The Metropolitan Museum isn't exactly known as a bastion for coolness, but gosh darnit if the revered institution isn't trying to change all that—they've gone and hired a new curator to spiff up their contemporary art collection. Does this mean naked people won't get arrested in there anymore? more ›

The city won't allow cupcakes to be sold at school bake sales, but peddling them outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is okay. To compete with unauthorized vendors who've invaded the spot, they're going to start selling the tasty organic desserts, via Queens-based Culinary Engineers, Inc., reports the Post. The bakery will pay $108,000 in the first year of a five-year contract, and has also been awarded a permit to sell in Washington Square Park. But what about tourist obesity?! more ›

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will adorn its rooftop garden this summer with big bunches of bamboo. The exhibit, appropriately titled “Big Bambú,” is site-specific and designed by Doug and Mike Starn—who have previously installed a similar exhibit in Beacon, NY. more ›

After eight years of work costing more than $50 million dollars, The Metropolitan Museum is set to relaunch its Islamic Galleries in the Fall of 2011, but when the new rooms open, don't expect to see any paintings of the Prophet Mohammed. more ›

Not too long ago there was some pole dancing for arts sake on the L train. Well, yesterday photographer Zach Hyman (he's like the one-model-at-a-time version of Spencer Tunick) brought his nude subject to a museum. Surprisingly, it seems the MTA is cooler with the naked human form than the Met is! more ›

The "Wiener Wars" taking place outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art may have sparked a debate over just how much money food cart vendors rake in, but one thing seemed agreed upon—Met vendor Dan Rossi was raking in the dough. Well not any more, the city says. A loophole for veterans allowed Rossi to park his cart in the high profile spot without having to (frank) foot the bill of $600k in rent paid to the city by Pasang Sherpa. But now the Vietnam Vet tells the Post that the city has declared the strip along Fifth Avenue "a street," meaning that his special privileges no longer fly there. Nonetheless Rossi tells the paper that he "would be back [today], even if it means getting arrested." He also tells them that he is the only veteran who owns his cart, but that other carts utilized the exception by hiring vets to man their stands. More concerning to us: if Rossi gets tossed, where will the recently evicted, overbidding Sherpa turn now?? more ›

Swooping in like a regular Mister Monopoly riding in on his hot dog cart (or was it a wheelbarrow?), vendor Dan Rossi has come to the rescue of fellow frank seller Pasang Sherpa after Sherpa was evicted from his high-priced spot outside the Met. Yesterday news broke that Sherpa was $300,000 behind on the $600K+ in annual rent he was supposed to be paying the city to sling dogs outside the Upper East Side museum. That prompted Rossi, who is able to set up his stand without paying rent due to an exception for veterans like him, to invite Sherpa to join his edible empire. When asked about his former rival turned subordinate, the winner of the wiener wars told the News, "He's gonna work for me now. Nobody's gonna touch him now without talking to me...The guy was crying. They pushed him out." Rossi also called for the Parks Department to crack down on unlicensed, "black market" vendors nearby saying, "I sell water for $2 and the others sell it for $1. If I charged $10 a hot dog maybe I could compete." more ›

Yesterday the Metropolitan Museum of Art sent out a statement announcing 74 layoffs at its stores (following 53 layoffs last year) with more to come from the museum's overall staff. The NY Times reports that as many as 250 full and part time jobs may be lost before summer. While the cuts will hit every department, including curatorial, Met officials have declared the changes won't affect the museum's hours, exhibitions or standards. On top of endowment losses, "the museum will receive $1.7 million less in operating help from the city this year and has been told to expect another cutback that could be as high as $2.4 million in the next fiscal year." With the recession hitting even the most prestigious of institutions these days, the paper notes that the layoffs are also in part due to problems that its merchandising arm have been facing. If you'd like to help, they also shared that membership renewals have been on the decline (wink wink, nudge nudge). more ›

With the Metropolitan Museum's appointment of its curator Thomas P. Campbell as its new director starting next year, the speculation has begun. The NY Times' Michael Kimmelman writes Campbell is "regarded as energetic, level-headed, popular, not visibly unhinged — like at least one curator turned Met director of the past — and not someone whose career was a long public campaign for the job" and says Campbell's success with mounting well-received tapestry shows proves he "knows firsthand the potential of the museum’s sometimes-neglected collections." However, Arts Journal's Lee Rosenbaum was disappointed at Campbell's press conference, acknowledging he was likable but nervous, and wished he were more substantive (he "appeal[ed] for more time to come up with meaningful answers"). more ›

After an eight month-long search, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that one of its own curators will succeed outgoing director Philippe de Montebello. Thomas P. Campbell, 46, is Curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts (and Supervising Curator of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center) and mounted the successful Tapestry in the Renaissance and Tapestry in the Baroque shows. Met Board of Trustees chairman James R. Houghton said of Campbell, "He is a distinguished art historian and outstanding curator, who is an ardent advocate for scholarship, connoisseurship, and the highest museum standards, as well as a solid manager and diplomat accustomed to preparing all facets of major exhibitions." And de Montebello, who will step down at the end of the year, said, "Tom Campbell, in my view, is absolutely the right selection." more ›

Tourists, museum-goers and Gossip Girl-esque Upper East Siders...the Metropolitan Museum steps are no longer for you to sit on...at least, temporarily. CityRoom reports that the steps are undergoing a yearlong renovation, and until the project is done, the 1/3 of the steps left open are for walking only. Even tourists taking photos with the famous backdrop are getting booted. more ›

Jeff Koons' rooftop installation at The Metropolitan Museum opened today, featuring three stainless steel sculptures with transparent colored coatings. The three pieces are Balloon Dog (Yellow), Sacred Heart (Red/Gold), and Coloring Book, the last being the representation of a sloppily colored-in illustration of Piglet, from the Winnie the Pooh series. more ›

Art is often accused of being contrived, especially in comparison to nature. But some of New York's most well-loved natural landscapes are themselves largely artificial, so it's interesting to see an artist like a photographer double-back on a landscaper's craft. Photographer Lee Friedlander did exactly that with with a lens pointed at the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, the co-designer of Manhattan's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. more ›

The NY Times reports on a farewell of sorts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this weekend. The Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year old vessel, will depart its home for nearly 30 years on Sunday and make a trip to Italy, where that country's government has been vying for the piece.

The krater, a Greek bowl for mixing water and wine, will be sent to Italy as part of an agreement reached nearly two years ago with that country’s government, which has long contended that the artifact was illegally excavated from a tomb in Cerveteri, near Rome. The Met bought the krater in 1972 for $1 million from Robert Hecht, an antiquities dealer who is now on trial in Rome on charges of conspiring to traffic in looted artifacts. (Mr. Hecht denies the charges.)

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for three decades, has announced his retirement; he’ll be leaving as soon as a successor is found. The 71-year-old French born Harvard graduate called it a “wrenching” decision but finally concluded that “to stay much further would be to skirt decency.” more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on East 112th St. and 3rd Ave. in Manhattan, shots fired at 132nd St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan, and a commercial burglary on 4th Ave. and 90th St. in Brooklyn.
• Page Six lists its top ten scoops of the year. #1 is about Rosie O'Donnell's writer being escorted from The View offices for drawing magic marker mustaches on pictures of Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and rumors that O'Donnell might quit the show.
• James Colliton, the lawyer who pleaded guilty to having sex with two underage sisters and served 18 months in jail, is suing the 188-year-old law firm Cravath, Swaine, and Moore for $1.45 million he feels the firm owes him after he was fired. Colliton's lawsuit was handwritten on notebook paper.

ART: The Met opens its doors on a Monday for a special Christmas Eve event. They suggest stopping by for the 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene Christmas tree, along with some of their special exhibits -- the Age of Rembrandt, Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works and their fashion exhibit will stock your stuffing with eye candy. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens.
• An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was also sure to repeatedly refer to black people using the "N-word." [No link yet, but we saw the story on NY1.]
• The mother of an escaped convict is telling him through the press to keep running, and knows some day he'll be exonerated of his crime. We foresee either a one-armed man eventually brought to justice or subsequent imprisonment in a South American jail.
• Civil disobedience on 5th Avenue. We did not realize this, but the city has offered free vendor licenses to military veterans since the Civil War. Dan Rossi is protesting the curtailment of the practice by parking his hot dog cart right in front of The Metropolitan Museum.
• There's an interesting installation at the Gavin Brown Enterprise on Greenwich St. created by artist Urs Fischer, who's dug a hole in the ground. It is an absolutely enormous hole in the ground.
• Michael Douglas is the new announcer for the NBC Nightly News. Anderson Cooper responds that he would also consider a celebrity announcer, like Fran Drescher, Clint Eastwood, Paul Reubens, or Cher.
• Macy's is going to stay open 24 hours a day until Christmas Eve. Those are going to be some tired elves.
• A siamese cat named Yoda was bludgeoned to death in an Upper East Side doorman building. Sarah Favorite, the girlfriend of Yoda's owner, was arrested and is being charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police officer was struck on Richmond and Wilson Aves. on Staten Island, there was a large fight on Franklin Ave. and Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a double homicide on Furman Ave. and East 237th St. in the Bronx.
• The US Postal Service is expecting to process one billion individual pieces of mail today, three times the daily average. The busiest day of the year is expected to be Wednesday.
• Interboro Institute, the two-year commercial college, is going out of business due to financial and regulatory problems.
• Oysters used to be one of the most plentiful animals in NY Harbor. Now they're making a recovery in one of the most unlikely of places--the Gowanus Canal.
• The Metropolitan Museum received quite the holiday present when the estate of Diane Arbus presented it with the photographer's entire archives as a gift.
• The airline industry is seeking in court to block a passenger bill of rights that originated in New York due to horrendous service.
• The city's looking to combat the obesity of New Yorkers (we're less obese than the rest of the country) by increasing the number of permits issued to food cart vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Collaborative sleuthing tries to dig up why the planned Brooklyn College dorm that used to be under construction seems to be going nowhere.

ART: Art, fashion and blogs meet tonight at the Met. In an exhibition entitled blog.mode: addressing fashion, viewers will be able to comment on what they see. It's "the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present." Visitors are then encouraged to share their reactions online or from a "blogbar" of computer terminals in the exhibition galleries. Pictured is one of the dresses -- you know you have comment about it. more ›

Have you re-read the classic coming-of-age JD Salinger novel, Catcher in the Rye, lately? amNewYork takes a trip down memory lane, and 5th Ave, with a pair of Holden Caulfield-tinted glasses. Apparently people like the Central Park Conservancy historian get a ton of inquiries about the New York references in the novel. The most popular question, "Where do the ducks go in the winter?" Referring to the ducks in the Central Park pond that our... more ›

Lawrence Salander, whose East 71st Street townhouse gallery Salander O'Reilly has been padlocked by order of a judge amidst numerous lawsuits, maintains he does not have any money troubles. Even though investors and others accuse him of selling paintings without their permission and of Ponzi schemes, Salander told the NY Times, “When people say it’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s a house of cards — I’ve got millions of dollars of assets here. It’s beyond belief.” more ›

We got mixed reviews in our poll about the Sex and the City movie that's coming out more than three years after the show ended its HBO series. Whether we wanted it or not, the movie is going to happen -- and film crews and cast have already arrived. more ›

As it is the week before Labor Day, many area schools are welcoming a new class of students to New York in what is generally known as an orientation week. The New York Sun reports on various efforts schools put into shepherding thousands of 18-year-olds into NYC.

First-year students arriving at Barnard, Columbia, and New York University have many activities to choose from this week, including: yoga classes, exclusive tours of the new Greek and Roman galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, chartered Circle Line cruises to the Statue of Liberty, mini-manicures and aromatherapy at on-campus spas, Coney Island beach parties, scavenger hunts in Times Square, walking tours of the East Village and Park Slope, shopping expeditions to SoHo, outings to popular local eateries such as Magnolia Bakery, and a chance to compete for free tickets and reservations to the city's hottest shows and hard-to-get-into restaurants.

Brooke Astor's funeral service will be held tomorrow afternoon at Saint Thomas Church in Manhattan, but legal papers have already been filed contesting the doyenne of NYC philanthropy's will. Family and friends have been arguing about the legitimacy of Mrs. Astor's final will and testament for a while now, after major adjustments were made to the document in 2002 - a time when Astor was allegedly suffering from reduced competency - as well in the following years. more ›

The city of New York is mourning the death of Brooke Astor. The philanthropist, who died yesterday at age 105, had channeled millions from her husband's fortune into a numbers of institutions and organizations - from Carnegie Hall to small community groups across all boroughs. The NY Times obituary makes a very good point about why the $195 million she donated through the Astor Foundation was so important: "Although the foundation was not large compared with powerhouses like Ford, Rockefeller and Carnegie, its contributions often served as seed money: others followed, knowing that if Mrs. Astor had given her seal of approval to a cause, it was worthy of support." more ›

Brooke Astor passed away today. A gentleman should never ask a lady her age, but once Brooke Astor passed the century mark, she probably didn't care who knew how old she was. Brooke Astor was the wife of Vincent Astor, the only son of John Jacob Astor IV, who died in the sinking of the Titanic. The Astor family's roots stretch back almost as far as the history of New York City itself. The subway station at Astor Place in Manhattan is decorated with beavers, the animal whose pelt was the foundation of the family fortune before John Jacob Astor began buying large swathes of New York real estate. more ›

Last week, we mentioned that the Metropolitan Museum of Art confirmed plans to show the Damien Hirst work, , a.k.a. "the shark floating in formaldehyde" to laymen. The museum sent us this cool image of the piece, so we couldn't help but mention it again. more ›

, also known as the shark in a tank by British artist Damien Hirst, will be shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Labor Day, according to the NY Times. The artwork, bought by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen for $8 million, isn't the exact same one that was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art's Sensation show in 1999 - the shark has since been replaced, as it started to rot almost immediately (note to conceptual artists thinking about suspending animal carcasses in formaldehyde- the carcasses need to injected with formaldehyde too). more ›