If anyone knows paint color, it's the Guggenheim. The museum spent forever trying to decide on their new shade when they gave the joint a makeover back a few years back. And prior to that, it came out that Wright originally wanted the museum to be crimson red! So naturally, they're getting into the paint game to make some extra cash. more ›

Overnight internet sensation Ryan Gosling has finally spoken out about that somewhat awkward scuffle he jumped into earlier this summer, right on the mean streets of Astor Place. The then unknown Gosling decided to break up a fight going down in the middle of an intersection, where a man had been stopped after stealing a painting. Gosling eventually paid the artist for the work, and the thief was sent on his way with the stolen item, learning absolutely nothing about the consequences of his actions. Because everything is, this was all caught on tape and later put into the YouTubes, making the young man famous (he's even since been cast in a movie called Drive which we hear is really good). Watch him blush below—this kid's got a future!: more ›

Breaking: Andy Warhol paintings still fetch a lot of money at auction. According to the NY Post, his "Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable)" piece is expected to get up to $50 million when it's on the block at Christie's next month. Auction house spokeswoman Laura Paulson told the paper that the 1962 classic is an "incredibly important, very iconic work. When he painted the soup can picture... it changed the course of art history. No one had seen anyone do anything like this." There are only 11 large-scale soup can paintings, and 8 are held by museums. more ›

On July 17th artist Julie Torres was taken in by Brooklyn's Finest for painting on her own paper, that was taped up at North 11th Street and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. Plainclothes cops approached her on that afternoon and arrested her for graffiti, despite the fact she was painting a watercolor on her own store-bought paper that was only temporarily taped to a wall. The entire story is over at Hyperallergic, where they note that as Torres was being taken away by the cops, she asked if she could take her paintings with her because they were "her livelihood. She says the undercover cops started to laugh at her. 'You sell these, these are art? You’re a funny girl.'” more ›

This art caper is turning out to be better than the criminally underrated 1991 classic Hudson Hawk—okay, nothing is better than that, but it's pretty captivating none-the-less. To recap, six weeks ago a $1MM+ painting went missing after an art courier—James Haggerty—claimed to have lost it after having too many drinks following a failed sale of the masterpiece. Nearly two hours were unaccounted for between his leaving the hotel bar and getting back to his apartment, so one of the co-owners of the painting, Kristyn Trudgeon, decided to file a lawsuit. more ›

The tale of the missing masterpiece continues. At first alleged co-owners Kristyn Trudgeon and Tom Doyle were blaming drunken art courier James Haggerty on losing the Jean Baptiste Camille Corot painting, said to be worth around $1 million. Then Trudgeon had to drop her lawsuit against Haggerty when her lawyer found out Doyle is actually a convicted art thief! And then the FBI started investigating Doyle due to his sordid history with the painting, which, it turns out, was never even partially owned by him. more ›

Turns out the co-owner of the million-dollar 19th-century masterpiece, that was said to be lost by a drunken art courier, is really to blame for the missing painting. This isn't really a shocking development, as the co-owner is Thomas Doyle, a known art thief. He owned the painting with his (former?) lover, Kristyn Trudgeon, who earlier this month said, "He's a very honest, upstanding man. He's totally legit." She said this being fully aware that he had just got out of jail for stealing a $600,000 statue by Degas. more ›

Looks like we've got a nice art caper on our hands! That lawsuit that was just filed against an art courier, who claimed to have lost a $1.35MM painting after a bender, has been dropped. The majority owner of the painting, Kristyn Trudgeon, was the one who filed the suit against an art courier when her Jean Baptiste Camille Corot oil painting went missing. The courier was hired by Thomas Doyle, her lover and the minority owner of the painting. Got that straight? Okay, so the courier's name is James Haggerty, and he allegedly lost the painting after having a few too many drinks at The Mark Hotel, after he failed to sell the painting to a potential buyer he met at the bar there. more ›

A Manhattan man, hired by two old friends to assist in the sale of a painting, is now being sued for losing the Jean Baptiste Camille Corot masterpiece, which is valued at $1.35 million. According to the Daily News James Haggerty was entrusted with the painting by its owners, Kristyn Trudgeon and Tom Doyle, but says he lost it after having a few too many drinks at The Mark Hotel on East 77th Street. more ›

Hopefully all of you penis artists out there saw our announcement earlier this month about the big penis painting competition, because if you didn't, this is going to burn a little. more ›

After rotting in a basement since 1925, Yale University has discovered that a lowly, unsigned painting received as a donation is actually a work by Diego Velazquez. The painting, "The Education of the Virgin," was over 300 years old and in very poor condition when it was donated, and Yale threw it in with the rest of the artifacts they deemed unfit to put on public display. But in 2002, the Yale University Art Gallery was preparing for renovations, and the painting caught the eyes of curator Laurence Kanter and art historian John Marciari. Marciari told Bloomberg.com, "One day it hit me. It couldn’t have been more obvious. That’s early Velazquez." more ›

Pablo Picasso denied ever having painted this "Erotic Scene" piece (pictured), telling his friend, and author Pierre Daix, "I’ve done worse. But it was a joke by friends.” But he probably never counted on future experts having the capabilities of finding out if the sexually charged painting was indeed the work of Picasso's own hands. And it seems that it is! more ›

Melchiorre Martino, a 79-year-old Bensonhurst retiree, has recreated Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa masterpiece... with a few minor improvements. He talked to the Brooklyn Paper about his Martino Lisa, saying: “See all these blacks and dark colors in da Vinci’s? It’s because he worked in the dark. If he did it my way, with electric lights in his studio, he would have had more color.” He says his been offered $15,000 for his version of the famous portrait... but he's not sure if he's selling. We sort of wish he made the backdrop Brooklyn's Little Italy. more ›

A $100,000 gouache on paper painting stolen from midtown's Marlborough Gallery in 1989 was spotted recently and turned in by an eagle-eyed art dealer. Robert Landau, a Montreal-based gallery owner, was first approached about buying Paul Klee's "Portrait in the Garden" in December 2009 at a Miami art fair. He said he couldn't evaluate the 1930 work's authenticity on the spot, so the seller packed it up and mailed it to Canada, expecting a fat check in return. Instead Landau placed an urgent call to Homeland Security. He told the AP, "We don't deal in stolen art.'' more ›

Ever wonder what museum security guards are thinking as they stand next to great works of art for days, weeks and months on end? A new journal, Sw!pe Magazine: Guards’ Matter, addresses the question from the perspective of the workers themselves, reports the Times. It’s put together by 35 guards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, themselves working and aspiring artists in all different media from comics to photography (image gallery here). To accompany the release an exhibition of their work will be on view through tomorrow at 25 CPW Gallery at 62nd Street and Central Park West. “Being surrounded by the art, if you’re not helping someone, you’re just thinking about your work” said one featured artist, Jack Laughner. “I got my master’s at the Met,” he quipped. more ›

In light of the recent Picasso accident at the Met, it's sort of nerve-racking to see a masterpiece like this out in the open, no? One blogger recently spotted this painting being unloaded at the Guggenheim during lunchtime, noting how it "is only clad in plastic wrapping and the 2 handlers look about as professional as the college stoners I used to hire to move my Ikea furniture in a minivan." And what artist gets this kind of handling? Joan Miró, who is certainly worthy of some bubble wrap, at least. more ›

On January 27 Christies New York will auction off the largest Old Masters painting it has ever displayed. The 20-feet wide and 13-feet high clunker, Hubert Robert's "Le Pont Sur Le Torrent," was once owned by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearts and was commissioned in 1780 for the expansive dining room of the Hôtel du Luynes in Paris. Though it hasn’t been on view to the public for more than fifty years it’s expected to go for a price that equals its size—between $2 million and $3 million, reported NY1. So happy bidding! At least you know these people won't be showing up for the auction. more ›

A Manhattan woman who has been keeping her Andy Warhol original in the closet for decades, has finally taken it out of the makeshift storage room so she can cash in. The painting (a self portrait) will go on the auction block at Sotheby's on November 11th. The woman was reportedly a receptionist in Warhol's factory at age 17, and in 1967 he gave her the painting, which is inscribed to her. Why sell such a personalized gift? It's estimated there are about one million reasons. more ›

Sea Lions seem to be making all the headlines this year; this summer a baby one was born at the Bronx Zoo, and then the New York Aquarium started a new pricey Sea Lion program up for visitors. Now that the business world has been conquered, they're showing their creative side. more ›

Raise your one-gloved hand if you believe that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, only ever had one portrait of himself done in his entire lifetime. One couple is claiming they hold the one and only painting MJ ever posed for, and CityRoom reports that it's, unsurprisingly, now up for sale. It last sold nearly twenty years ago for $2.1 million, and it's now on display in a Harlem car showroom (at Lenox Avenue and West 129th) after being kept in storage in New Jersey. Classy! Just like the masterpiece itself. The portrait is by Brett-Livingstone Strong, a friend of Jackson's whose other work you can see here, and is currently owned by toy inventors Marty Abrams and John Gentilly. They say the painting hasn't drawn many crowds, because “we don’t put a big sign in the window, ‘Michael Jackson Painting Here.’” Speaking of New Jersey toy collectors with connections to Michael Jackson, under the June 28th entry here, a significantly lesser known musician discusses his dinner with the King of Pop at a toy inventors home in New Jersey. more ›

This is sort of like a storyline out of House—imagine a cold opening where a young artist falls ill from a headache, and upon being diagnosed her happily-ever-after doodles become dark, borderline-psychotic masterpieces. The NY Post has a story on 33-year-old Alison Silva, a painter from New Jersey, who the paper claims "is a medical marvel whose tumor left her with blinding visions—and breathtaking ability." Silva actually has painted since she was younger, but when she discovered her lifelong battle with headaches was actually being caused by a brain tumor that could kill her—well, her vision changed a bit. Now each of her dark paintings sell for around $7,500 apiece. She told the paper, "I had to do a lot of thinking when I was diagnosed. The tumor is right by my memory, so I was scared with the thought of having to start over." She added, "It took me to a darker place. It changed a lot of my art work. It got darker because I wasn't afraid anymore." Well, art imitates life, right? more ›

The New Museum seems to be a magnet for strange activity. Earlier this year a dead deer was spotted outside of its doors, and now AnimalNY reports that "during the press preview for the New Museum’s triennial exhibition, 'Younger Than Jesus,' someone hung a giant banner stating 'Please, New Museum, Show My Work' on the facade outside." It was promptly removed, but a painting across the street with the same plea was also spotted. Until the artist reveals him/herself however, the stunt has failed since no one knows who the work belongs to. However, someone with video capabilities happened to be nearby when the banner was still up, and they made a video including both that and the painting—ultimately asking the artist to unmask thyself. We've asked the New Museum to comment on the artwork, but have yet to hear back. more ›

A couple of years ago TBS made a collage so that hardcore fans of Seinfeld could test their knowledge on the show, which went off the air 11 years ago. But this Brooklyn-based artist's is much more detailed and challenging. Can you be the master of this domain? Kiersten Essenpreis's piece includes around 99 Seinfeld references—sit down with those unwanted muffin stumps and see how many you can guess (the cheat sheet is also on the artist's site). [via Listicles] more ›

Today the New Museum will unveil a painting "in tribute to incoming First Lady Michelle Obama." The portrait, titled "Michelle and Sasha Obama Listening to Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention August 2008," will be a new component to the exhibition Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. Stop by the 4th floor to see it for yourself! more ›

Even though Lars Ulrich recently declared the art market is "perhaps the last frontier where the best of the best will not go the way of the rest of the economy," it seems the Metallica drummer doesn't have a very good read on the climate after all. The NY Times reports that "a Picasso Cubist painting that was to have been a star of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale on Nov. 3 has been abruptly withdrawn." The artist's Arlequin (ca. 1909) was expected to take in over $30 million, but "fears that art prices were heading the way of the world financial markets" may have changed the seller's mind. Sotheby's confirms that, as of now, the painting is off the market. At the very least, the painting's history is worth reading about: The Times details how its previous owner, Surrealist painter Enrico Donati, came to purchase it (knowing Marcel Duchamp may have come in handy!). more ›

Following in the footsteps of U2 bassist Adam Clayton, Metallica's Lars Ulrich is now set to auction off his Jean-Michel Basquiat. The painting will be on the block at Christie's in New York come November 12th, and the NY Times reports that it "depicts a victorious black boxer, his hands waving in the air, against a richly painted background filled with the artist’s signature graffiti scrawl. The figure is part hero, part warrior, part victim. It is also said to be autobiographical." Ulrich bought the painting in 1999, and it's expected to bring in around $12 million minimum at auction. Of his timing, he said, “Of course it’s an awkward time to sell, but I’ve always been about taking chances." He added: "I have a lot of faith in the art market. It’s perhaps the last frontier where the best of the best will not go the way of the rest of the economy.” [via the Observer] more ›

Nylon has some shots of the new Keith Haring mural going up on E. Houston as a tribute to the artist on his upcoming birthday, May 4th. Still a work-in-progress, you can find it between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. more ›