at the MoMa in New York City Saturday as part of an exhibit.

"The Maybe" showcased Swinton sleeping in a glass box for the day with a mattress, pillow, linen, water, and spectacles.

The Gothamist reports Swinton has been talking with the MoMa about showcasing this exhibit since 2005, and that it will run several more times throughout the year, "each unannounced and in a different location in the Museum."

This isn't the first time the 52-year-old Academy Award winner has slept in public. 

Swinton first performed "The Maybe" in 1995 at the Serpentine Gallery in London.

tilda swinton moma

tilda swinton the maybe

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Detainees In Guantanamo Bay Made These Unforgettable Works Of Art

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Detainee Ship Painting River Image GTMO 2013

Most of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay may never see a day in court. They may never be released from the detention center in Cuba.

Among the only ways they will ever get to express themselves is through art.

Compliant detainees at Guantanamo are allowed to take art classes, among other privileges.  These classes are the only place where detainees feel free to be themselves without pressure from others, according to the cultural advisor on base, a fifty-something Iraqi named Zak.

Some of the work, which hangs in the detainee library at Camp Four, is hauntingly beautiful.

The Guantanamo detainee library is behind the fence here at Camp Delta, not far from where sharpshooters were stationed in the darker early days.



Camp Delta has no detainees today — they've been moved to newer facilities — but their presence remains.



That presence is felt most potently here in the library where detainee artwork goes up one hallway wall ...



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15 Rich And Famous People Who Destroyed Their Expensive Toys

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steve wynnThe Picasso painting that hotel mogul Steve Wynn famously ripped is back in the news after billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen bought it for a whopping $155 million, The New York Post reports.

The painting, "Le Rêve," wound up with a 6-inch tear after Wynn accidentally put his elbow through it while showing it off to friends at his Las Vegas office.

But he's not the only mogul who has destroyed a very expensive toy.

These gaffes, some of which cost their owners millions of dollars, include crashing a spaceship, high-priced car accidents, and homes that are no longer standing.

Soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo totaled his Ferrari

In 2009, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo crashed his Ferrari into a roadside barrier in a tunnel near Manchester airport, The Guardian reported.

Ronaldo, who played for Manchester United at the time, was unhurt.

The vehicle, which is still damaged, is supposed to be auctioned off on eBay.



Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' spaceship project crashed during a test fight

A spaceship funded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos crashed during a test flight in early September 2011. People on the ground lost contact with the craft and were unable to control it during the flight.

Bezos' big dream is to develop a practical means of space tourism. Seems his first venture didn't go so well.



An Australian billionaire nearly sank his own yacht

Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer, who became famous when he announced plans to build an exact replica of the Titanic, nearly sank his own private yacht.

The $5.3 million "Maximus" reportedly lost power and came close to colliding with a rock wall off the coast of Queensland, according to the Daily Telegraph.

After a flare was fired, the passengers put on life jackets and the yacht was towed to a nearby marina.



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'Living Walls' Street Art Puts Odd Faces On Russian Cityscape

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Nikita Nomerz Russian Faces

There's few things cooler than Vladmir Putin in Russia — hacking, guns, vodka — and rising street artist Nikita Nomerz.

For the 'Living Walls,' Nomerz draws out pre-existing features in a building through painting that's like a combination of plastic surgery and clever cosmetics.

Not to imply the faces are all beautiful, but they're certainly lively. Nomerz also does traditional graffiti type art and has been featured for his work in various articles over the last few years.

Indeed he's becoming a name among fellows who prefer to exit through the gift shop.

Breaking out 2012 / Tula



The Green Beard 2012 / Rostov - on - Don



The big brother 2010 / Nizhniy Novgorod



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The 15 Greatest Masterpieces At The Met In NYC

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Woman with a parrot by Gustave Courbet

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is one of the premier art institutions in the world.

But with tens of thousands of works of art on display at any given time and two million square feet of exhibition space, it can be difficult to choose which works of art to seek out. In fact, it seems like you could spend days inside the museum and still not see everything.

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

"The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a treasure trove of masterpieces from every culture, time period, and medium, so choosing a mere fifteen is almost impossible," Kuan said. "The ones shown here are personal favorites — they stun me with their beauty, imagination, and power. More than just exceptional works of artistic achievement, these objects also demonstrate what human civilization can produce at its best."

Kuan also provided descriptions of these works, and told us why she thinks they're so important.

"The Harvesters" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "One of the never-ending delights of Pieter Bruegel the Elder is his depiction of everyday Netherlandish life. You can bask in every detail of the peasants enjoying a delicious picnic at the end of a day of hard labor in the golden fields."



Rodarte ensemble (2004) on view in The Costume Institute from May 9 to August 14. "This Rodarte knit dress captures that feeling of rebellion and sexiness that ground-breaking fashion designers inspire in all of us. The Met’s Costume Institute is one of the most important costume collections in the world and continues to wow us each year with spectacular exhibitions (and parties!)."




Fragment of a Queen's Face (ca. 1353–1336 B.C.). "Of all the extraordinary objects in the Met’s Egyptian collection, this fragment of a queen’s face blows me away with its exquisite and sensuous modeling. The yellow jasper seems as palpable as flesh and the sculpture is as modern as a Brancusi."



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'Russian Banksy' Pasha P183 Dies Aged 29

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pashaA prominent Russian graffiti artist who hid his identity behind the tag Pasha P183 and has been compared to Britain's Banksy has died aged just 29.

The Teatralnoye Delo theatrical production company, which recently commissioned him to create scenery for the musical "Todd," said he died on Monday in Moscow. It gave no further details.

Teatralnoye Delo's spokeswoman Regina Vartsan, who knew the artist, described him as a "sincere and open person of remarkable talent and unique vision."

Like Banksy, and late U.S. artist Keith Haring, Pasha P183 started out painting graffiti in the dead of night, and recalled being detained numerous times by Moscow police.

One of his most famous works was painted on the ground in a snow-covered yard and features a huge pair of glasses, with a lamppost serving as one arm. Another piece showed chocolate bars painted on a panel of concrete, an image he said reflected his abhorrence of the commercialization of art and life.

"I wanted that work to carry the most important message ... that a person mustn't sell himself," he said in a rare interview posted on adme.ru last year. "I made a chocolate bar that can't be bought, using a giant panel of concrete."

He said the work provided a more optimistic ending for a film he made — the original one had the hero jumping out of the window to his death, while the alternative had him landing safely in front of the chocolate bar.

Little was known about the artist, who carefully protected his identity. In the same interview, he described himself as an "anarchist" and spoke with contempt about the "constant run for money" in Moscow.

Many of his street works had political undertones and carried apparent references to a recent wave of massive street protests in Moscow against president Vladimir Putin's rule. One showed a protester lighting a flare and another work had shield-carrying riot police on a subway station's glass doors.

"Put simply, I want to teach people in this country to tell lies from the truth and to tell bad from good," he said in an interview with Russia Today television, wearing a black ski mask that covered most of his face. "This is what our people still cannot do."

Despite all that, he said he did not consider himself a political artist and hated politics just as much as he hated advertising.

The artist has claimed to have had many professions since graduating from a university, working as a computer expert, photographer, cameraman, film director, and even child psychiatrist. He scoffed at comparisons to Banksy, saying they belittled his own style.

Pasha P183's sets for the rock musical "Todd" are currently on display in Moscow.

"It was a colossal work," he wrote on his Facebook page of the production of the scenery. "If I die tomorrow, I can at least feel that I have left something real behind."

AP

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Steve Cohen's Art Dealer Explains Why The Purchase Of A $155 Million Picasso Was Not A Slap In The Face To The SEC

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Steve Cohen

Reports surfaced a couple weeks ago that billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, whose SAC Capital has come under scrutiny lately, secretly bought Picasso's "Le Rêve" from Steve Wynn for $155 million. 

It was assumed that Cohen had just purchased the painting after settling a $616 million insider trading probe with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  

That's not the case.

Cohen's art dealer went on record to clarify the timing of the purchase in an interview with the New York Times last week. Even Cohen gave a ten word comment on the record in a rare interview. 

The news was buried in an article about Cohen's ex-wife having her suit against him reinstated: 

DealBook's Peter Lattman and Carol Vogel report: 

Sandy Heller, Mr. Cohen’s art adviser, said on Wednesday that the sale was completed in early November of last year, a few weeks before the insider trading cases against SAC Capital entered a more serious phase with the indictment of one of his former employees. The purchase price was $150 million, not $155 million, according to people with knowledge of the transaction.

“The timing was bad,” said Mr. Heller, referring to last week’s reports about the Picasso purchase. “We’re correcting the chronology.”

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Cohen, a collector who also owns works by Jasper Johns and Damien Hirst, said that he had coveted “Le Rêve” for years. “When you stand in front of it, you’re blown away,” Mr. Cohen said.

Now that's settled. 

(Hat Tip: ShaneFerro)

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Here's The Weird Sculpture Of A Bald Man In Steve Cohen's Living Room

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Cohen penthouse

Looking at the listing photos for Steve A. Cohen's $115 million Manhattan penthouse, one thing caught our eye: a sculpture of a short, bald man with raised arms standing in a prime spot in the living room.

Cohen's a well-known collector of contemporary art. He famously owns Damien Hirst's sculpture of a shark in a tank of formaldehyde, and spent $137.5 million on Willem de Kooning's "Woman."

But we didn't recognize the bald-man sculpture, which appears over and over again in the listing photos.

picasso by maurizio cattelanSo we did some digging, and it appears that the work is by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist known for his satirical sculptures. It's a depiction of Pablo Picasso, which makes sense given the hedge funder's love of the artist  he recently bought Picasso's "Le Reve"from Steven Wynn for $155 million.

The work first appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998, as part of an exhibit where Cattelan looked at the concept of "art as mascot,"according to The Guggenheim's education center. The Guggenheim explains:

For the run of the show, an actor dressed as Picasso in a large molded head mask and the artist’s striped boatneck shirt occupied the galleries. This Picasso behaved like an amusement-park mascot, greeting crowds, posing for photographs, and signing autographs ...

The presence of Cattelan’s Picasso as a friendly face, an inviting host, resembled those cartoon characters come-to life at Disneyland, an emblem for lowbrow, wholesome amusement.

We couldn't find any record that Cohen himself bought the work, but a version (there are two) last sold at a Christie's auction in London in 2007 for $487,000.

Here's a close-up, from when the 7-foot-tall sculpture appeared at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2006. 

picasso by maurizio cattelan

SEE ALSO: Steve Cohen's Jaw-Dropping Penthouse Just Hit The Market For $115 Million

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There's A Massive Tax Break Behind Estee Lauder Heir's $1 Billion Art Donation

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leonard lauderLeonard Lauder, the billionaire heir to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, just donated an unprecedented 78 Cubist paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

It's a gift so monumental that even art appraisers have shied away from assigning an exact dollar value (Forbes is throwing around a $1.1 billion estimate, while one appraiser told ABC News it could be as much as $2 billion).

Lauder himself has been a long-time lover and collector of art, a well as a prominent philanthropist in the art world.

“Whenever I’ve given something to a museum, I’ve wanted it to be transformative," Lauder told the New York Times of his donation to the Met. “This wasn’t a bidding war. I went knocking, and the door opened easily.”

But there's no denying that behind that door was more than just the opportunity to cement his legacy for decades to come –– Lauder is also employing one of the most commonly used tax strategies of the wealthy. 

A family well-versed in the perks of charitable giving

The Lauder clan is no stranger to working the tax code in their favor. Leonard Lauder's brother, Ronald, is often cited in arguments for getting rid of the cushy tax breaks for charitable giving that hugely benefit the uber wealthy.

For example, it's no coincidence that Ronald's cable television network, CME Enterprises, maintains an official headquarters in Bermuda, a well-known tax haven. In a 2011 investigative piece by the New York Times, it was revealed that Ronald used his stake in Estée Lauder to create a tax shelter that allowed him to skirt around "as much a $10 million in federal income taxes for years." 

His brother's latest gift to the Met, though obviously a move that will immortalize him in the art world, is also conveniently another opportunity to reduce his taxable income.  

"There's always a motivation behind this kind of donation," Wayne Steiger, founder of FlowPay, a mobile platform for charitable giving, told Business Insider

"No. 1, I think people are generous, but in this day and age when you're doing tax planning, those things also have a great benefit to their estate." 

Current U.S. tax code allows taxpayers to deduct charitable donations up to 30 percent of their adjusted gross income (AGI).

"You can only deduct so much of your AGI, but the balance can be carried forward to another tax year," said Janet Briaud, chief investment officer of Briaud Financial Advisors in College Station, Texas. 

"That means you may not be able to deduct the whole value of the gift right away, but it may be deductible over a number of years." 

So is this donation the legacy Lauder is looking for, or simply a way to minimize his tax bill? 

Chances are it's a combination of both. Lauder spent more than four decades –– half his life –– meticulously cultivating his Cubist collection, which includes 33 Picassos, 17 Braques, 14 Légers and 14 works by Gris.

"For most people who give things like this, there's an issue of wanting to pass on something more [than just money]," Briaud said. "They want to make a difference. It doesn't have to be totally selfish, but it could be trying to leave that legacy. It's all part of the [estate] planning process."

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