Los Angeles’ Getty Center is free; it’s parking at the remote hilltop facility that costs, and apparently on purpose. After the Getty raised its parking fees over the summer, protests broke out among academics who use the facility regularly. Enterprising journalists examined the institution’s tax returns, which revealed that the institution, with perpetually free admission [...]

Shepard Fairey has avoided jail time in the aftermath of his misdemeanor criminal contempt conviction on Sept 7. Fairey was sentenced to two years’ probation, 300 hours of community service, and a $25,000 fine by Judge Frank Maas, a United States magistrate, for creating false documents and destroying evidence in relation to the 2009 lawsuit [...]

The Andy Warhol Foundation announced its plans to sell off an estimated 20,000 Warhol works it owns, a week after its innovative partnership with Target to license limited edition Warhol-style Campbell soup cans at stores across the US. Christies will manage the sale, which the foundation hopes will net upwards of $100 million. Chairman Michael [...]

Forbes magazine’s Abigail R. Esman contributed an expose and analysis of the Chinese art-fraud machine last week. Apparently, if you peel away the corruption, bid rigging and self-dealing,  China isn’t the world biggest market for art after all. Esman says that China’s biggest auction house, Poly, is an arm of the People’s Liberation Army! Esman [...]

According to the LA Times, prominent Los Angeles Gallery owner Margo Leavin has announced plans to close her gallery, citing a move on the part of art collectors away from the gallery show experience to alternative art spaces and the Internet. “People are approaching art differently today. They’re not seeking out the thoughtful, complete statement [...]

Even NY Times critic Roberta Smith, originally a supporter of LA MOCA’s bold move in appointing flamboyant gallerist Jeffrey Deitch as its new Director, admits his tenure has been disappointing. In a Times article titled “A Los Angeles Museum on Life-Support” she recaps MOCA’s problems, Deitch’s failure to solve them, and the worrisome departure of [...]

Joining John Baldessari, Catherine Opie and Barbara Kruger in a rush to the exit, Ed Ruscha, the last artist on LA MOCA’s board, resigned Monday. The troubled museum, pulled out of a financial hole by Eli Broad and resolutely headed towards a party-filled populist future, ousted noted curator Paul Schimmel a few weeks ago, starting [...]

Independent scholars rejoice-The Getty Research Portal, which launched last month, makes 20,000 documents from the Getty’s collection and eight other libraries available to anyone with an internet connection. The texts, published before 1923 in the U.S. or before 1909 in other countries, are all in the public domain, and are downloadable free of charge. So [...]

Have recent museum shakeups begun to besmirch the once-coveted title of “Museum?” itself? ArtInfo Blogger William Poundstone sees a trend, noting that “at least two incipient L.A. museums are avoiding the M word”. Both the the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in LACMA West, and a proposed gay and lesbian museum are considering alternative [...]

L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art is  planning an exhibition that will examine the cultural impact of disco music, reports the LA Times.