Nicolas Cage's T-Rex Skull Is Stolen Property: Last Week in Art

Also, Cards of Humanity fans are voting to shred or save a Picasso print.

December 28, 2015, 2:35pm

A lot went down this week in the weird and wild world of Art. Some things were more scandalous than others, some were just plain wacky—but all of them are worth knowing about. Without further ado:

+ Yesterday it was announced the world lost master abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly. He was 92. [The New York Times]

+ The 1962 Picasso print, Tête de Faune, is at the mercy of Cards of Humanity fans: depending on their votes, it will either be shredded into 150,000 pieces or donated to a museum. [The Huffington Post]

+ Last Monday, the seven finalists in the running to design the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago were announced. [Curbed]

+ Kengo Kuma will design Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Stadium. Casually called the “hamburger,” the building is circular, approximately 165 feet high, and sports a roof of wood and steel. [The Japan Times]

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+ The coloring book artist Jayme Gordon, who claimed that Dreamworks had stolen the idea for Kung Fu Panda from his drawings (and subsequently demanded a multi-million dollar settlement from the company), was charged with fraud and perjury in a Boston court. [Artnet]

+ Joan Miró’s studio sketches and other unseen works will be part of a London show, organized by the artist's grandson. [The Art Newspaper]

+ We're counting down until the 2017 debut of Simon Schama, Mary Beard, and David Olusoga’s Civilisations, a 10-part BBC miniseries on the history of art across the globe. [BBC]

+ Nicolas Cage will return a Tyrannosaurus skull, which was discovered to have been actually stolen from its home of Mongolia. In 2009, Cage outbid Leonardo DiCaprio on the $276,000 dino noggin. Proud of him, tbh. [NBC News]

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+ Sindika Dokolo, a Congolese art collector, is on a mission to repatriate (now privately-owned) ancient African artifacts. [The Art Newspaper]

+ There is a Stephon Marbury museum in China. [Yahoo!]

+ So, you have artist friends? Do you have to like their art? [The New York Times]

+ The trials of the Wildenstein family, on multiple charges of tax evasion, are next month. [Art Market Monitor]

+ There is a modest #Wuseum (a formal shrine for The Wu-Tang Clan) at Staten Island’s St. George Library Center. [NYPL]

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+ A luminous glass sculpture of a sleeping figure comes to the streets of Bristol. Its creator Luke Jerram aims to raise money to aid the city’s homeless. [BBC]

+ Iran has reclaimed works of American art, purchased by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 1978 but blocked during the next year’s Islamic Revolution. [U.S. News]

+ Read: a Pyotr Pavlensky Op-Ed in The Moscow Times.

+ The 14th Factory is a $3 million exhibition housed at the 33rd Street Post Office Building which, after its six-week run, turns into an auction to profit New York-based charities. [The New York Times]

+ This Nashville artist paints on a hoverboard. [ABC News]

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+ An artist in Sheffield is painting so that you won’t drink and drive. [The Star]

+ The Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro explores human impact on Earth, from the prehistoric to the far future. [NPR]

+ The Elvis Museum in Denmark, previously known as Graceland in homage to the icon’s Graceland Mansion in Memphis, will now be called “Memphis Mansion” for infringing on the “Graceland” trademark. [The Guardian]