NEW YORK—Artist Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond announced that they will build what is to be the world’s biggest public art project: a set of monumental sculptures in Northeast England. Meanwhile, in Australia thieves improbably made off with a 66-pound copper fountain by sculptor Gerald Lewers. The Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd is up in arms about photographs of naked children as art. This after the subject of such a photograph on the cover of an art magazine came out in defense of it. Perhaps what it comes down to is whether an 11-year-old’s opinion of the matter matters. The Prime Minister: “A little child cannot answer for themselves about whether they wish to be depicted in this way.” The 11-year-old: “I think that the picture my mum took of me had nothing to do with being abused and I think nudity can be a part of art.” In Edinburgh, 16-year-olds not accompanied by an adult will not be admitted to artist Tracey Emin’s upcoming museum retrospective. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s comments about Daniel Libeskind’s proposed tower for Milan — “Milan is full of people with crooked members,” he said. “There will simply be one more in need of Viagra” — have angered the architect. A European deputy who vandalized a Maurizio Cattelan sculpture that offended his religious beliefs will no longer receive immunity for the act. Those Czech artist pranksters who tampered with a television broadcast may get a retrial.

Blogger Tyler Green broke the news that the Denver Art Museum’s deal with billionaire Philip Anschutz for the purchase of an Eakins painting is being investigated by the Association of Art Museum Directors. At issue is the fact that Anschutz retains part ownership of that work and has gained a stake in another in the museum’s collection. In an unrelated matter, the U.S. Senate is reconsidering partial gifts to museums, which were restricted two years ago; museums had reported that the restrictions led to an overall decrease in donations.

The Leopold Museum saga continues, with the lawsuit between the U.S. government and the museum over a Schiele painting that the U.S. government contends was knowingly acquired by the Leopold after it had been stolen by the Nazis during WWII now suspended while the U.S. government reviews new evidence. The U.S. government returned more than 60 looted artifacts to Colombia; they’d been brought to Miami by an Italian citizen.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired a cache of Oceanic Art, MoMA acquired a Puryear and some Johns, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, which deaccessioned many of its historical works to acquire modern and contemporary art, is, well, acquiring modern and contemporary art — specifically works from the collection of Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo.

Radio carbon tests have shown that the famous Capitoline wolf is not Etruscan after all. And should global warming make the planet Earth uninhabitable and we all have to blast off into space, artists will be prepared.