Saatchi Opens Another Big Ambitious New Gallery "Saatchi has clearly spent a small fortune - one which he refuses to put a figure on publicly - and has been involved in all aspects of the building and the art in it. He was there yesterday despite the presence of so many of the types he normally tries to avoid: journalists. But exactly where, was another question." The Guardian (UK) 10/07/08

Dubai Says It Will Build World's Tallest Building - One Kilometer High "The tower, at the centre of the Nakheel port and harbour complex, is to be "over one kilometre" high and have more than 200 floors, beating its nearest rival, the existing Burj Dubai tower, still under construction and due to rise to a mere 818 metres." The Guardian (UK) 10/06/08

Sotheby's Stock Plummets "Sotheby's shares dropped $2.38, or 14 percent, to $14.64 as of 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. While the shares recovered at the end of the day with the rest of the market, they remain at their lowest since July 2005." Bloomberg 10/06/08

Generally Speaking, Art Market Is Sinking "A net balance of 34 percent more auctioneers and valuers reported prices falling for items estimated at 1,000 pounds and below in the quarterly survey completed last month. By contrast, a balance of 39 percent reported that prices rose for more expensive works of 50,000 pounds and higher as wealthy people snapped up trophy art. Contemporary art registered the strongest growth, with 41 percent more surveyors reporting increased prices." Bloomberg 10/06/08

Family Feud Clouds Future Of Important Tribal Art Collection Three years ago John and Marcia Friede had promised to give San Francisco's deYoung Museum "their entire 4,000-piece collection of tribal art from New Guinea, generally regarded as the best of its kind in private hands. The museum built an 8,000-square-foot wing to display the Friede collection and helped publish a lavish two-volume catalog of the works. Today the gift is in doubt, and many wonder whether the collection will remain intact." The New York Times 10/06/08

Discovery Of Australian Rock Art Rewrites History Discovery of a "collection of rock art recording life in the area for the past 15,000 years, up until 50 years ago" contradicts "the widely held assumption that the continent was isolated and largely unvisited until the First Fleet arrived in 1788. The paintings suggest that, on the contrary, the people of northern Australia have been interacting with seafaring visitors from Asia and Europe for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years." The Independent (UK) 10/05/08

Sotheby's Hong Kong Sale Falls Flat Buyers shunned the priciest lots and chose cheaper paintings and sculptures at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction, Asia's biggest art sale since the credit crisis grew last month. Bloomberg 10/06/08

Prominent Art Buyer Sues Sotheby's For "Deceptive" Practices An art collector is suing Sotheby's claiming that "the world's largest publicly traded auction house of 'a custom of deception' by concealing its financial interest in property it sells." Bloomberg 10/03/08

The Art Of Asking Permission "Artists Christo and Jeanne- Claude conceived the idea of suspending huge swathes of fabric over a river back in 1992. They scouted dozens of Western locations before settling on a mountainous stretch of the Arkansas River, a southern Colorado playground for whitewater rafters in view of old U.S. 50. The couple, both 73, are still waiting for a Bureau of Land Management permit to install their 'Over the River' project." Denver Post 10/03/08

Toronto's All-Night Art Crawl "Nuit Blanche is a free city-wide exploration of living art that takes place from dusk Saturday night to dawn Sunday morning. The 2007 version drew more than 750,000 people, congesting Toronto streets and leading to long lines for some events." CBC 10/05/08

Curators In The Dark Toronto's Nuit Blanche art festival is a unique event, and the people behind it are interesting characters, themselves, "shadowy figures... whose imprint on the dusk-to-dawn art prowl will be noticed everywhere." Toronto Star 10/04/08

Ancient Greek Sculptures Discovered In Sunken Harbor Wall "Greek archaeologists have discovered two Roman-era sculptures built into a sunken ancient harbor wall on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos. A statement from the Culture Ministry said Thursday that the stone torso of a man in armor and the head of a bearded man were found during an underwater survey in September at Mandraki, on western Kythnos." San Francisco Chronicle (AP) 10/03/08

New Museum Banks On Chemistry With Original Design "Banks will fail, as we've been reminded a little too often lately. But their buildings can still go on to lead long and productive lives," as is the case with the neoclassical home of Philadelphia's new Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum. Peter "Saylor, who has become something of a museum doctor for Philadelphia's dusty exhibit halls, has given the battered bank a glistening new interior that is so ethereal and restrained, it virtually dissolves into [architect John] McArthur's granite walls." Philadelphia Inquirer 10/03/08

An Artist Makes Himself At Home At The Whitney "Some artists are happy enough just having their work shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, but 37-year-old Corin Hewitt is actually moving in. For three months starting Friday, visitors will be able to observe him working every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the small gallery just off the Whitney's lobby. There he has created his own universe, an environment that is part kitchen, part office, part garage and part garden." The New York Times 10/03/08

Asian Art Market Has Seen Worse Days (That's Good News?) "Hong Kong's top art show attracted more galleries this year -- and none dropped out -- a sign Asia's art market can weather the financial slump, the organizer said. Andy Hei, antique-furniture dealer and organizer of the Hong Kong International Arts and Antiques Fair, said the region's market saw worse during the 1998 Asian crisis and the 2003 SARS virus outbreak." Bloomberg 10/03/08

Christie's Unwittingly Sells Stolen Art "Fourteen stolen portrait miniatures were inadvertently sold in Christie's King Street saleroom [in London] on 10 June, because their loss from a UK public gallery had not been publicised." The Art Newspaper 10/02/08

At Least One Contemporary Art Event Goes All Out for Beauty "While the Shanghai Biennale… [is] looking at urban growth and migration and their social and cultural consequences, and the Yokohama Triennial has… [chosen] to highlight the performative time-based aspects of current art practice, the Singapore Biennale has opted for the theme of 'Wonder'." International Herald Tribune 10/03/08

Gehry's First Work in England This summer's outdoor pavilion at London's Serpentine Gallery is, believe it or not, the first project Frank Gehry has had built in England. Time's Richard Lacayo swung by to have a look and take some pictures. (The surprise: No curves, just angles.) Time 10/01/08

Lee Wins Canada's Sobey Award "A Vancouver artist who has drawn on Neil Young and the Beastie Boys for inspiration has been handed this year's $50,000 Sobey Art Award... Using video, photography, sculpture and text, [winning artist Tim Lee] inserts himself into his work -- referencing and recreating pop cultural and historical icons such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Steve Martin and Public Enemy." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/02/08

D.C. Library Taps Prominent London Architect "The D.C. Public Libraries have hired one of London's busiest and most prominent young architects to design replacement buildings for two of the most distressed branches of its system... The choice of [David Adjaye], which came through a competitive process involving library officials and neighborhood representatives, is a remarkable statement of architectural ambition." Washington Post 10/02/08

Lawsuit Alleges Price Inflation At Auction House "The Sotheby's art auction house has repeatedly inflated prices by failing to make full disclosures when it has an ownership stake in some of the works it sells, according to a federal suit brought Wednesday." The plaintiff is CNet founder Halsey Minor, who was sued by Sotheby's for failure to pay for three paintings he had bid for in spring auctions. Los Angeles Times 10/01/08

Do Maya Lin's Earthworks Make Sense When They're Not Memorials? "With this new piece ['Storm King Wavefield'], her career seems bracketed by works whose successes and failures depend as much on whom they're for as how they look." Washington Post 09/29/08

The Yves Saint-Laurent Collection (of Art) Now Available "A massive collection of art amassed by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is expected to fetch up to $452 million at auction, Christie's has announced... The several hundred pieces going on sale include works by Picasso, Goya, Matisse and Mondrian, as well as drawings, art deco pieces, sculptures and antique furniture." CBC 09/28/08

The Stained Glass Windows Are of Microwaves "At a time when the gulf between religion and science is growing ever greater, an artist has erected a temple for scientific worship. Jonathon Keats, designer of the petri dish God, built The Atheon to get people thinking about what a scientific religion (or religious science?) would look and feel like." Wired 09/28/08

Unknown Dutch Masterwork Unearthed "A previously unknown work by 17th-century painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger has been discovered in an elderly woman's possessions, a Dutch art television program announced yesterday... The painting, dated to approximately 1620, also bears Brueghel's signature on the tree trunk." Toronto Star 10/01/08