– Awwww... : The Public Art Fund has found a foolproof way to promote its latest project, an outdoor exhibition of Sol Lewitt’s sculptures in New York’s City Hall Park. The nonprofit’s Tumblr features a photograph of Sol Lewitt’s white open cube section with “everything they love” photoshopped into it, including Ryan Gosling and his dog, pizza, a baby cougar, and Hugh Jackman on a motorcycle. Maybe they’re pandering, but hey, we’re sold. [HuffPo]

– An Open Letter to Mark di Suvero: The Arts and Culture Committee of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations has drafted an open letter to Mark di Suvero, asking the sculptor to call for the removal of the barricades around “Joie de Vivre,” his sculpture in Zuccotti Park. “We believe that cordoning off your gift to the people of New York goes against your intentions for the work, as well as the very spirit of public art,” they said in the letter. Several weeks ago, barricades were erected around the sculpture after a protester scaled to the top and sat there for hours, at one point calling for the resignation of Mayor Bloomberg. [Art Fag City]

– Wait, There’s a Dinosaur Market?: “The Standard & Poor Global Luxury Index fails to reflect the escalating demand for dinosaurs,” according to Bloomberg. The growing market, which counts actors Nicholas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio among its fans, ranges from high-end Triceratops skulls sold at Sotheby’s for hundreds of thousands of dollars to $295 Cretaceous toes hawked by small dealers like Two Guys Fossils Inc. Still, there is room to expand: “There’s never been a fossilized penis or vagina found on a dinosaur,” says Two Guys Fossils co-founder Hal Prandi. “The first person who finds one is going to make bundles of cash.” [Bloomberg] 

– Reagan Sculpture Toppled: A recent attack on a sculpture of Ronald Reagan in Newport Beach park in California left police and authorities befuddled. Someone appeared to have lassoed the statue and hitched it to a pickup truck over the weekend, but the rope slipped off as the truck pulled away. Authorities said they didn’t know if the person wanted to actually steal the statue or to make a comment on the nation’s 40th president. Because of skyrocketing metal prices, copper thefts have surged nationwide, and the Reagan sculpture is worth about $50,000. [LAT] 

– Setbacks for Oslo’s Munch Museum: Lawmakers in favor constructing of a new museum in Oslo devoted to the work of Edvard Munch have lost their majority in the city parliament following local elections. Opponents have called the project “megalomania,” noting that the money “could be invested in more hospital beds or caring for the elderly.” The new building on Oslo’s waterfront, known as “Lambda,” was originally due to be completed in 2014. [TAN]

– NPR Takes on Crystal Bridges: In its report on Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum, opening Friday, NPR gives a substantial amount of airtime to skeptics. (At least, much more than previous reports have.) “The focus of the museum is American art, whereas Wal-Mart stores focus on cheap imports from China,” French writer Lorraine Millot, visiting the museum on a press trip, said. A Wal-Mart employee also told NPR, “I have no interest in a museum that might be full of lies.” [NPR]

– Lance Esplund Appointed Bloomberg’s U.S. Art Critic: Lance Esplund, formerly an art critic and columnist at the Wall Street Journal, will now cover the U.S. museum and gallery scene for Bloomberg. So what can we expect? If there’s one thing we know about Esplund, it’s that he doesn’t like John Baldessari. In a review last year of the California artist’s LACMA retrospective, the critic suggested that the world would be better off if, after famously burning all his art in 1970 as a skin-shedding gesture, the artist had simply “stopped there.” [Press Release]

– New Detail Discovered in Giotto Fresco: A previously unknown image of a demon was discovered during the cleaning of a fresco painted by Giotto at the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. The smirking devil, hidden in the folds of a cloud, may have also been a veiled dig at an enemy, noted Segio Fusetti, the head of restoration at the basilica.  [ITA]

– Family Feuds Over Warhol: A federal judge refused to dismiss a family squabble over a portrait of a Texas socialite by Andy Warhol. Robert Fenton, the son of a late art dealer, sued his uncle in August to reclaim a Warhol portrait of his late mother. (Fenton had lent the portrait to his uncle, Neil Balick, in 1984, but alleges that the two signed an agreement in which he would return the painting in June 2011.) Balick’s motion to dismiss the case was denied, and the litigation will proceed. [Courthouse News]

– Hitler Artwork to Be Auctioned in Sweden: Seven paintings said to be by Adolf Hitler will be auctioned off in Sweden. The news has provoked strong objections from the local Jewish community. If authenticated, the paintings are thought to be worth around $15,000 each. The consignors, a family that wished to remain anonymous, will use the profits to pay off debts. [Zee News]