Leaning Tower of Pisa No Longer at Risk of Collapse (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is no longer leaning quite so perilously, according to Italian engineers and scientists who say the medieval landmark's ever-increasing tilt has been stabilized. Although the tower will never be brought fully upright — which would diminish its appeal, anyway —  two decades of work by the Committee for the Safeguard of the Leaning Tower has finally solved the 800-year riddle of what was causing the World Heritage Site's mysteriously incline to the north.
New "Fair Use" Rules Promise Open Season in Academia (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - It may be the dead of summer, the doldrums of the academic calendar, but multimedia professors — and potentially artists — have plenty of reason to party thanks to new "fair use" rules issued by the U.S. Copyright Office that allow the legal decryption and projection of excerpts of copyrighted material for educational purposes. In addition to meaning that college students will be treated to a great deal more feature-film content in the future, the changes also serve to clear consciences — or, more to the point, any hints of liability — for art students looking to creatively play with copyright-protected multimedia.
Architect Rafael Vi񯬹 Chosen for New Edward Kennedy Institute (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly has been selected to build the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a planned educational facility that will abut the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The $60 million project, scheduled to break ground this fall, will include a 44,000-square-foot building with two stories of space for an exhibit hall detailing the politician's storied life and 46-year senate career, a re-creation of his senate office, an oral history archive, and educational facilities.
Are Purported Ansel Adams Negatives Worth $200 Million? (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - Rick Norsigian, the school maintenance worker who claims to have purchased 65 glass negatives created by photographer Ansel Adams at a garage sale 10 years ago, has returned to the spotlight, after a team of photography experts that he hired authenticated the works and pricing them at a hefty $200 million. Descendants of Adams, however, are not as confident about the find, telling press that the images of Yosemite and other national parks don’t look like the master’s work.
The Art and Design of "Mad Men": An Appraisal (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - The fourth season of AMC’s drama "Mad Men" premiered on Sunday, and watching it — as more people did than ever before in the show’s history — was a highly pleasurable aesthetic experience, one that bathed viewers in a kind of hazy comfort. Because despite little clear advancement to the plot,  the new episode brought an amplification of that thing at which "Mad Men" already excelled — that same thing that Tom Ford brought to "A Single Man," and which Luca Guadagnino offers in "I Am Love": the imbuing of everything from the fashion, to the architecture, to all aspects of the art and design with an undeniable, inescapable, meticulous aesthetic seductiveness. 
Dom P鲩gnon Drinks to Warhol in New Campaign (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - It's a mark of how much Andy Warhol's reputation has matured — indeed fermented — since his amphetamine-fueled days as the art world's cipher and high society's indulgence that Dom Pérignon has hitched its latest promotional campaign to the artist. The venerable champagne company has introduced a new limited-edition collection of three bottles created by Central Saint Martin's Design Laboratory that pay tribute to Warhol through labels that evoke the sometimes garish colors of the artist's Pop masterpieces, from his famed "Death and Disaster" (look at that red) to his more venal commissioned portraits.
Hungary Hit with Enormous Nazi Loot Claim (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - In what could be the single largest Nazi restitution claim in history, descendants of Hungarian banker Baron Mor Lipot Herzog have filed suit against Hungary in U.S. court, alleging that the nation is holding more than 40 works of art that were stolen from Herzog during World War II. The new lawsuit comes a week after another notorious restitution case involving Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Wally" was settled in a U.S. court, allowing the Nazi-looted work to remain in the hands of Austria's Leopold Foundation upon the payment of $19 million to the heirs of the work's original owner. 
Those Ardent School Days: Steven Meisel for Balenciaga (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - Steven Meisel, one of the premier fashion photographers working today, has teamed up with fashion house Balenciaga (the founder of which, Cristóbal Balenciaga, was once dubbed "the master of us all" by Christian Dior, no sartorial slouch himself) to present the label’s Fall/Winter 2010/11 campaign. Featuring some of the top models of the moment (such as Stella Tennant), Meisel’s series of images is composed of close-up portraits of the models alongside wider shots of the women standing in small groups. All are photographed against a lurid, fiery backdrop that looks one-part Southwestern sunset, one-part blazing wildfire.
LACMA Heads to the Hamptons (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - LACMA director Michael Govan and his curatorial team have opened their new Resnick Pavilion to the public only on select days this summer, showing off the expanse of its 45,000 square feet with a display of Walter De Maria’s sprawling "2000 Sculpture" arrayed across its floor. When LACMA held a party to celebrate the pavilion on Sunday, guests hoping to see the fine new exhibition space, built with money donated by philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, were out of luck: the fete was in the Hamptons.
Ohio museum to show art by Stones' Ronnie Wood (AP)
AP - Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is coming to Ohio with a different kind of solo show, spotlighting his paintings and other art.
Vatican Issues Mea Culpa on Hasty Caravaggio Claim (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - Just a week after the Vatican proudly proclaimed the discovery of a new work by Caravaggio, just in time for the 400th anniversary of the Renaissance master’s death, the head of the Vatican Museums has taken to the pages of the city-state’s official newspaper to suggest that the Holy See may have spoken too soon.
Francophrenia: A Digest of New York's Epic James Franco Profile (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - Although these days quizzical mentions of actor-turned-student-turned-writer-turned-artist James Franco’s name are frequently heard in art-world precincts, ARTINFO just recently discovered that the artist's multifarious productivity is an even more significant topic than previously thought. The epiphany came from Sam Anderson, book critic for New York magazine, whose cover story in the latest issue explores the nuances of Franco’s frenetic career. At great length. No: At extraordinary length.
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