The 6 Billion Dollar Trade

Art theft generates about $6 billion a year in revenues, according to Interpol. That makes it No. 3 in illicit commerce, behind drugs and illegal arms. An engaging tour of this little-known world is found in Edward Dolnick's The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece.
Dolnick shows that the risk-to-reward ratio is in the thieves' favor. After coughing up millions to buy masterpieces, museums and collectors spend little to protect them. Any hood with the guts to snatch a Gauguin can gain entrée to the glamorous art market. While some paintings may be restored to their owners, others are damaged or never found. Jail time for the perpetrators is rare, as police and prosecutors focus on more dangerous criminals. As the author illustrates, the cops and robbers have lots in common. Both their livelihoods depend on the ability to bluff and sniff out fraud. Picassos, Vermeers, and Goyas are merely multimillion-dollar chips in a global casino. Dolnick gives the reader a seat at the table.
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Irish Art

Council approves sand sculptures

The sculptures were built with 10,000 tons of special sand. A sand sculpture exhibition that opened in Brighton last week has been granted planning permission after fears the work would have to be pulled down. Nearly 10,000 tons - 500 lorry loads - of special sand was shipped from Holland to Brighton Marina for the festival, which lasts until September.

The sculptures, inspired by the Egyptians, were built on wasteland. A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said it often approved planning permission retrospectively. The highest pyramid, made entirely with sand and water, stands at 15m (45ft). The sculptures are said to be able to withstand winds up to force seven and remain intact for many months.
Irish Art

Flush Bush Art Row

Supporters of President George Bush are protesting the display of a painting on display in California's Department of Justice building in Sacramento depicting "a star-spangled map of United States being flushed down a toilet. The piece, titled "T'anks to Mr. Bush," is part of an exhibit sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts. The California Arts Council presented the show in conjunction with the attorney general's office, and the paintings hang in the building's cafeteria."
Irish Art

Liquid Art

Mark McGowan lis letting the water flow in his London art gallery. "The Running Tap," is McGowan's effort to protest against wasted water in London by blatantly letting it go down the drain. "When you've got the tap on at home, you don't think about it. That's why this is art, because it makes people consider it," the environmentalist said.This expensive exhibition could waste about 3.9 million gallons of water and land McGowan in a legal battle with Thames Water. The art gallery has already swallowed about 193,000 gallons of water...
McGowan previously participated in equally audacious exhibitions including sitting in a bathtub of baked beans with french fries in his nose to support the full English breakfast, and pushing a nut with his nose for seven miles to protest student debt.
Irish Art

Dead in the Garden

A work of art made out of a mannequin lying face down in a garden has provoked complaints in Chile. Passers-by have complained to the police about the 'body', next to the Metropolitana Art Gallery in Santiago. Many of them said the mannequin was too realistic and they found the sight of it distressing. Artist Juan Inca said: "Like most of our pieces, this one aims to generate fiction, people could think the mannequin is a drunk or a dead body. "We want the passers-by to see this image and to feel something related to the possibilities of this abandoned body."
Irish Art