This week our theme is appropriation, or repurposing.

1. Voleur! A Refined Thief Assembles a Nice Little Art Collection

Some people are content simply to gaze in wonder and appreciation atmasterpieces by Leger, Modigliani, Picasso, Braque, and Matisse in the Muséed'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Others feel compelled to put on amask, sever a padlock, smash a window, and steal them. Somehow the best quoteto come out of the whole story was that of Stéphane Thefo, a specialist instolen art at Interpol, who said "Can you imagine carrying a Picassoaround?" Well, sort of? Okay, not really.

2. Upcoming at the Whitney: The Metropolitan Museum of Art?

Could it be that the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer building up on Madison Avenuewill soon be reappropriated as galleries for the Met?Read all about the secret talks here. If this thing somehow sneaks past Leonard Lauder's traditionalist restrictions it would be the biggest institutional development in New York since the merger of MoMA and P.S.1 in 2000.

3. And Duchamp Only Did One Urinal. Wimp.

So it might be musical museums with the Whitney and the Met. What aboutmusical bathrooms? The WC at storied and now defunct Manhattan punk rockclub CBGBs could only be described as trashed, its walls a palimpsest ofgraffiti. And yet! Artist Justin Lowe is soon to recreate thelegendary lavatory as art within the hallowed halls of the WadsworthAtheneum, a museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Hopefully a janitor won’t comeby and clean the piece up, as has happened with Damien Hirst.

4. A Certain British Street Artist Can't Stop Getting Punked

As for actual street art, it looks like appropriation has truly made its wayinto the genre. Remember the famous story of Rauschenbergs Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953)? Well, try Erased Banksy. No sooner had the mysteriousBritish graffitist stenciled a boy holding a can of paint onto a giantcinder block in Detroit than a group of local artists tore the piece freeand carted it off to their own headquarters. And no sooner had he stenciled andpainted up the streets in downtown Manhattan than those same pieces werescribbled over with other tags. But, hey, maybe this is just America’s wayof welcoming a Brit.(See our recap for a play-by-play of Banksy's misadventures across America.)

5. Pitfalls of a Handshake Economy: Get It in Writing!

Graffiti wasn’t the only thing being written in Manhattan this past week. Penning his opinion on a preliminary injunction in a by-now famous blacklistcase, a federal judge declared that the suit has left a bad taste in hismouth. Then Judge Pauley ruled against Miamicollector Craig Robins, who was trying to get a preliminary injunction tokeep dealer David Zwirner from selling paintings by Marlene Dumas. (Robinsalleged that Zwirner had promised him first dibs after museums on the Dumaspaintings, after getting Robins on Dumas’ “blacklist”.) The judge took the art market to task, saying the case “offers anunflattering portrait of the art world – a world of self-proclaimed royaltyfull of 'blacklists,’ 'greylists’ and astonishing chicanery.” Zwirner,meanwhile, told Josh Baers Baer Faxt: “As we have stated all along, thelawsuit brought against the gallery was shown to be entirely frivolous andwithout merit. It was based on wishful thinking and agreements that simplynever existed. We will request permission from the court to file a motionto dismiss the entire case.”