– Love the Future Indeed: In China, where countless government agents patrol sites behind the
Great Firewall for any offending political content (and where telephone
conversations are so closely monitored that some trigger phrases can
immediately disconnect the call), it takes some creativity to voice
opposition. The fact that even sympathetic publications universally
self-censor to avoid reprisals is a sad problem too. So to rally
citizens to protest the detention of Ai Weiwei, online commentators have
taken up the slogan "Love the Future," (爱未来) which both resembles and
sounds similar to Ai's name (艾未未). Calls range from the energetic ("To
love the future is to love yourself. Fill the microblogs with love. Fill
the motherland with love. Donate your love to the future of the
motherland.") to the despondent ("I really don't dare believe that in
this society, even love for the future can disappear"). [China Digital
Times]

– Digging Up Mona Lisa's Bones: Researchers are looking into
unearthing the remains of a Renaissance woman, buried at a Florentine
convent, whom they believe might be Lisa Gherardini, a top contender among the pool of people who might be Leonardo da Vinci's smirking model. Of course this is another initiative from Silvano Vinceti, the historian who solved the mystery of Caravaggio's death by using tech-heavy investigative methods (radars!) on his bones. [Guardian

View Slideshow:

– Censorship at Singapore Biennial: Rising international art star Simon Fujiwara's
recreation of a Spanish hotel bar during the dictatorship of strongman Francisco Franco, titled "Welcome to the Hotel
Munber," featured a few pieces of gay pornography, and they've been
mysteriously removed from the piece at the exhibition without
consultation. The artist says the act has rendered the piece
"meaningless, almost a tribute to Franco in the end." [Artforum] 

– Writer Admits to Defacing Art, Too: Washington City Paper writer John Anderson
may not be the sharpest crayon in the box. In an ill-advised column he
wrote with two colleagues about "Three Works at the National Gallery
We'd Have Defaced Before Gauguin," he admits that he's been "defacing a
work of art very subtly since September last year," specifically Sol Lewitt's
"Wall Drawing #65," which he says he has been adding lines of colored
pencil to, in tones that don't match the ones used in the piece. Christopher Knight calls Anderson out as "dumb." [City Paper and LAT] 

– Moral Stance: Newspaper editorial boards around the world are calling for Ai Weiwei's release, and Newshour has produced a report on the dissident artist, who many at this moment be the most famous artist in the world. [China Digital Times]

– "China's Conscience": In a rousing tribute to Ai Weiwei, critic Holland Cotter points out that the artist, in his audacious public opposition to the repressive Chinese government, is filling out an archetypal heroic role in his homeland. "In Chinese culture, going back to Confucius, there has been a tradition of individual scholars and intellectuals denouncing rulers for wrongdoing that was bringing disharmony to society, and particularly if that wrongdoing was injurious to innocence," Cotter writes. "Often, but not always, the self-sacrificing honesty of the accuser has rendered him immune to retaliation." In this case, let's hope it at least renders Ai eligible for a quick release. [NYT]

– The Art of Being an NMA Finalist: Nominees for this year's National Magazine Award, that prestigious Alexander Calder-designed elephant, have been announced, and there's some art writing in the mix. Congratulations to David Grann, a finalist for his New Yorker story on art detective Peter Paul Biro, "The Mark of a Masterpiece," and to Jerry Saltz, nominated for three reviews in New York magazine. Says Saltz, "I'd vote for Hitchens this year," referring to his fellow nominee's pieces on his struggle with cancer. [Flavorwire]   

– Mummies Are Everywhere!: Korean fashion designer Ku WonJung has created a line based around the Egyptian practice of mummification for Seoul Fashion Week, with even the model's faces covered in bandages. Wonder what Zahi Hawass has to say about this. [Dazed Digital]

– Has the iPad Transformed Art Already?: The Apple iPad is one year old, and ABC radio is rounding up the five ways the device has changed the world. Among them: apparently, the iPad has completely revolutionized the art world. The evidence comes not from famous iPad evangelist David Hockney, but from 33-year-old New York unknown David Kassan, who says that his iPad has replaced a sketchbook. [WTMA]

– Napoleon in Havana: Next Friday, the Napoleonic Museum of Havana opens in the Cuban capital, featuring what is boasted to be "the largest collection of French revolutionary and imperial items outside of Europe." The collection centers on the pint-sized military genius's death mask, brought to the island by his physician after Napoleon died in 1821, as well as some some 8,000 French Revolutionary and Imperial artifacts. [Independent]

– National Arts Club Cleans House: With president Aldon James on a forced vacation, the tony club is clearing out all of the hoarded junk, papers, and art James packed into the upstairs rooms of 15 Gramercy Park South. "It's spring and we're cleaning the mansion," said Diane Bernhard, NAC vice president and interim president. "Members and board members and staff have pulled together and worked like a dream team. We have moved mountains — literally." [DNAinfo]

– "Mad Men" Wins L.A. Conservancy Preservation Awards: The 30th edition of annual prizes for the maintenance of historic architecture around Southern California have gone to the AMC television show — which uses midcentury sites as filming locations — as well as the Natural History Museum and other institutions and groups. [LAT]

– World's Biggest Art Heists: See a slide-show roundup of notable art thefts throughout history and around the world. [CNBC]

– Put a Sweater Vest on It: The "Rocky" statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art got "yarnbombed" with a pink knitted vest on which are sewn the words, "Go see the art." It's pink! [Eyeteeth]

– Rec-Room Decorations Turn Out to be Fine Art: Two paintings — of a winter hunting scene at Niagra Fallas and an autumn view of Mount Washington — that hung in a Connecticut basement above a Ping-Pong table are actually the work of Jasper F. Cropsey, a 19th-century Hudson River School artist, and will be auctioned off in May bearing presale estimates of $40,000 and $60,000 each. [NYT]