Sculture Disaster In Norway

A 13-ton sculpture crafted from Chinese granite shattered when it fell during its installation in a Norwegian city.
Danish sculptor Claus Orntoft spent a year on "The Dreamer," a gift to the port of Kristiansand in southern Norway from Falconbridge. The crash happened in the morning when the crane that was to lift the sculpture into place fell over and hit it. No one was injured, although several people on the site had a narrow escape. The sculpture cost 1.5 million Norwegian kroner (about $232,000).
Irish Art

Hirst Buys 300 Room House

Artist Damien Hirst has bought a 300-room mansion in the Cotswolds to house his personal art collection. Hirst, who is famous for preserving animals in formaldehyde, intends to restore the run-down Grade I listed Toddington Manor, near Cheltenham.
The 40-year-old - who reportedly paid £3m for the property - is also expected to live there with his wife and their three sons. The 124-acre Gothic-style manor was built in 1820 and has stood empty for 20 years. His current ambition is that it will serve as a museum to house his extensive collection of his own and other artists' works.
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Irish Art

One Legged "David" Shock

Shock tactics are being used in Italy to scare Italians into helping to save their cultural heritage. Organisers of a campaign hope an image of Michelangelo's David with a leg missing will scare Italians into forking out to save artworks at risk. TV adverts and posters will feature the staged destruction of its most famous works with the slogan: "Without your help, Italy could lose something". A third of Italy's cultural sites are deemed to be in a state of emergency.

Other famous art works used in the fundraising campaign include an image of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper with disciples scratched out and strips torn off the canvas of Botticelli's Venus.
They will form part of the biggest art fundraising campaign Italy has ever seen.
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Irish Art

Picasso Pottery Auction

A collection of more than 100 pieces of pottery by Pablo Picasso will be sold at auction in London this fall. Included in the sale will be a famous Picasso earthenware vase called "Tripode," which is expected to fetch the highest price. More than 100 plates, bowls, jugs, tiles and vases are expected to fetch between £1,000 and £35,000 each.

One of the auction's highlights will be a painted and glazen earthenware vase, entitled Tripode, which Picasso made in 1951. The collection will be auctioned at Sotheby's on 26 October.
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Irish Art

Belfast Art Roundabout

Belfast City Council received almost 400 enquiries before drawing up a short-list of just seven artists for their £400,000 commission for the city's latest landmark. The artwork will be placed at the heart of one of Northern Ireland`s busiest arterial routes. The shortlisted artists come from New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta in the US and nearer home from Nottingham, Dunfermline and Cheshire. The council said artists will be required to demonstrate their ability and willingness to engage with communities in developing the final piece and proposals will be judged on their quality, innovation and creativity, suitability for the site and potential to become a landmark.
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Irish Art

David's Toe Points The Way

Scientists have identified the precise origin of the marble block used for Michelangelo's David, and say the discovery will be useful for helping to preserve one of the world's greatest sculptures.
Until now, art historians knew only that the large block came from the Carrara quarries in Tuscany, which still produce many types and qualities of marble.
Analysts have now used three tiny samples, retrieved from the second toe of the left foot of David when the figure was damaged in act of vandalism in 1991, to track down the marble's origin. Not only were they able to determine the exact spot of excavation - the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara - they also found that Michelangelo's marble is of mediocre quality, filled with microscopic holes, and likely to degrade faster than many other marbles.
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Irish Art

Blair Gives Churchill To Bush

A bronze bust of Winston Churchill, owned by the British Government Art Collection and paid for by the taxpayer, is at the centre of a row after it was loaned by Tony Blair to George W Bush. The renowned Jacob Epstein sculpture that sits in President Bush's Oval Office was loaned to the White House four years ago, on orders from Blair's office, in an unprecedented act outside the strict remit of the collection.
The government's huge hidden collection is held inside an anonymous underground storehouse in Soho and contains around 12,000 works of art. The curators are given £200,000 a year to buy new pieces and the art is available for government ministers to request for display in their private offices. It is also sent out all over the globe to foreign embassies and consulates. The collection includes 2,300 paintings and watercolours and 8,000 historical and modern prints, with sculptures by artists such as Hepworth, and 18 oil paintings by Sickert. Along with a Hogarth and a Gainsborough, the GAC also owns an early Freud and an obscure work by Constable.
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Irish Art

Russians 50,000 Stolen Art

Russian police are searching for almost 50,000 stolen art treasures. The missing pieces of artwork include pictures, icons, sculptures, metalwork, gems, military decorations, vintage armor, and rare books. Some were stolen from museums and churches, but most from private houses. The biggest challenge is to track down pieces that have been smuggled out of the country. In 1994, seven Orthodox icons were stolen from a museum in a northwestern Russian town. One of the icons - a 16th-century image of the Blessed Virgin Odigitria - was purchased by the owner of a London art gallery from a Russian immigrant living in Germany for £50,000 . A Brussels-based collector then bought the icon for £170,000 agreeing that it would continue to be displayed in London. This year the icon was finally tracked down and brought home as the result of a joint operation by Russian police, the ministries of culture and media, and Interpol. Police are still working to identify those behind the crime and bring them to justice.
Irish Art