– Getty Hands Over More Greek Artifacts: The Getty Museumwill return two ancient artifacts it acquired in the 1970s, a grave marker and a Greek language inscription, to Greece as part of a new agreement with the country's ministry of culture. As part of the new agreement, the two institutions are planning cultural exchanges of scientists and scholars in the fields of archaeology, conservation, art history, and other fields. [LAT] 

– "Bad Painter" Neil Jenney to Gagosian: The self-taught artist Neil Jenney, whose style is cheekily referred to as "Bad Painting," has just signed with Gagosian.The gallery showed him once before, in 2001, but since then, Jenney hasbeen out of the limelight, holding only the occasional exhibition. "It's going to be fun putting him squarely on the map where he belongs,"said Larry Gagosian. [NYT] 

– Ukraine Gets a Biennial: Culture officials in Ukraine have announced that the country will debut a biennial in Kiev this coming May. David Elliot, organizer of last year's Sydney Biennial and former director of the Istanbul Biennial,has been appointed artistic director. Elliot promised the event would "offer a new vision of the country and its art, which can be quite valuable for the development of the global artistic context." [Observer]  

– The Edgy Urbanism of "Drive": Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne calls Nicolas Winding Refn'snew film "Drive" "one of the most perceptive recent attempts to understand the peculiarly standoffish personality of L.A.'s built environment." He likens the anonymity of Ryan Gosling's stunt-driver protagonist, who remains unnamed throughout the film, to Refn's portrayal of Los Angeles: "There are no pedigreed buildings by big-name architects here." [LAT] 

– Slavery Museum Bankrupt: The National Slavery Museum, founded by former Virginia governor Douglas L. Wilder,has filed for bankruptcy with at least $3 million in debt. Among its unpaid bills is more than $215,000 in property taxes owed on the 38-acreparcel of land where the museum was to have opened several years ago. Since then, the museum's director has departed, its board has stopped meeting, and some people who gave artifacts to the museum have asked fortheir return. [NYT]  

– The Folk Art Museum's Bailout Plan: As part of the American Folk Art Museum's new lease on life, the institution will display approximately 15 works at the Metropolitan Museum of Artin honor of the opening of the American Wing at the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art. The Folk Art Museum also said it plans to package traveling exhibitions around the U.S. [Press Release]

– What Would You Do With 4,350 Swatch Watches?: Phillips de Pury will auction off a rare collection of watches by Swatch in Hong Kong this November. The most remarkable element of the sale is the Blum Collection, which consists of over 4,000 timepieces assembled by Peter and Linda Blum of Switzerland. The massive trove will be offered as a single lot. [Press Release]

– South London, A New Art Hub: The non-profit contemporary art organization Drawing Room,a cornerstone of the East London scene, has just relocated south of theThames, to Bermondsey. This move is indicative of the London artworld's gradual shift out of the East End. Next month, White Cube will also open a new venue in the vicinity. [TAN] 

– Did Modern Banking Make the Renaissance?: A new exhibition in Florence's Palazzo Strozzi,"Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities," suggests that none other than cold hard cash created the Renaissance. The curators try to tie the blossoming of classical painting in the 15th century to the invention of new financial systems that circumvented usury laws and profited off of currency exchanges. Guardian critic Jonathan Jones calls the connection "a bit strained." [CNN] 

– $20 Million Auction Record for Stamps: Thirty-four million dollars' worth of coins, stamps, and currency were sold at Heritage Auctions'three-auction numismatic sale, a record for the auction house. The mostsuccessful of the auctions, the so-called world and ancient coins sale,broke a house record for the total at a single auction, bringing in a staggering $20 million. The top lot was a rare Yung Hi gold 20 Won Year 3 coin from China, circa 1909, which sold for over $630,000. [Press Release]

– South Africa's Biennale Controversy: Silence has fallen over the press and much of the South African art world regarding the controversy of South Africa's participation in the Venice Biennale. The South African arts blog Panga Management revealed that Lethole Mokoena, listed on the Biennale's website as South Africa's arts commissioner, is actually another person entirely: gallerist Monna Mokoena. More suspicious still, two of Mokoena's artists, Lyndi Sales and Mary Sibande, were selected to represent their country at the Biennale. [TAN]

– UTexas to House Elliot Erwitt Archive: The Harry Ransom Center at Austin's University of Texas will house the archive of documentary photographer and master of the "decisive moment" Elliot Erwitt. The archive spans six decades of his career, and will be installed at the Ransom Center for the next five years. [Republic] 

– Who Lent Those de Koonings?: Karen Blankfeld of Forbes tours MoMA's de Kooning show with collectors Irma and Norman Braman,who loaned two of their paintings, "Bolton Landing" and "Woman," to theexhibition. When she received the news they'd won "Woman" at auction back in 1997, Irma recalled not knowing whether to be ecstatic or nervous. "If you buy the best of an artist it doesn't matter how much you pay," said Norman. "The market will catch up." [Forbes]

– Collages for the Attica Rebellion: To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the uprising at Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, the ICP blog Fans in a Flashbulb has curated a small series of themed artworks by Frank Stella, Faith Ringgold and Cornell Capa for online viewing. [Fans] 

– Morgan Spurlock Bets Big on Mr. Brainwash: From the final episode of his Hulu series "A Day in the Life," "Supersize Me" prankster Morgan Spurlock takes a peek inside the mysterious world of...street artist Mr. Brainwash? [ITA]

RIP A. Richard Turner, Leonardo Scholar: The Florentine Renaissance scholar's landmark 1993 study "Inventing Leonardo" redefined art history's understanding of the poorly understood Renaissance master. Turner died in Cape May of lymphoma. He was 79. [NYT]