LONDON (AP).- Thieves have stolen a large bronze sculpture by one of Britain's most important modern sculptors from a London park. The sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, called "Two Forms (Divided Circle)," was discovered missing Tuesday morning after it was ripped from its plinth in south London's Dulwich Park. Local government officials said they will ask police and their metal theft unit to investigate the matter immediately. The theft came after Metropolitan Police on Monday dedicated a unit to tackle those who steal cables and car metal parts for scrap metal — a growing problem as prices for copper, lead and bronze soar. The sculpture had been insured for 500,000 pounds (US$783,080) and is considered one of Hepworth's most important later works. Local officials are offering a reward of 1,000 pounds for information leading to the arrest of the thieves.

BIRMINGHAM.- Smartphone users have a new reason to connect with the Birmingham Museum of Art – a new mobile site, designed to make access to important information about the institution easily available in an-easy to read, user-friendly way. The mobile site launched officially Dec. 1, and can be accessed on iPhones, or other smart phones running versions of Google’s Android operating system. Type www.artsbma.org into your smart phone browser, the same address used to access the BMA’s content rich website on a computer. Or type the actual mobile address – m.artsbma.org. Mobile site users will immediately see the simplified menu interface of the BMA page, and have access to streamlined content offering directions, visitor information, details about exhibitions, facts about the collection, events, and much more. Content on the site comes directly from BMA’s website, and is refreshed regularly. The site

NEW YORK, N.Y.- The landmark auctions of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie‟s New York from December 3-17 realized a combined total of $156,756,576 (£100,324,209/ €120,702,563) with every single item sold. The sale drew unprecedented interest from bidders throughout the world, who gathered in Christie‟s flagship Rockefeller Center saleroom to compete in person, on the phone, on-line and by absentee bid to win one of the Collection‟s 1,778 lots of jewelry, fashion, decorative arts and film memorabilia. The total far exceeded Christie‟s pre-sale expectations for the sale as a whole and for individual items, which were frequently hammered down for five, ten, or even 50 times their estimate in some cases. As one of the most highly-anticipated sales in auction history, the Collection generated intense interest from bidders throughout the world, with 36 different countries represented dur

NEW YORK, N.Y.- Asia Week New York—the collaboration of 34 top international Asian art specialists, five major auction houses, and 17 museums and Asian cultural institutions— will take place March 16–24, 2012, throughout metropolitan New York, it was announced by Henry Howard-Sneyd, Chairman of Asia Week New York 2012, and Sotheby’s Vice-Chairman Asian Art, Americas. “Asia Week New York provides an astonishing showcase for the strength and breadth of material that this city offers in all disciplines of Asian art,” said Howard-Sneyd. “In a few short years, New York has become an essential destination for international collectors, curators, scholars, and Asian art enthusiasts alike.” The week-long celebration is filled with a non-stop schedule of simultaneous gallery open houses, Asian art auctions (including Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle, iGavel, and Sotheby’s), as well

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The American Institute of Architects has selected, Alexander Cooper, FAIA, Daniel Feil, FAIA, and Robert Peck, Hon. AIA, to receive the 2012 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture. This year’s award recipients will be honored and receive their awards at the 2012 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Washington D.C. The Thomas Jefferson Award recognizes excellence in architectural advocacy and achievement in three categories: Private-sector architects who have established a portfolio of accomplishment in the design of architecturally distinguished public facilities (category 1); public-sector architects who manage or produce quality design within their agencies (category 2); and public officials or other individuals who by their role of advocacy have furthered the public's awareness and/or appreciation of design excellence (category 3). After graduating from Yale with

NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has expanded its digital publications resources, offering greater access to a range of content from Guggenheim publications, including the first exhibition catalogue to be published by a museum in an e-book format. A newly digitized selection of essays and historical materials dating back to the 1937 founding of the museum are also now available at guggenheim.org/publications. Museum publications currently offered for purchase as e-books include the catalogue for the current exhibition Maurizio Cattelan: All and the recently reintroduced 1970 children's book I'd Like The Goo-gen-heim. A number of essays on a wide variety of art historical topics are also now available as e-book singles. With selections such as Robert Rosenblum’s “From Realism to Symbolism, 1860–1900,” from the 2005 exhibition catalogue Russia!, essays are being digitally converted

JERUSALEM.- The Israel Museum presents a new exhibition that challenges our definitions of design and encourages a new discourse about the role design plays in shaping our world. Curious Minds: New Approaches in Design, which opened on December 16 and remains on view through April 14, 2012, focuses on mapping out new territories in today’s design arena. Today’s technology is allowing a new generation of designers to transcend previously conventional models of design development and manufacture. However, unlike their predecessors, many of these young designers do not reject the past in favor of new technologies, but rather draw inspiration from historical models to develop projects that combine the traditional with the new. Among the nearly forty works on display in the exhibition are works by Maria Blaisse, El Último Grito, Julius Popp, rAndom International, Raw Edges, Stefan Sagmeister, St

LONDON.- The past year (2011) saw a series of art world records broken at Bonhams salerooms round the world. These include: Chinese Art, Bonhams Hong Kong set a new outright world record for a Chinese snuff bottle on 28 November 2011, at the auction of the celebrated Mary and George Bloch Collection: Part IV at the Island Shangri-La Hotel, Hong Kong. The tiny, yet exquisite, ‘famille-rose’ enamelled glass ‘European-subject’ snuff bottle made in the Imperial Palace workshops in Beijing during the Emperor Qianlong period (1736-1795) measures only 8.07cm high. International bidders in the packed auction room and on the telephone battled the bidding up to a final figure of HK$25.3 million (US$3,328,400; GBP2,108,333). It set a new world record for any Chinese snuff bottle, beating Bonhams own record, established only eighteen months ago. One of the highest prices achieved at auction for Chinese cera-

NEW YORK, N.Y.- The unique cultural destination on the web, the VIP Art Fair, provides unrivaled access to key works from leading artists to a truly global audience. From 3-8th February, work from over 2,000 artists will be on view through presentations by 115 carefully selected galleries invited to participate. VIP connects all audiences in real time to experience the art works and share what they’ve seen. Scale has no bounds in the VIP Art Fair as galleries can present intimate drawings to giant museum scale works in their booth, allowing art enthusiasts from more than 30 countries to view them in larger than life resolution. Exhibiting galleries will present work in three carefully selected areas, alongside curated visitor tours, a Museums and Editions Hall, and artist and collector video series. VIP’s recent

PARIS.- Sotheby's final sale of 2011 in Paris, devoted to Asian Art, totalled €12.45 million against an overall pre-sale estimate of €6.5-9m. The highest price rewarded an 18th century cabinet formed by four carved zitan panels of dragons, from the reign of Emperor Qianlong. This remarkable item of furniture, of exceptional size, has exquisite carving in a wood reserved exclusively for imperial use. The cabinet was discovered and identified in a French private collection; its price of €2,528,750 reflects the importance bidders accord works of historic significance with an imperial background (lot 35). The sale's second-highest price of €960,750 went to a rare Qing Dynasty Chinese porcelain tea-dust Hu vase, with gold highlights and a Qianlong hallmark (1736-95). The vase's special glaze, imitating the oxidation of archaic bronze vases, reflects the amazing savoir-faire attained by the imperial po

YORK.- Heritage Minister John Penrose has protected one of the UK’s most outstanding historical sites whose importance has been established through work by the University of York’s Department of Archaeology. On the advice of English Heritage, the early Mesolithic site at Star Carr, North Yorkshire is being made a scheduled monument for its rarity and archaeological importance. The designation provides legal protection for the site where last year a team of archaeologists, from York and the University of Manchester, discovered Britain's earliest surviving house. The house dates to at least 9,000 BC - when Britain was part of continental Europe. The research team unearthed the 3.5 metres circular structure next to an ancient lake at the site, near Scarborough, which archaeologists say is comparable in importance to Stonehenge. They also

LONDON.- The first of the farewell letters written in the Antarctic by Captain Robert Scott as he realised that he and his team would not survive is for sale at Bonhams Polar Sale in London on 30 March 2012. It is estimated to make £100,000-150,000. The letter, which was found on Scott’s body in November 1912, was written on the 16th March of that year to financier Sir Edgar Speyer, honorary treasurer of the fund-raising committee for the ill-fated trip. In it, Scott expresses his great concerns for his family and the families of his companions and asks that the nation provide for their future. Sensing that the position was hopeless, Scott wrote, “I fear we must go...but we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen – I regret only for the women we leave behind. If this diary is found it will show how we stuck by our dying companions and fought this thing out to the end. “We very nearly

DEARBORN, MI. (AP).- The suburban Detroit museum founded by auto pioneer Henry Ford is revamping its automotive displays, offering a fresh look at its rich collection and showcasing the enormous influence of the automobile on culture and daily life in the United States. "Driving America" opens to the public Jan. 29 following a year of construction at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. It features some of the most significant cars ever built, from early production vehicles to modern rides, and examines how automobiles shape the nation. "It is an exhibition that resonates with us all and will challenge us to think differently about what we drive," Patricia Mooradian, president of The Henry Ford, said in a statement. The 80,000-square-foot permanent exhibit includes 130 vehicles and more than 60 cases of artifacts. Touchscreen displays will offer access to images, videos and oral histories, as well as allow visitors to explore parts

MELKSHAM.- The Art Fund has helped Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums buy Meditation, a 1972 sculpture by Dame Barbara Hepworth. The sculpture originally belonged to Sir Norman Reid, an artist and former Director of the Tate, who was given the piece by Hepworth shortly before her death in 1975. One of Barbara Hepworth’s late works, Meditation shows the artist at her most abstract. It consists of a solid piece of Irish green marble, carved to look like a naturally-worn boulder. The imitation of nature ends at the circle carved on one face of the sculpture, a clear sign of its man-made origins. Jennifer Melville, Lead Curator of Art at Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, said: “Aberdeen Art Gallery already had three examples of Hepworth’s work… Together these works covered the early and mid part of the artist’s career. The exceptional and extremely beautiful sculpture thus fills a very noticeable gap in th

LONDON.- A new display at the National Portrait Gallery plays tribute to the life and career of artist Richard Hamilton, who died earlier this year. Ten portraits of Hamilton, one of the founders of Pop Art in Britain, will form the display which was originally intended to mark the artist’s approaching 90th birthday. Richard Hamilton: Portraits of the Artist will run from 19 December 2011 to 14 May 2012 in Room 32 of the Gallery. Hamilton was a member of the Independent Group which, during the early 1950s, met regularly at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, to focus on the study of popular culture, particularly that emanating from America. He was fascinated by the visual language of contemporary society including advertisements, consumer products, packaging, fashion, cinema, magazines and design. He strove to both interrogate and celebrate mass culture through his art work. In addition to painting, Hamilton al

CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced that Suzanne Folds McCullagh and Martha Tedeschi--both accomplished Art Institute curators with specialties in earlier prints and drawings and American modern prints and drawings, respectively--have been appointed to key positions within the Department of Prints and Drawings. Suzanne Folds McCullagh, who joined the department in 1975, will become the Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Chair and Curator of Prints and Drawings , effective immediately. As head of the department, McCullagh succeeds Douglas Druick, who was selected as the Art Institute's President and Eloise W. Martin Director in August 2011. Martha Tedeschi, who joined the department in 1982, will become the new Prince Trust Curator in Prints and Drawing--the curatorship previously held by Druick--effective immediately. In making the appointments, Druick said: "Both Suzanne and Martha were members of the

NEW YORK, N.Y.- The first great age of portraiture in Europe, both north and south of the Alps, took place in the 15th century. For the first time since antiquity, portraits were used to record the features of a family member for future generations, celebrate a prince or warrior, extol the beauty of a woman, or make possible the exchange of a likeness among friends. The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from December 21, 2011, through March 18, 2012, will celebrate the Italian contribution to this rediscovery of the individual in art. It will bring together approximately 160 works—by artists including Donatello, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio, Pisanello, Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, and Antonello da Messina— media ranging from painting and manuscript illumination to marble sculpture and bronze medals, testifying to the new vogue

BALTIMORE, MD.- The Walters Art Museum announces the gift of enameled Russian silver bequeathed by Jean Montgomery Riddell. This collection is comprised of more than 260 objects from the 17th through early 20th centuries. Riddell, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 100, was a Washington, D.C. patron of the arts. Her collection was internationally recognized and ranked as the finest of its kind in the United States. Although she was particularly interested in Moscow enamels of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, her bequest also includes important additions to the Walters holdings of works from the firm of Carl Fabergé in St. Petersburg. “We are honored that the Walters has been entrusted with this extraordinary collection of Russian enamels,” said Walters Director Gary Vikan. “Jean Riddell believed that with our existing holdings of Russian art

SEATTLE, WA.- The Seattle Art Museum announced today that it has acquired two new important paintings for the European collection. Both of these works of art are fractional gifts to the museum from local collector and SAM Trustee Barney A. Ebsworth. Francisco Zurbarán’s (Spanish, 1598-1664) The Flight into Egypt (late 1630’s) addresses events following the birth of Jesus. Philippe de Champaigne’s (French, 1602-74) The Visitation (1643) is one of four paintings devoted to the Virgin Mary that were created for the family chapel of an official in the French royal court at the Church of the Oratory of Jesus in Paris. Both paintings will be displayed for the first time at the Seattle Art Museum starting Wednesday, December 21, 2011 in the European baroque galleries. Seventeenth-century religious painters strove to make stories from the Bible real and urgent for their contemporary audiences. Francisco de Zurb

AMSTERDAM.- From 21 December 2011 to 26 March 2012, the Rijksmuseum will be presenting the Dutch Winters exhibition at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The evolution of the 19th-century winter landscape will be displayed by means of eight atmospheric paintings. During the first half of the 19th century, Romanticism painting was at its height. In their winter landscapes, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek and Charles Leickert evoke an idyllic atmosphere and a love of nature. Around 1870, a new phase emerged in which the detailed brush strokes of the Romantic periode made way for a more tonal style of painting. The Hague School attempted to depict nature more realistically and to capture the atmosphere of a particular moment. The grey tones in the works of Louis Apol and Anton Mauve are typical of the style. At the end of the 1880s, Amsterdam Impressionism arose as a counterpart to this movement. Willem Witsen and Isaac Israëls use a m