Charles Saatchi has agreed to create a “Saatchi Room” in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, reports the Art Newspaper. The London collector is to provide a changing selection of contemporary art for a room in the General Staff Building, former government offices in Palace Square that are being restored to provide a home for the Hermitage’s collection of nineteenth- to twenty-first-century art.

The move follows the opening on October 24 of Saatchi’s exhibition “USA Today,” which marks the launch of the Hermitage 20/21 project, an ambitious attempt to extend the museum’s display of post-1917 art. The scheme’s advisor is Sir Norman Rosenthal, exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy. The Hermitage has also confirmed reports that Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull could be loaned to the museum next spring, although arrangements have not been finalized.

Taken from Artforum.com (November 9, 2007)

The Elvis Is Alive Museum is a cramped 400-square-foot shrine to all things Elvis in Wright City, Mo. (Photo: Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times)

The 16-foot-tall likeness of Elvis Presley that stands sentry here at the Elvis Is Alive Museum, a fading outpost of Americana, has seen better days. For 17 years, Bill Beeny — museum curator, real estate salesman, Baptist minister — has used the wooden cutout to lure travelers to his museum, a cramped 400-square-foot shrine to all things Elvis, but especially to its owner’s theory that the King never actually left the building.

Now, Mr. Beeny, 81, wants to convert the museum into a food bank and is auctioning its contents on eBay. His collection includes photographs, books and FBI files. The auction ended Thursday evening. Someone from the King’s home state, Mississippi, has placed the highest bid at $8,200. The auction’s terms stipulate that the high bidder must take possession of the museum’s contents by Nov. 30 — pickup only, no shipping.

Read article (The New York Times, November 8, 2007)