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DENVER (Reuters) - A 36-year-old woman was accused of causing $10,000 worth of damage to a painting by the late abstract expressionist artist Clyfford Still, a work valued at more than $30 million, authorities said on Wednesday...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP/The Blaze) — Maine Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Augusta. In addition, the LePage administration is renaming several department conference rooms that carry the names of pro-labor icons such as Cesar Chavez. LePage spokesman Dan Demeritt said the mural and the conference room names are not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals and some business owners complained. “The message from state agencies needs to be balanced,” Demeritt told the Sun Journal. The mural was erected...

Does anyone know more about the framed artwork to the right of Obama's desk in the Oval Office? I have unsuccessfully tried to research it, to discover the photographer or where it can be better viewed. According to the article linked, "the one on the right is a photo of the arm of The Statue of Liberty holding the torch."

Queen’s University Classics professor emeritus Ross Kilpatrick believes the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, incorporates images inspired by the Roman poet Horace and Florentine poet Petrarch. The technique of taking a passage from literature and incorporating it into a work of art is known as ‘invention’ and was used by many Renaissance artists. “The composition of the Mona Lisa is striking. Why does Leonardo have an attractive woman sitting on a balcony, while in the background there is an entirely different world that is vast and barren?” says Dr. Kilpatrick. “What is the artist trying to say?”

*NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” The question still requires debate but the facts do not. The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable. But some have claimed that...

OMAHA, Neb. —  A Nebraska man who stole a painting of the Virgin Mary to finance an abortion for a teen he raped has been convicted of first-degree sexual assault and felony theft. Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez, 39, of Omaha pleaded no contest to the charges Friday and faces up to 70 years in prison when sentenced in October, Douglas County prosecutor Brenda Beadle said Saturday. A call to the county public defender representing Vallerillo-Sanchez wasn't answered Saturday. Beadle said Vallerillo-Sanchez fled to Mexico with the 300-year-old painting worth $100,000 and the pregnant teen in March 2007. "The plan was that when they...

NEW YORK (AP) — A Roman Catholic watchdog group is protesting a student art exhibition in which religious symbols including a crucifix and rosary are depicted in sexually explicit paintings."I have the sneaking suspicion that these paintings made the cut precisely because they were an assault on Catholic sensibilities," Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, said in a statement Thursday.The works on display at the private Cooper Union school include paintings, sculpture, graphic design and video installations chosen by the faculty. The exhibit began May 27 and ends June 10.The target of the protest...

Those of you Ipod literate: I have moved a number of songs from my computer files onto my Ipod. I'd like to get the artwork for many of these songs, which I can save as an image from, say, Amazon or CDNOW---it's more convenient to quickly see, "Oh, I don't want this song" without reading the title. Itunes will only let you get artwork for THEIR stuff, and the artist/title must be exact, down to the comma, or it won't grab the artwork. (This is particularly tough with songs from movie soundtracks, as the titles vary slightly---"Music from the Original...

DETROIT - A man charged with smuggling dlrs 12 million in bogus cashiers checks into the United States told agents the man named on the checks may belong to al-Qaida, authorities said Wednesday. Omar Shishani, 47, also told investigators during an interview that "if you want to know about terrorism, I can help you with that," Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Straus said during a hearing. Defense attorney Nabih Ayad denied his client ever made such statements. Shishani, who was born in Jordan but is of Chechen descent, was arrested last week after arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a flight...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In an unusual exhibit, the Vatican Museums has assembled 100 art works inspired by the New Testament vision of the Apocalypse. While the paintings, statues and engravings depict some catastrophic scenes, the emphasis is on hope and the victory of good over evil. In that sense, the exhibit takes a page from Pope Benedict XVI's audience talks last year, in which he said the Book of Revelation -- also known as the Apocalypse -- should not be read as a frightening warning of imminent destruction, but as an encouraging Christian vision. The images unveiled at the...

Secret Service agents have questioned an Alameda man about a display in his front yard featuring a cardboard cutout of President Bush with a knife through his head. Michael McDonald said he was grilled for about 90 minutes by two agents who asked about his personal history and his political views. They also asked him to allow access to his medical records, he said. The cutout also shows painted blood running over the president's eyes and down the bridge of his nose. McDonald said the federal agents asked if he interpreted his work as a threat against the country's chief...

Governor's spending lavish By Kevin Wingert rep3@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - The chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party leveled a charge Friday that Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal is living a "high-rolling lifestyle" at the expense of the residents of Wyoming. "We knew from his budget proposals that the governor was a big spender, but what we found he spends on VIP treatment of himself is unconscionable to Wyoming citizens," Drake Hill said in a release about the Democratic governor, who currently is running for re-election. "Who else do you know that has a $50,000 lawn ornament?" Hill...

The government can decide what artwork is worthwhile without being accused of censorship as long as it is funding that art, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience Thursday at the Juilliard School. "The First Amendment has not repealed the ancient rule of life, that he who pays the piper calls the tune," Scalia said. The justice, who limited his discussion to art issues, said he wasn't suggesting that government stop funding the arts, but that if it does fund artwork, it is entitled to have a say in the content, just like when it runs a school system....

The Art of Politics, PatriotismSacUnion.com Staff Report Published: July 29, 2005 (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) A painting titled "T'anks to Mr. Bush!" by attorney-artist Stephen Pearcy, is displayed in the Department of Justice cafeteria in Sacramento. ** (Photos from Thursday’s protest are located below.)** The California Department of Justice building has become ground zero over a collection of artwork that critics have attacked for being ‘anti-American.’ The most controversial painting depicts the U.S. flag in the shape of the United States being flushed down a toilet. Thursday night the debate was elevated to new heights as more than 600 hundred people...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (July 29, 2005) -- Representatives from one of the Marine Corps' most decorated battalions bestowed to the depot a limited painting reproduction signed by more than 30 Medal of Honor recipients at James L. Day Hall July 15. Second Battalion, 4th Marines Association veterans presented one of three prints to depot commanding general Brig. Gen. John M. Paxton Jr., who once served with 2/4. Medal of Honor recipient Robert E. O'Malley's wife, Lily, created the artwork, which displays images of World War II, Vietnam and Korea. The print will hang at the command...

In California the State Attorney General has put up a display of Anti-American artwork - sponsored by the Attorney General's office, displayed in the California Department of Justice building (taxpayer funded) and co-sponsored by another taxpayer funded agency (the California Arts Council). There is a poll - do you find the display acceptable? You can see the "artwork" in display at taxpayer expense - SEE THE "ART" HERESo FReepers - Vote to Say THIS GARBAGE SHOULDN'T BE SPONSORED BY TAXPAYERS IN A STATE BUILDING - CLICK HERE AND VOTE!!

At long last, what the media wouldn't tell you about...BILL AND HILLARY'S 11TH-HOUR CRIME SPREE Final Days by Olson, Barbara "Disgraceful." That was former president Jimmy Carter's word for the final days of the Clinton administration. But as the late Barbara Olson shows in this riveting book, it was worse than disgraceful; it was well-nigh criminal. Here's the whole shocking story of a manic Clinton White House consumed with self-enrichment, gifts, pardons, federal land grabs, and an orgy of spending and regulating. If the Clinton administration was the most corrupt in American history, here was its most obscenely corrupt moment....

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - Faced with the prospect of costly legal action, city officials Wednesday restored a public artwork featuring quotes about war and peace - including political commentator Bill Maher's definition of "a real coward." Last month, City Manager Mike Rock ordered the removal of one of the 22 stones in Gayla Lemke's ceramic "Hope Stones" at the Lakewood Cultural Center in suburban Denver. The stone contained a quote attributed to Maher: "A real coward is someone who drops a bomb from a protected space several thousand feet up." Rock said he was concerned the quote could lead to...

Churchill Art Piece Called Into Question by CBS4 News reporter Raj Chohan Feb 24, 2005 8:03 pm US/Mountain BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) Boulder County resident Duke Prentup has been a fan of native American art for as long as he can remember. That love of art took him to the home of Ward Churchill in the early 1980's, where Prentup bought several pieces of Churchill's art, including a serigraph titled "Winter Attack." "I have enjoyed them ever since immensely, they're obviously up inside my house," Prentup said. Last month came a stunning revelation, though, as as Prentup flipped through a 1972...

MIDI - BRADY BUNCH Here's the story of one Jeffrey Eden He created an offensive piece of art It took talent to portray George Bush as Hitler My goodness, he is smart Here's the story of his failed parents Why did they let their son ditch history They are so proud that their son's a airhead It's plain for all to see It's apparent that his missed the day on Aushwitz And what Hitler and the Nazis were about The Third Reich would frown on Jeffrey's artwork To a camp for mom and dad, there'd be no out You'd...