Art Department

An elderly Los Angeles woman who has fought for years to recover six paintings worth an estimated $150 million that were seized by the Nazis from her family in Vienna in 1939 is entitled to proceed in court against the government of Austria, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. Austria, supported by the U.S. Justice Department, had argued that it was immune under a federal law designed to block most suits against foreign governments in U.S. courts.

Bates Lowry, a leading art and architectural historian who was founding director of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and oversaw its birth in the 1980s, has died. He was 80. Lowry died March 12 at a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., of complications from pneumonia. He spent years in academia, holding teaching positions at colleges from Massachusetts to California. He also wrote books on subjects ranging from Renaissance art to the daguerreotype.

Thomas Crow, an internationally renowned art scholar and critic who heads Yale University's art history department, has been named director of the Getty Research Institute. The appointment, announced Monday, ends a yearlong effort to fill one of the most prestigious positions at the Getty Center in Brentwood. Crow, 52, will take charge of one of the world's largest research centers for art history on July 1.

David Moon has long used computers to make art. Now the Cal State Northridge art teacher is using digital technology to help his students display their work and get jobs. Three weeks ago, Moon launched a new Web site--http://www.freshportfolio.com--that is part electronic gallery, part employment agency.

It was an ordinary chain-link fence with no apparent purpose at the north end of the Cal State Northridge campus. Then Russell McMillin and his 200 art education students transformed it into some grand terra-cotta menagerie. Huge, brown blowfish gape at spectators from the 100-foot-long fence. Furry, apelike heads sit atop its 10-foot-high posts. Skulls protrude from aluminum links. And strange, circular dwellings that look like wasp nests hang ominously from the barricade.

It was your typical L.A. circus sideshow: There was a stage with a tattooed stripper and fire eater, a booth for knock-'em-down, win-something-you-don't-need games, another booth for Roseanne. We decided to chat with our favorite oddity, Roseanne, who had just taken her evening's constitution. She had gone for a walk on George the Giant. When he was lying on a bed of nails, no less. We decided to tread carefully. Do you feel like you're in your milieu? we asked La Roseanne. She nodded.

Styled by Michael Eisenhower/Cloutier; makeup: Lisa Storey/Art Department, New York City; fashion assistant: Michael Cioffoletti

Alvin K. Ching, a professor of art at Cal State Fullerton, died Sept. 30 at age 63 after an apparent heart attack. A metal craftsman who was a faculty member for 31 years, Ching served as chairman of the art department from 1986-89. School officials said his legacy includes several lighthearted campus events--including the annual rubber-band-powered boat race--developed to foster fellowship among students, faculty and staff.

In conjunction with "Sunshine & Noir," UCLA is sponsoring the three-part symposium "From the Beat Generation to the Millennium: Conversations on Art in L.A.," including some of the key figures from the Los Angeles art scene of the '50s through the '90s. All three evenings will take place at the Geffen Playhouse, 7-10 p.m., 10886 LeConte Ave., Westwood, and are free to the public. (310) 443-7000. * Oct. 26: "The Beat Goes On: L.A.