Sculptor Anthony Gormley is to receive an honorary fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts.

In an article today by Deborah James of the Daily Post on the icLiverpool website, Gormley is quoted as saying, “I have been delighted by the response of the local people to the installation of Another Place at Crosby Sands, and am very pleased to accept a degree from the Liverpool John Moores University at such a lively time in the life of the city.”

Gormley, famous for his Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead, did the “Another Place” piece in Sefton which consists of 100 cast iron men looking out to sea from Crosby beach.

Read about it here

Another Place pictures here

Gormley sculpture here

Cristina Carillo de Albornoz does a feature today in the very excellent Art Newspaper about Damien Hirst and his Death of God exhibition in Mexico City.

Whilst having pointed to Sean O’Hagan’s piece in The Observer back in February - I still got a buzz from this new article. The exhibition opened on 23 February and to date Hirst has sold 16 of the 28 works - and just to break with tradition I’ll not go into the financials here - there are others that comment on that better than I ever can

A couple of quotes here that made me think:

“In North America I would also have problems with this show because they are so afraid of death, they hate this, they cannot look at a skull; they feel like they are under attack. It’s more to do with a sense of humour failure than anything else.”

“At the end of the day you want young artists to think you are cool. But you have to grow old gracefully. I loved the way the Beatles split in 1970 at their peak; it was brilliant! It is horrible to see people get old.”

Read it here

Nice read this morning from Fiona MacCarthy at the Guardian about László Moholy-Nagy - currently featured in the Tate Modern’s “From the Bauhaus to the New World”.

The article traces Moholy-Nagy’s life from childhood, through his fighting in the Austro-Hungarian army in WW1, his flight from the Nazis to his eventual home in America. MacCarthy does an excellent, in-depth piece painting a superb picture of the man, his life and his art. Highly recommended!

Read it here

Pictures here

Today’s Telegraph caries a sad tale by Richard Savill about a Henry Moore sculpture, on loan to Exeter University, being recalled eight months early amid fears for its safety.

After a series of thefts of bronze sculptures in the London area last year, culminating in the disappearance of Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure 1969-70 in December and a raid on Lynn Chadwick’s The Three Watchers in January - the Henry Moore Foundation has decided to recall the piece, Reclining Connected Forms, as a precaution as the work was “a fair distance from the buildings” and therefore could be at risk.

As reported earlier on Artistica, police are speculating that the thieves are melting down the bronze figures for their scrap metal value.

Now I’ve always considered myself a bit of a namby-pamby liberal - but if these bastards are melting these works down, then they should be caught and turned over to Dr Gunther von Hagens for what he does best…

Read about it here

Not a lot in the news this week, though I did notice the winding up of Charles Saatchi’s Danovo in the Guardian. I’m not one for kicking a man when he’s down, but with debts of £1.8m this may interest few of you - that’s a lot of money…

In the High Court on Wednesday, chief registrar Stephen Baister brought the whole sorry saga to a close and the judge, Sir Donald Rattee, commented that the gallery showed a “deliberate disregard” for the landlords rights.

Personally, I was never a fan of the place and made my feelings known here - so as far as I’m concerned this is just the sordid end to a tawdry story - good riddance!

Read Hugh Muir’s piece here

Lovely little snippet that I nearly missed in The Times yesterday - Richard Brooks’ Biteback tells another story of secrecy and accountability in the Arts.

Brooks poses the questions “How much did the National Portrait Gallery pay for its video of a sleeping David Beckham by Sam Taylor-Wood, or the Tate for its latest Tracey Emin?” and admits he doesn’t have the answers because “Galleries and museums argue that revealing their prices would upset the market” - well, apparently this could all change.

The National Maritime Museum was quizzed recently about the cost of a sculpture and an independent tribunal ruled that the museum should answer the question as “the commercial interest of the museum was not well enough argued.”

Brooks also takes a gentle pop at the government too, asking “what it pays for its art collection, which must be worth a small fortune.”

Hot on the heels of the Sir Nicholas Serota/Chris Ofili scandal at the Tate Modern this story once again highlights the lack of accountability when spending public funds - a subject some newspapers and government spokespeople choose to ignore.

Read all about it here

Scandal at the Tate here

In the Observer this morning, Rachel Cooke asks “Why can’t our women artists earn as much as the men?” What follows is mainly a piece on Tracey Emin and a new Channel 4 series “Art Shock” one of which Emin presents.

Cooke bounces around gathering evidence, posing questions and making assumptions that didn’t ring true - for me anyway.

At one point Cooke discusses the current emphasis on self promotion - but skates over the surface of this ignoring many great artists that thrive at the moment that are not massive self-publicists.

In one paragraph Cooke states “The other problem is that collectors of modern art are, by necessity, rich. They’re alpha males…” - err, not necessarily true according to this - “Figures from the Arts Council in England show 56 per cent of all contemporary art in the UK is now purchased by women.”

I’d like to see the figures on how many men and women are practicing artists - the premise of this article assumes the numbers are equal.

Didn’t do it for me - make your own mind up here

Art Shock starts 13 March Channel 4

The Guardian reports today that a painting by Matisse, The Luxembourg Gardens, was offered for auction for four hours on Russian auction website Mastak.

The picture was part of a multi-million pound raid on the Chacara do Ceu museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - three other artworks by Monet, Picasso and Salvador Dali were also stolen.

Reports suggest foreign buyers and drug traffickers are behind the crime.

Tom Phillips has the skinny here