Roundup: Knoedler fraud case settled, Ai Weiwei’s latest antics, an L.A. photo fair is shut down

A prestigious L.A. fair has been given the ax. A riveting trial about gallery fraud comes to a close. Facebook and censorship. Plus: Ted Cruz’s on-staff art historian, Ai Weiwei’s latest tone-deaf refugee project and Cindy Sherman’s Instagram-style antics. Here’s the Roundup:

— Paris Photo L.A. has been canceled due to low sales. This seems to fulfill the stereotype that L.A. is a great place to make art, not sell it.

— Which makes these stories in Artsy and the New York Times about the hotness of the L.A. arts scene slightly awkward.

— A pair of collectors have settled their case in the Knoedler & Company gallery fraud trial. The Art Newspaper parses.

— Ted Cruz’s national security adviser is an art historian. She once helped curate an exhibition about Pompeii at the Getty Villa (and Times art critic Christopher Knight was not that into it).

Ai Weiwei covered the pillars of Berlin’s concert hall in life vests to draw attention to Europe’s refugees. Aspects of the work have drawn criticism for turning the crisis into art world spectacle.

(Kay Nietfeld / EPA)

— Ai Weiwei is losing it.

— Facebook blocked a pop painting by Evelyne Axnell, which showed a woman eating an ice cream cone, for being too “suggestive.”

— In related news: A French court will allow a lawsuit to proceed against the social media giant by a user who had his account shut down after posting Gustave Courbet’s racy 1866 canvas “The Origin of the World.” The company has issued guidelines that make art of nude figures OK to post. Curious to see how this will work for 1970s body art. The related links are NSFW.

— A catalog has been published of the art hoard of Nazi second-in-command Hermann Goering. Illuminating.

— Paul Klee’s art puppets.

— Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post analyzes the psychology of Microsoft founder Paul Allen’s art collection. An addendum to that piece: Allen’s mega-yacht (mentioned in the first paragraph) may have destroyed 80% of a protected coral reef in the Cayman Islands.

— Cindy Sherman did a portfolio for Harper’s Bazaar inspired by Instagram style stars. In the accompanying piece, Sherman says she is “physically repulsed” by the Instagram images for being so stage-y. You mean like arty self-portraiture and shoots for high-end fashion magazines?

American Ballet Theatre Principal dancer Misty Copeland teaches a master class in 2015.

(Christina House / For The Times)

— And since we’re on the subject of Harper’s Bazaar, art critic Sebastian Smee says the Misty Copeland-as-Degas-paintings fashion images totally miss the point about Degas.

— Don, the Museum of Modern Art guard dog.

— Sort of related, but not: The museum has launched a free online course about photography.

— For decades, Chicago’s Cabrini-Green area was known for its dilapidated public housing projects. Now the area is drawing luxury towers — raising questions about the displacement of Chicago’s working class.

— Christopher Hawthorne reviews Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s redo/building for the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive up in the Bay Area.

— Bjarke Ingels has been chosen to design the next Serpentine Pavilion.

— The low-key Orange County architect behind some of West L.A.’s biggest mega mansions.

— A malware museum.

— And last but not least: There have been a lot of pixels spilled on Beyoncé’s “Formation” video. This is the most irresistibly geeky. (@benfinoradin)

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.