– “Sexual Dependency” Scandalizes in Rio: Rio de Janiero’s Oi Futuro Museum has cancelled a Nan Goldin exhibition featuring images from her famous “Ballad of Sexual Dependency” series, deeming the American photographer’s images of sex, drugs, and illness to be too disturbing for its audience. Denouncing the Oi Futuro's decision as a "step back" for Brazil, the director of Rio’s Museum of Modern Art (MAM-Rio), Luiz Camillo Osorio, said that "people confuse the symbolism of art with reality." And the man is putting his institution where his mouth is: MAM-Rio has stepped up to host the Goldin exhibition, early next year. [AFP]

– Miami Beach Art Bingo: Gotta love the New Times — for its fair week issue, the Miami paper has put out its very own version of Art Basel Miami Beach Bingo to help you track the festivities' many cliches (look for NT staff handing out "a limited amount of printed cards" all week). You can fill out a space on the board if you spot such things as "Bansky Imitators," "New York Hipsters," "Basel-Branded BMW" (“This is how the 1% goes from fair to fair"), "Sex Toys as Art," "A-List Celebs," "Bow Ties," or "Yarn Bombing." So when you see someone spot an "Elfin Gallery Assistant" and shout "BINGO!," you know what's going on. [New Times] 

– Crystal Bridges May Get Fisk’s O’Keeffe After All: Nashville’s Fisk University has moved one step closer to its goal of parlaying its valuable collection of art into a lucrative collection-sharing agreement with Alice Walton’s new Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. The cash-strapped, historically black school has been trying to use its valuable collection of art, including Georgia O’Keeffe’s important “Radiator Building at Night, New York,” as an economic lifeline, but had been blocked by a court ruling that said it had to use the bulk of proceeds for the upkeep of the art collection, in line with the terms of O’Keeffe’s original bequest. Now, an appeals court has thrown out that earlier ruling, clearing the way for the $30 million art-sharing agreement with Crystal Bridges. [WSJ]

– Sponsor of FIT’s Exhibition Draws Protest: Several humanitarian groups have signed an open letter to Daphne Guinness, whose clothing collection is now on display at the museum of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. The letter targets one of the exhibition’s sponsors, Lev Leviev, an Israeli diamond merchant who has been accused in the past of trading diamonds from conflict areas and building illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. [NYM]

– Plan to Turn the Eiffel Tower into a Christmas Tree: Just in time for Christmas, the urban planning consultancy Ginger is pushing a scheme for enveloping the Eiffel Tower in living greenery in a radical redecoration to symbolize the reconciliation of man and nature. The fanciful proposal would involve adding 12 tons of metal tubing to the structure’s base to support thousands of hemp or sackcloth bags. These, in turn, would support 60,000 plants, effectively turning the Paris landmark into a massive aboveground garden to house insects and birds. A report on the proposal in Le Figaro apparently caused a stir, leading the company that operates the tower, SETE, to disavow any intention to execute the eco-friendly makeover. [Reuters]

– Qatar Hearts Hirst: In addition to sponsoring his latest show at the Tate Modern in London, the Qatari Museum Authority will sponsor another exhibition of the artist’s work closer to home — on the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha — in 2013 to introduce the region to Hirst’s work. [TAN]

– Museo Reina Sofía Opens New Contemporary Wing: Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía is likely best known as the place to go to see Picasso’s “Guernica.” But Wednesday marked the opening of a new section that puts on display works from the museum’s collection of Minimalism, Conceptualism, Arte Povera, land and environmental art. [Art Daily]

– Rubells Send Art to Spain: Miami collectors Don and Mera Rubell are sending 200 works from their personal collection to the La Fundación Banco Sanander in Madrid, Spain. The exhibit will include Andy Warhol’s “Mao” (1973), as well as works by Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, David Salle, and Luc Tuymans. [TAN]

– An End to Ugly Scaffolding?: New York's Department of Buildings has held an urban design competition to rethink the look of construction scaffolding. The winners (Young-Hwan Choi, Andres Cortes, and Sarrah Kahn of Agencie Group) came up with an umbrella-shaped structure made out of plastic and recycled steel. A prototype rolls out in front of 100 Broadway in Lower Manhattan later this month. [NYT]

– Casanova’s Memoirs Exhibited in Paris: The original manuscript version of the memoirs of legendary seducer Giacomo Girolamo Casanova are on display at France’s National Library. The lusty exhibition may hope to repeat the success of the Library’s 2008 exhibition of erotic art, “L’Enfer,” which drew more crowds than any show in the institution’s history. [NYT]

– Quentin Blake Wins Prince Philip Designers Prize: The English illustrator, best-known for his partnership with “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” author Roald Dahl, has been recognized by the Duke of Edinburgh for a lifetime of achievement in graphic arts. Blake’s drawings first appeared in the humor magazine Punch more than 60 years ago. [BBC]

– Deitch Gives "60 Minutes" Curmudgeon an ABMB Tour: TV newsman Morley Safer — known to art lovers for his scathing indictment of contemporary art as a hoax — was spotted at Art Basel Miami Beach getting a personal tour from Jeffrey Deitch. [ITA] 

– Knoedler Gallery Shutters: Venerable Upper East Side gallery Knoedler announced in a terse email that it would be closing after 160 years of business. [ITA]