El Greco

The more than $7.5-million, 111-unit El Greco apartment building will open next Sunday in Westwood on the former site of a 54-year-old building that has been restored and relocated to the Fairfax District. The new El Greco, a four-story post-Modern building at 1030 Tiverton Ave., was designed by Samuel Wacht Associates, West Los Angeles, and is a development of Brentwood-based R. W. Selby & Co. Inc. Victor Behar Construction Co.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Honored here on his 80th birthday last week with a congressional medal and dinner with the president, Colombia's most famous artist, Fernando Botero, says he'll keep working until he keels over with "a paintbrush in my hand. " But the politically attuned artist, whose themes have included mass murders, vicious drug capos and torture as well as his trademark "volumetric" nudes and whimsical reworkings of old masters, is skeptical that he will live to see the peace his countrymen so desperately want.

The San Diego Museum of Art has purchased a small early painting on copper by El Greco, "The Adoration of the Shepherds" (1572-74), and a small religious painting on copper, "Saint Sebastian," by the renowned 17th-Century Spanish still-life painter Juan Sanchez Cotan, the museum announced at a press conference Thursday. Museum director Steven Brezzo said the museum paid "in excess of half a million dollars" for the El Greco and "under a hundred thousand" for the Sanchez Cotan.

Is graffiti the most influential art movement since Pop burst on the scene in 1962? That's the head-turning claim made by "Art in the Streets," a controversial exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The show has been drawing the ire of social critics, alarmed by what they perceive as an institutional celebration of vandalism, all while drawing curious crowds (often young) to the museum's Little Tokyo warehouse space. Graffiti is identified as a global artistic phenomenon that is thriving 40 years after it first emerged as a cultural marker around 1971.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday rescued a historic Westwood Village apartment building from demolition so that it can be moved to a new site and converted into low-cost housing for senior citizens. The council voted unanimously to withhold until Aug. 1 permission to demolish the 14-unit El Greco apartment complex.

Among the Old Masters, none is more immediately recognizable than El Greco. We may think we can spot a Rembrandt, but Dutch scholars have lately told us we're mistaken. Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Poussin, Vermeer, Rubens -- the names evoke vivid images, ways of painting unique to each artist, yet all had contemporaries or imitators only the specialist can set apart. It is true that problems of attribution can arise with respect to El Greco.

The San Diego Museum of Art has purchased an early painting on copper by El Greco titled "The Adoration of the Shepherds" and a religious painting on copper titled "St. Sebastian" by the renowned 17th-Century Spanish still-life painter Juan Sanchez Cotan. Museum director Steven Brezzo said Thursday that the museum paid "in excess of half a million dollars" for the El Greco and "under a hundred thousand" for the Sanchez Cotan.

Thieves broke into an Argentine museum overnight and stole paintings by Goya, El Greco and others worth more than $10 million.

El Record: A painting by El Greco was sold for $3.42 million at an auction of Spanish art in Christie's in London, a record sum for works by the 15th-Century artist. On Friday, "The Disrobing of Christ" surpassed the previous $2.74 million record for an El Greco painting set in 1990.

A riotously profane picture of inebriated villagers by Pieter Brueghel the Younger that has not been seen in public for 70 years sold for $7.15 million in London on Wednesday. "The Kermesse of St. George," described by Sotheby's as the finest work by the 17th century Flemish artist still in private hands, was sold to an anonymous bidder. It had been in the hands of a Belgian family since 1930.

Investigators have recovered stolen masterpieces by two of Spain's most revered artists: Goya and El Greco, Spanish police said Friday. The oil-on-canvas works, Goya's 18th century "The Apparition of the Virgin of Pilar" and El Greco's 16th century "The Annunciation," were stolen 14 years ago after an exhibition tour. Works by these painters are highly valued and most are kept in museums such as Madrid's Prado. However, these two were privately owned when stolen. They were found in a private house near the southeastern city of Alicante, a police statement said.

A riotously profane picture of inebriated villagers by Pieter Brueghel the Younger that has not been seen in public for 70 years sold for $7.15 million in London on Wednesday. "The Kermesse of St. George," described by Sotheby's as the finest work by the 17th century Flemish artist still in private hands, was sold to an anonymous bidder. It had been in the hands of a Belgian family since 1930.

Among the Old Masters, none is more immediately recognizable than El Greco. We may think we can spot a Rembrandt, but Dutch scholars have lately told us we're mistaken. Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Poussin, Vermeer, Rubens -- the names evoke vivid images, ways of painting unique to each artist, yet all had contemporaries or imitators only the specialist can set apart. It is true that problems of attribution can arise with respect to El Greco.

Historical curiosities don't often become cultural milestones--but a triumphant exception graced the stage of the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. A year ago, the Royal Swedish Ballet premiered a program reconstructing four lost works of the Ballets Suedois, a Paris-based company that existed only from 1920 to 1925 and is now remembered solely for its innovative designs and scores.

He was just a stick figure then, a skinny teen-ager with a shock of black hair who had never fought in a real bullfight. He called himself Jesulin, or "Little Jesus," and looked about 13 years old. When we saw him step onto the sand wearing a suit of lights like a party costume, we figured it must be a joke. I had brought my American friends to the bullring in Ronda, a strikingly romantic town of 22,000 in the mountains above the Costa del Sol, for a taste of quintessential Spain.

El Record: A painting by El Greco was sold for $3.42 million at an auction of Spanish art in Christie's in London, a record sum for works by the 15th-Century artist. On Friday, "The Disrobing of Christ" surpassed the previous $2.74 million record for an El Greco painting set in 1990.

The San Diego Museum of Art has purchased a small early painting on copper by El Greco, "The Adoration of the Shepherds" (1572-74), and a small religious painting on copper, "Saint Sebastian," by the renowned 17th-Century Spanish still-life painter Juan Sanchez Cotan, the museum announced at a press conference Thursday. Museum director Steven Brezzo said the museum paid "in excess of half a million dollars" for the El Greco and "under a hundred thousand" for the Sanchez Cotan.

The San Diego Museum of Art has purchased an early painting on copper by El Greco titled "The Adoration of the Shepherds" and a religious painting on copper titled "St. Sebastian" by the renowned 17th-Century Spanish still-life painter Juan Sanchez Cotan. Museum director Steven Brezzo said Thursday that the museum paid "in excess of half a million dollars" for the El Greco and "under a hundred thousand" for the Sanchez Cotan.