ARTINFO

For his latest "destruction series" photo shoot, young Hollywood provocateur Tyler Shields desecrated the ultimate luxury status symbol -- an Hermès Birkin bag. And Shields didn't opt for just any Birkin bag. He selected a red Crocodile Birkin VS, for which he says he paid $100,000. Shields's girlfriend, Francesca Eastwood...

BERLIN -- Programming for the inaugural Berlin Art Week -- the latest moniker for the September weekend that includes the Art Berlin Contemporary (abc) and Preview Berlin art fairs, but not Art Forum Berlin, which has been canceled -- was announced by representatives from...

When Fernando Botero had his first solo exhibition, in 1951 at the small Leo Matiz Gallery, in Bogotá, his work was so heterogeneous that visitors initially assumed they were looking at a group show. The young Colombian artist's watercolors, drawings, and oils depicting local bars and brothels and prominent Colombian...

Less than two years ago, Chicago-based Perkins+Will completed construction for a 27-story building in South Mumbai, an eccentric accordion-like high-rise equipped with nine elevators, parking space for 168 cars, three helipads, and an "ice room" filled with artificial flurries. Though generous enough to make a hundred working Google employees happy,...

New York City devotes a week out of the year to art to coincide with the annual behemoth Armory Show -- and this year a second for Frieze New York -- and two more to clothing for the stylish set to crowd the catwalks during Fashion Week. It's only fair...

HONG KONG -- We're at the half-way mark of ART HK 2012 and the rain has set in. Unlike sales, which are patchy, the showers are heavy and show no signs of letting up, but the fairgoers are turning out in droves and keeping things busy for the...

The Milwaukee Art Museum and Milwaukee County War Memorial, a Midwestern complex by two master architects of their respective times -- Santiago Calatrava and Eero Saarinen -- is planning a long-overdue $15 million overhaul that includes a glass extension that would serve as a new entrance.

Your pockets might not need to be as deep as François Pinault's or Victor Pinchuk's to get your hands on a genuine Damien Hirst skull. OK, you'll have to forget about the 1,106.18 carats of diamonds encrusting the artist's sparkly "For the Love of God" (2007) and be content with...

Socialist party candidate François Hollande defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday to become the new French president -- the first time France has had a Socialist in its highest office since François Mitterrand ended his second term in 1995. During his campaign, Hollande emphasized the importance of culture, suggesting...

How young is too young to become an art collector?

The children's art print Web site Little Collector is making a business out of the argument that you can never be too young. "We start with a little talk about hands in pockets, how to act in the...

This week the art world jet set and many, many New Yorkers will visit a strange island for the first time in their lives to attend the inaugural Frieze New York art fair. Located at the juncture where the Harlem River and Long Island Sound meet to form the tidal...

Prepare to see a slightly different side of the 20th century's most influential design movement. The objects in the upcoming Bauhaus survey "Art is Life" at London's Barbican are going to be "unfamiliar to people who think the Bauhaus is about tubular steel and gridded works," the institution's...

LONDON -- Heiress Dasha Zhukova and leading architect Rem Koolhaas have today announced details of Garage Center for Contemporary Culture's new home. Zhukova's non-profit art foundation - which has welcomed more than 2 million visitors since its opening in 2008 - is to relocate in a 1960s former restaurant in...

Frieze's big, empty tent on Randall's Island won't be quite so empty by the time the fair opens next week. Though there's more than enough going on on that remote isle to keep people busy, there is also plenty of action in Manhattan and Brooklyn that's worth taking note of....

Dallas Art Fair founders Chris Byrne and John Sughrue are heading further West. In January, they'll be opening the inaugural FOG, a new San Francisco modernism art and design fair to benefit SFMOMA.

In a moment where everyone feels compelled to do something, anything, quick - from the Occupy movement to Kony 2012 - Pilvi Takala's standout piece in the New Museum's show "The Ungovernables" conjures the strange power of simply doing nothing instead. Like Melville's Bartleby, Takala worked in an...

Alec Baldwin may be impressed by the Italian government's attitude towards arts funding -- the actor testified on Capitol Hill about its virtues yesterday -- but the board of directors at MAXXI (Rome's Museum of Twenty-First Century Art) is not. In a statement released this week, board president...

Arguably the world's most important furniture trade show, Salone Internazionale del Mobile (or, the International Furniture Fair of Milan), opens its 51st installment on April 17, presenting the newest creations from over 2,500 designers -- including design stars like Marcel Wanders and Philippe Starck; powerhouse manufacturers like Kartell...

Amy Herzog, a promising young American playwright, is pregnant and due to give birth to a daughter on May 1 of this year. The date has more than a little significance, given that it is a high holiday among a vanishing political breed: communists. Though the 33-year-old writer doesn't share...

In the season of heavy-hitting antiques trading that opens each new year, including the Americana sales at Christie's and Sotheby's in New York, the Winter Antiques Show in late January at the Park Avenue Armory is the flagship event, presenting the most blue-blooded, blue-chip material that dealers can summon. As...