Free Republic

It's every art gallery's worst nightmare: given the ability of forgers down the centuries, what if some of those priceless works of art hanging on the walls are... not real? A state-owned French art museum has discovered that more than half of its collection consists of worthless fakes and experts fear that other public galleries may also be stuffed with forgeries. An art historian raised the alarm after noticing that paintings attributed to Etienne Terrus showed buildings that were only constructed after the artist’s death in 1922. Experts confirmed that 82 of the 140 works displayed at the Terrus museum in...

Amherst Saxophone Quartet, Lukas Foss's Saxophone Quartet, Introduction and Canon. This will definitely NOT be for everyone. But if you enjoy modern art, it might be. And if the music doesn't work for you, try muting it and enjoying a 5 min Art History course in Early 20th Century Artists: Picasso, Goncharova, Braque, Metzinger, Gris, Malevich, Leger, Picabia, Boccioni, Gleizes, Kandinsky, Delaunay and Mondrian.

Offended by a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad etched in marble inside the U.S. Supreme Court chamber, a coalition of Muslim organizations is quietly pushing to have the artwork sandblasted into propriety. A petition signed by 16 groups across the country has asked that the larger-than-life frieze of great lawgivers be altered "in the spirit of religious tolerance and pluralism" because Islamic tradition discourages artistic renderings of people, and showing the face of Muhammad is considered particularly offensive. The Supreme Court refused to comment publicly on the controversy, but coalition spokesman Nihad Awad said there already has been one "fruitful"...

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have taught their daughter, Blue Ivy, the importance of investing in art. On Saturday night, the 6-year-old made several bids on art while sitting between her mega-star parents at the Wearable Art Gala in Los Angeles. The second annual event, put on by Tina Knowles and husband Richard Lawson, benefits the WACO Theater Center. During the swanky event, little Blue Ivy, who was wearing a matching gold dress like her mother, bid $17,000 on an acyclic painting of Sidney Poitier, reports Vanity Fair. Excited to make another bid, she lifted her paddle again raising the bar to...

Palo Alto Wants to Tear Down a Giant Computer-Egg Sculpture—But the Artist Says It Violates Her RightsAdriana Varella asserts that her work is protected under VARA.The Visual Artists Rights Act, known as VARA, could be set for another key test later this month, if the city of Palo Alto, California moves ahead with plans to remove a public artwork. Digital DNA, a large egg-shaped sculpture made of computer keyboards, has been situated in a downtown plaza since 2005. But after 13 years and numerous costly repairs, the city now says the work is prone to damage and is too expensive...

Look around you. The world is full of empty canvases. Everywhere you turn are empty walls where beautiful pieces of art could be, but often these spaces are overlooked in favor of boring blank nothingness. But fortunately for us there are artists out there who are determined to transform our world into the vibrant public art gallery that it deserves to be. Take a look at these before and after pictures of spectacular street art to see what we mean. Compiled by Bored Panda, the gallery below serves to remind us of what our towns and cities could look like...

The scion of one of America’s most successful business dynasties talks art and philanthropy“Mr Rockefeller has just taken his seat,” the woman at The Modern’s front desk tells me, but when I arrive at the table, it is empty. As I look around for the great-grandson of the man thought to be America’s first billionaire, I notice only five tables are full. Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may...

<p>KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia has apologised after a government ad in Chinese-language newspapers featuring a picture of a barking rooster to mark the Year of the Dog sparked a flood of mockery.</p> <p>The full-page advert by the domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism ministry showed a rooster emitting the word "wang", used to represent a dog's bark in Mandarin.</p>

RUSH: Brian, throw this on the switcher. Social media is having the greatest time with the portraits of Barack Hussein O and Michelle (My Belle) O. And I just want to show you one example. The Obama portrait interestingly is getting more heat than the Michelle portrait because of the “what is it” factor. What are these two trying to do? It’s obvious these two portraits are not gonna look like any other portrait anywhere, and that’s probably one of the objectives. But I think there are other components here. What we’ve just flashed up on the Dittocam is one...

Bocca Baciata (Lips That Have Been Kissed) |1859 | Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828–1882)

RUSH: Folks, I don’t know how I’m gonna do this. They had the official portrait unveiling today of Barack Hussein O and Michelle (My Belle) O, and I said, “Oh. My.” And so did the audience, when one of these portraits was unveiled. They did it at the Smithsonian. Now, I remember when the official portrait of Bill and the witch — ah, sorry — Hillary Clinton were unveiled. They did it at the White House. They had it in one of the rooms in the White House. George Bush welcomed the Clintons in and all of their buddies and...

Michelle Obama chose a racist artist to paint her official portrait Michelle Obama chose an artist named Amy Sherald to paint her official portrait.The New York Times writes of Sherald:Ms. Sherald only paints African-Americans.I can’t wait for all the social justice warriors who want the government to force bakers to bake cakes for gay weddings, to use the exact same logic to try to get the government to force Sherald to paint portraits of white customers.Just kidding. We all know those hypocrites are never going to do that.

A leading art gallery is facing a furious backlash after taking down a Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece in a bid to 'provoke debate'. Manchester Art Gallery has temporarily removed John William Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs in an attempt to rethink historical artwork that 'presents the female body as either a 'passive decorative form' or a 'femme fatale'.'

The National Gallery of Art will not present solo exhibitions by painter Chuck Close and photographer Thomas Roma, both of whom have been accused of sexual misconduct. The Close exhibition was supposed to open May 13, while the Roma show was planned for September. The decision to halt the shows was made earlier this month and marks the first time the gallery has canceled exhibitions because of public allegations against the featured artists, according to Anabeth Guthrie, the museum’s chief of communications.

A local councillor isn't happy. Earlier this week, Hull residents spotted a new mural on the city’s Scott Street Bridge – a black and white image of young boy waving a sword with a colander on his head, sat on top of a graffiti tag with the caption: ‘Draw the raised bridge’. The similarity to street artist Banksy‘s previous work prompted speculation that the piece was his, which was confirmed when he posted images of the artwork on his official Instagram account yesterday (January 26). Local Conservative councillor John Abbott has spoken out about the piece, calling for it to...

Another piece for a quick review of art history on a single, post-impressionist artist. The first part gives a rough, chronological pass through Toulouse-Lautrec's work, showing him as an academically trained portrait painter, whose style gradually developed into the poster style we're so familiar with. The second part shows his Moulin Rouge period work.

A woman from Dallas, Texas, faces up to life if prison if she is convicted on charges she damaged more than $300,000 worth of art at the end of a first date. The damaged art, owned by a prominent Houston attorney, includes two paintings by famed artist Andy Warhol.

A Utah art teacher was fired amid complaints that images of classical paintings containing nudity were passed out in a classroom and seen by sixth-graders, a newspaper reported. Mateo Rueda said he wasn't aware that a set of educational postcards from the elementary school library contained a few works depicting nudity when he handed them out during a lesson, the Herald Journal newspaper said Thursday. The two images seen by students were the Impressionist-era portrait Iris Tree by Amedeo Modigliani and the Rococo-style partial nude Odalisque by 18th-century artist Francois Boucher, the teacher said. Also included in The Art Box...

(The clerk and three customers reportedly took cover when Derringer came in waving the “gun” then soon chased him from the store.) An Ohio man by the name of Derringer cobbled together a “gun” made from household items and furniture legs in an attempt to knock over a Circle K on Christmas. Police in Akron took Jeffrey Derringer, 48, into custody on Monday after customers and staff at the convenience store chased the man into an empty parking lot and detained him, the Akron Beacon-Journal reported. The gun-like piece of industrial art that Derringer used in his failed stick-up...

In September 1975, The Grateful Dead released what was to become its highest chart-topping album for the next twelve years, Blues for Allah. In an interview at the time, the group’s lyricist, Robert Hunter, described the album’s title song as “a requiem for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a progressive, democratically-inclined ruler (and incidentally a fan of the Grateful Dead) whose assassination in 1975 shocked us personally.” Hunter went on to note proudly that the lyrics of the album, inspired as it was as much by Bach as by Eastern influences, were printed in Arabic on the back of album....