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Column: Roundup: Museums reopen in Paris, Marina Abramovic sued, and Modern art to go on view in Iran

In the wake of the Paris attacks, museums in the city were shut down. A sign advises people of the closed Louvre on Sunday. Institutions reopened today.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, museums in the city were shut down. A sign advises people of the closed Louvre on Sunday. Institutions reopened today.

(Christophe Petit Tesson / EPA)
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Art and culture after the Paris attacks. Laurie Anderson “weds” Sophie Calle. Marina Abramovic has been sued by her former partner. And Iran is set to unveil a priceless collection of Modern art. Plus: how Berlin tackles affordable housing, the Guardian takes critical stock of that incredibly expensive Modigliani, and Stephen Colbert explores that very fine line between art and porn (at least when it comes to broadcast television). Here’s the Roundup:

— Paris museums and other tourist sites were closed in the wake of the attacks on Friday. They reopened on Monday at 1 p.m. Paris time. At the Louvre, staff gathered to observe a moment of silence and sing the Marseillaise.

— French illustrator Jean Jullien created a drawing that merged the peace symbol with the Eiffel Tower. After putting the image on Instagram, his simple illustration became a symbol of the Paris attacks.

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Performance artist Marina Abramovic was recently sued by her former partner Ulay over issues of credit and payment. The artist is seen at the "Women in the Arts" luncheon at the Brooklyn Museum in early November.

Performance artist Marina Abramovic was recently sued by her former partner Ulay over issues of credit and payment. The artist is seen at the “Women in the Arts” luncheon at the Brooklyn Museum in early November.

(Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images for Brooklyn Museum)

— Frank Uwe Laysiepen, the performance artist who goes by the name of Ulay, is suing his former romantic and artistic partner, Marina Abramovic. He claims she has withheld money and failed to give him proper credit on certain works. Abramovic’s lawyer denies the allegations.

— Is Kazimir Malevich’s infamous 1915 painting “Black Square” — described in the New Yorker as “the most famous, most enigmatic, and most frightening painting known to man” — just a cover-up of a tasteless joke about race?

— Musician Laurie Anderson and artist Sophie Calle were “married” in an impromptu performance-ceremony at the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco. (Artnet)

Iran is about to exhibit a trove of Modern art — including canvases by the likes of Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon — that hasn’t been seen since the country’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

— Students from a Boyle Heights charter school staged a guerrilla exhibition outside of the Maccarone gallery on Mission Road in protest of the area’s increasing gentrification.

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— Sort of related: Scholar Rafael Schacter says street art often functions as a tool of gentrification.

— The Milwaukee Art Museum reopens after a $34 million overhaul with a refreshed story of art.

— The Guggenheim Museum’s first online-only exhibition is a project that allows everyone to participate in a fictional futures market.

Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin is part of the Out 100 — Out Magazine’s list of the most compelling LGBT individuals and their allies. She has good company: President Obama is on the cover, the first sitting president to be photographed for the cover of an LGBT publication.

— I love this idea: New York Times critic Roberta Smith visited the Picasso sculpture show at the Museum of Modern Art in the company of one of the museum’s conservators. It offers a real lesson about materials.

Crowds sit in front of Amedeo Modigliani's "Nu couche" during an auction at Christie's in New York. The painting sold for a whopping $170,405,000.

Crowds sit in front of Amedeo Modigliani’s “Nu couche” during an auction at Christie’s in New York. The painting sold for a whopping $170,405,000.

(Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images)
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— Guardian critic Jonathan Jones looks at the power (and the story behind) that $170 million Modigliani painting: “Amedeo Modigliani was high on hashish, wrecked by absinthe, and desperately poor when he painted this hymn to lust in 1917-18.”

— A mother’s hoarding problem becomes a daughter’s art project.

— A group of photographers sneaked into Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch half a dozens years ago. The photos are pretty amazing.

Mexico City architect Alberto Kalach wants to restore the Mexican capital’s drained and built-over lakes, a plan that could help the city better manage water.

— Vladimir Gintoff argues for more thoughtful and nuanced architecture criticism. (Los Angeles County Museum on Fire)

— How Berlin is tackling the affordable housing issue.

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The architectural experiment in Arizona that inspired the look of Luke Skywalker’s home planet in “Star Wars.”

— Last but not least, Stephen Colbert explains the fine line between porn and art (in a totally family-friendly way).

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.

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