Leonardo DiCaprio Did Not Paint the Mona Lisa: Last Week in Art

No, Fox News. Just no.

September 28, 2015, 1:15pm

A lot went down this week in the weird and wild world of Art. Some things were more scandalous than others, some were just plain wacky—but all of them are worth knowing about. Without any further adieu:

+ We all know he loves to paint Kate Winslet and French Girls, but you may not have realized that actor, philanthropist, and all-around dreamboat Leonardo DiCaprio is also the mastermind behind the Mona Lisa—or, that's at least what Fox News anchor Shep Smith annnounced on live national television. [Vanity Fair]

+ Welcome to the United States of America, Pope Francis: The Undoing the Knots installation, consisting of approximately 120,000 ribbons covered in hand-written written prayers, celebrates the Pope's visit to Philadelphia. [Dispatch]

+ In the traditional gift exchange between pope and president, President Obama gifted Pope Francis with a unique sculpture of an ascending dove; the Pope bestowed the President with a bronze bas-relief plaque. [ABC News]

+ The famous LOVE sculpture was translated to Spanish (AMOR) for the Pope’s visit. [News Works]

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+ John Lennon’s high school detention record will be sold by Sotheby’s London at it’s upcoming “Rock & Pop” sale. [ARTNews]

+ A museum dedicated to telephones burns down in Butte fire. [LA Times]

+ Kara Walker has been awarded the title of Tepper Chair at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. [ARTNews]

+ The United Teachers Los Angeles Union staged protests outside of Eli Broad’s new museum. “Invest in Public Schools not Billionaire$ Vanity Project$” read one sign. [LA Times]

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+ Richard Prince’s latest “cowboy” work went on view this Saturday at Barbara Gladstone. [The New York Times]

+ Yankee fans flock to the Yogi Berra Museum in New Jersey to honor the beloved catcher who passed away early last week. [NY Daily News]

+ Tate Modern’s $400 million, 10-story extension will open to the public on June 17th. [AP]

+ Harvard Art Museum’s “Student Print Rental Program” enables Harvard students living in university housing to rent original prints by Picasso, Matisse, and Warhol to hang in their homes at $50 per piece. [Reuters]

+ The new online tool for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum aims, in part, to “allow us to look over the horizon to implement smarter, cheaper and more effective polices that prevent mass violence,” says director Cameron Hudson. [AP]

+ An M.F.A. artist at State University of New York at Buffalo placed “white only” and “black only” signs around her campus in an effort to prompt discussions of modern racism and societal “racist structures.” [Inside Higher Ed]

+ The largest “cushion-shaped Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ever to be offered at auction” is set to sale at Christie’s. [Christie’s]

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+ Nolan Simon wants to paint your portrait via Skype to fundraise for the What Pipeline gallery in Detroit. [ARTNews]

+ Amsterdam’s Our Lord in the Attic Museum reopened this week after a $12 million, six-year expansion project. [The New York Times]

+ The latest edition of Art In America features a sign which reads: Boner Killer. *Applause* [Twitter]

+ A case-study for arts “ownership”: After a lengthy lawsuit with the Armenian Apostolic Church, The Getty Museum has won the right to keep the pages of a 750-year-old Armenian Bible within its collection. [LA Times]

+ The World Justice Project will receive the proceeds from the sale of Peter Doig’s Cabin Essence at Christie’s. [ARTNews]

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+ A giant kinetic sculpture tarantula, with colorful LED limbs that react and respond to sound, is just one of the works included at an interactive exhibit in Albuquerque’s Taos Plaza. [Albuquerque Journal]

+ Pure, raw, unfiltered ingenuity: “Descriptions of Art at the Met That Could Double as My Tinder Bio.” [The New Yorker]

+ An 60-foot-tall Rubber Duck sculpture by artist Florentijn Hofman is floating in a lake of Hunan province. [Straits Times]