The federal legislation recently introduced by Jerrold Nadler, member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, and senator Herb Kohl, provides a royalty payment of 7% to the visual artists for auction resale over 10000$. At the moment, the adoption of the Droit de suite - the right for artists and their descendants to receive a fee when their works are resold - is applied to the resale at public auction houses “with more than $25 million in sales in the prior year,” such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Half of the revenue is devolved to the artists and half to non-profit art museums.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler comments: “Visual artists deserve a share in the sales and resales of their creative works. It’s important to ensure that artists are fairly compensated — even more so in difficult economic times, when normal channels of support for artists are less dependable. This legislation would help working artists and provide incentives for the creation of art by providing resale royalty rights and establishing a fund for non-profit art museums to buy art from those artists,” The Art Newspaper reports.

Need for Courtroom Sketch Artists Fade as Cameras move into Courts

CHICAGO - One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom — drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes. Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades — a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own. Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them — but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the camera prohibitions.

"When people say to me, 'Wow, you are a courtroom artist' — I always say, 'One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism now, like blacksmiths."

Experts reclassify painting as real Rembrandt after X-ray reveals outlines of a self-portrait

AMSTERDAM (AP).- Experts have reclassified a painting as a Rembrandt after years of attributing it to one of the Dutch master’s students. Ernst van de Wetering of the Rembrandt... [Read Full Article]

The Free Open-Source Textbooks That will Save Students $70 Million

"Using Rice's Connexions platform, OpenStax will offer free course materials for five common introductory classes. The textbooks are open to classes anywhere and organizers believe the programs could save students $90 million in the next five years if the books capture 10 percent of the national market." Inside Higher Ed 02/07/12

Ambitious Plans For A For-Profit Cultural Center In Harlem

My Image Studios, in the ground floor retail space of a new condominium building on West 116th Street in Manhattan, will combine a restaurant "with three theaters for live entertainment and independent films, as well as post-production studios, all to create a $21 million 'living room' of black and Latino-flavored arts and culture." The New York Times 02/07/12

"Ballerinas used to be plump by modern standards; indeed, the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova was criticised in the late 1890s for being too thin (mocked for her long, slender limbs, she was nicknamed 'the broom' by fellow students)." My, how things have changed. (Might Balanchine bear a bit of the blame?) The Guardian (UK) 02/06/12

"Wars of the future might be decided through manipulation of people's minds, concludes a report this week from the UK's Royal Society. It warns that the potential military applications of neuroscience breakthroughs need to be regulated more closely." New Scientist 02/07/12

"Admittedly, that sounds like an oxymoron; creative thinking and conformity are usually considered mutually exclusive. But newly published research finds a specific sort of arm twisting can help people who aren't terribly innovative increase their creative output. The key is pressuring them to think independently, within the confines of a group project." Miller-McCune 02/06/12

"The Islamic Republic's morality police, fighting 'Western intoxication' as the dispute over nuclear technology has raised fears of war, last month went on a drive against Barbie," and the country has since banned action figures based on characters from The Simpsons. Yet "Superman and Spiderman were still welcome in Iran - because they do battle for the oppressed." Reuters 02/06/12

"Poor neighbourhoods in England are still beset by Victorian-era levels of illiteracy, the schools minister has claimed." The Guardian (UK) 02/07/12

Top-Rated Part Of SuperBowl 2012? Madonna "Overall, Madonna's show was more popular viewing by nearly a 16 percent margin over the game itself - and TiVo said it wasn't because so many viewers rewound to watch rapper M.I.A give them the finger, though the company is checking to see if the controversy encourages those who recorded the Super Bowl to go back to that moment and see it for themselves." The Hollywood Reporter 02/07/12

"That knotty question arises in the case of Jack Goldstein, an admired artist whose sculptures are currently included in" a Pacific Standard Time show at Pomona College. Goldstein, known mainly as a painter, made a few sculptures which were shown at Pomona 40 years ago. They don't survive, so Pomona recreated two of them. Is this enterprising? Or unethical? Los Angeles Times 02/06/12

"But what actually happened at the Happenings? Because they were so ephemeral, and documentation is so patchy, art historians have spent decades trying to figure that out. So have their creators." Claes Oldenburg, Patty Mucha, Lucas Samaras, Red Grooms and others look back. The New York Times 02/05/12 (includes slideshow)

"When the Great Recession dawned, architecture was the glamour profession of the creative class. ... A once-thriving profession, one that requires considerable education and work ethic, and which has traditionally served a wide range of functions - designing mansions for the 1 percent as well as public libraries - is [now] in trouble." Salon 02/04/12

UPDATED: A Long Lost Leonardo

By Milton Esterow Posted 08/15/11

One of the owners of a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci has confirmed its discovery and authentication

http://www.artnews.com

A painting by Leonardo da Vinci that was lost for centuries has been authenticated by distinguished scholars in the United States and Europe and will be exhibited at London’s National Gallery as part of a Leonardo show that opens November 9, ARTnews has learned.

The painting, Salvator Mundi, or “Savior of the World,” depicts Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a globe. It is painted in oil on a wood panel and measures 26 by 18 1/2 inches in size.

Abu Dhabi developer offers a new timetable for opening of Louvre & Guggenheim Museums

DUBAI (AP).- The developer of an ambitious cultural district in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday outlined a new timetable for the stalled project, with its first attraction — a branch of the Louvre — now slated to open in 2015. A division of the Guggenheim Museum will follow in 2017, which like the outpost of the French art institution will make its debut in the Emirati capital years later than originally planned. The landmark projects on the emirate's multi-billion dollar Saadiyat Island development have been hit by a series of delays since being unveiled five years ago, including an announcement last year that the government-backed developer was dropping plans to award a major construction contract. The museums had been scheduled to start opening this year, but officials had already said that was no longer possible. Abu Dhabi is the largest and richest of the seven semiautonomous sheikdoms that make up the UAE. Its executive council helps set policies for the emirate, though final authority rests with the emirate's heredity ruler, who is also the president of the UAE.