Earlier this summer, NJ resident Mark Lugo was spotted on surveillance video stealing a Picasso sketch from a San Francisco gallery. And inside his Hoboken apartment, police found 19 artworks, including a Fernand Léger 1917 drawing, "Composition aux element mecaniques," worth $350,000, taken from NYC hotels and galleries. Yesterday, in a Manhattan court, Lugo pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny and possession of stolen property related to six pieces. more ›

Mark Lugo, the Hoboken resident accused of stealing a Picasso sketch from a San Francisco gallery, must really love art: Police raided his NJ apartment and found 11 stolen artworks, many of them from Manhattan galleries. Among them was a Fernand Léger 1917 drawing, "Composition aux element mecaniques," worth $350,000, and another Picasso, the 1933 etching, "Sculpteur et Deux Tetes," worth $39,000. In fact, "Sculpteur et Deux Tetes" was taken from the William Bennett Gallery in Soho last month! more ›

Earlier this week, a man stole a Picasso sketch from a San Francisco art gallery. The thief was captured on surveillance video from a neighboring bar, which showed a man, wearing sock-free loafers, a dark jacket and large sunglasses, casually strolling down the street with the sketch tucked under his arm and then heading into a cab. Now, a suspect has been caught, and it turns out he's from the Garden State. more ›

The art world is in the money once again. A 78-year-old Pablo Picasso painting titled "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" just sold at Christie's last night for a record $106.5 million, though the auction house only expected around $70 million. The bidder is undisclosed, and called in to the Rockefeller Center salesroom. The painting is 5-by-4-foot and depicts Picasso's blond mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. Dealer Daniella Luxembourg told the Wall Street Journal she was surprised it took over the initial estimate, but that "the purchase reflected the market's volatile mood. 'This is a fantastic picture, but the market also wants trophies right now.'" Wonder how much the blowjob painting he denied having anything to do with would go for? (Currently it's hanging at the Met.) more ›

Following yesterday's news that a woman in an adult education class tore a 6-inch hole in a Picasso painting (whoops!), the NY Times has some details on what the consequences are for a clumsy catastrophe like that. more ›

Forget those dreams about showing up to school without your clothes on, how about showing up to art class — on site at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — and falling into an original masterpiece by Pablo Picasso! That's what one woman did in her adult education class on Friday afternoon. The NY Times reports that she lost her balance and fell into "The Actor," a rare Rose Period Picasso (circa 1905), leaving a six inch tear at the bottom right corner. The painting has hung there since 1952 and until now it has done so without incident. more ›

The Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim worked out an agreement with a German art collector's heirs right before the case was headed to jury selection. This allow the MoMA to keep "Boy Leading a Horse" (1905-1906) and the Guggenheim "Le Moulin de la Galette” (1900; pictured). Bloomberg News reports, "Both paintings had been in the private collection of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a German Jewish banker, who died in 1935. The plaintiffs claimed in the suit that the paintings were sold under duress and should be returned to the family." The family had argued the paintings' transfer to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's second wife was not legal; the museums said they were a gift to her and that they acquired them properly. The settlement was not disclosed, but Judge Jed Rakoff, who allowed the case to move to trial, believes it should be out in the open, "The public surely would want to know now and forever which of those diametrically different views was true, and the great crucible of a trial would have made that known." more ›

NYU owns the land under the complex and two of the three towers (the third is a moderate-income housing complex for neighborhood residents NYU was required to build). [The University] wished to build a 40-story tower on the soon-to-be-landmarked open space north of the Picasso sculpture, blocking the public view of the art work. GVSHP adamantly opposed the plan, saying it violated the entire notion of landmarking the complex, and urged the LPC to protect the open space as part of its designation. 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 ›

The AP reports on two Picasso paintings that have hung in the MoMA and Guggenheim for decades, and the fight to keep them there. Julius H. Schoeps claims they are the property of his great uncle who was persecuted in Nazi Germany, and has demanded the museums hand over the paintings, "Boy Leading a Horse" (MoMA) and "Le Moulin de la Galette" (Guggenheim). The suit was filed at the District Court in Manhattan. Both museums... more ›