Roundup: L.A. art dealers in hot water, Met Museum belt-tightening, liberal cities and housing

The legal troubles of a couple of prominent Los Angeles gallerists. The Metropolitan Museum faces shortfalls. And Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde sculptures may be leaky. Plus: How liberal cities are blowing it when it comes to affordable housing, new faces on money in the U.S. and U.K., and how the rich kids of Instagram evoke the portraits of 18th century elites. Here’s the Roundup:

— Last week, two prominent L.A. dealers found themselves in legal hot water over allegations of financial improprieties: Perry Rubenstein, accused of failing to pay sellers for work he had sold, and Doug Chrismas, of Ace Gallery, accused of failing to pay or return work to artists. The latter allegations may be no surprise to anyone who read Kristine McKenna’s eye-opening piece about Chrismas in the L.A. Weekly in 2003.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Met Breuer outpost, in a building once occupied by the Whitney Museum.

(Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images)

— The Metropolitan Museum of Art is facing a $10-million deficit and will have to cut staff and restructure, shortly after opening the doors on its new Met Breuer outpost. As a result, the proposed rebuilding of the museum’s contemporary wing will “be quiet” for a while, according to museum president David Weiss. In the meantime, Tyler Green reads between the lines.

— An exhibition of the hoarded works of Cornelius Gurlitt has been postponed because of a relative’s legal challenge.

— A scientific study reports that Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde works may have leaked toxic fumes at higher levels than allowed.

— The British Library has digitized one of the world’s oldest Koran manuscripts. Lovely.

— Graffiti artist Rime’s case against the Moschino fashion label is being allowed to proceed by a California judge. Rime sued the fashion company for copyright violation after elements of a mural he painted were used in a dress design by Jeremy Scott. (Weisslink)

— David Geffen has given $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. If the esteemed Mr. Geffen is looking to throw some cash around his home city of Los Angeles, here’s a place that could rilly rilly use the dough.

— In the wake of Harriet Tubman’s selection for the new $20 bill, Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post writes about the ways in which the abolitionist has been portrayed — including one historic image that shows her holding a gun.

— Sort of related: English painter J.M.W. Turner, who was recently the subject of an exhibition at the Getty Museum, will grace England’s £20 note.

— New York magazine has a good profile of David Hockney as the documentary of his life lands in theaters. (Don’t miss the doc. The film may not be comprehensive, but it will make you want to get up and paint.)

— An interesting round-table with three prominent L.A. artists — Ed Moses, Ed Bereal and Larry Bell — covers everything from who was the top womanizer to who started off painting sailboats, and how the politics of the era affected the course of their careers.

— A series of new murals have been popping up in locations around South L.A.

— Comparing the rich kids of Instagram with oil paintings of 18th century European elites: “This is not about taste or enjoyment. It is about the spectacle of pleasure.”

— A chronicle of the homeless who live along the L.A. River’s banks.

The Vanna Venturi house, in Chestnut Hill, Pa., designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Robert Venturi.

(Carol M. Highsmith / Getty Images)

— Can historic architectural homes — such as Robert Venturi’s Vanna Venturi house — survive the whims of the market?

— In a frank Q&A, Yale architecture dean Robert A.M. Stern discusses architect fashion (he favors yellow socks), the time he had to peel an angry Denise Scott Brown off Paul Rudolph at a party, drawing versus digital rendering, the state of contemporary museum architecture, and how he isn’t into visiting job sites because it requires him to remove his Gucci loafers. Love me some crazy straight-forwardness. (@HawthorneLAT)

— And here’s one way to deal with the affordable housing crisis: Costa Mesa’s mayor pro tem says if you can’t afford to live in Costa Mesa, then you should be looking elsewhere. Stay classy, Orange County!

— Speaking of which, urban planning blogger Shane Phillips has a must-read post about how big, liberal cities are blowing it when it comes to the question of affordable housing: “As we look with scorn upon Donald Trump and his plan to build an impenetrable wall between the U.S. and Mexico, we’ve erected a wall around our cities — no less effective for its invisibility — to protect existing residents from the invasion of ‘outsiders.’ Our country is open, but our cities are full.”

— Because I’m a jungle geek: Allison Meier of Hyperallergic reports on an interesting new interactive map that tracks the journeys of the famed ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, whose traveks throughout the Amazon in the 1940s, in search of a good source of rubber, were unearthed in Wade Davis’s “One River,” a book that provided an unusually textured view of the Amazon Basin. Schultes’ journals also inspired the Oscar-nominated Colombian film “Embrace of the Serpent” (where he receives less heroic treatment than he is generally accorded by the Western press).

— And last but not least, your moment of Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” a full digital tour. Set aside some time for this. It’s worth it.

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.