Gold

Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills said that Saturday's opening of a new work by Chris Burden, "One Ton, One Kilo," has been postponed indefinitely while the search continues for 220 pounds -- or about $3.3 million worth -- of gold bars needed to assemble the piece. The stash that Gagosian and Burden had secured for the exhibition got caught up in a civil action that federal authorities have brought against R. Allen Stanford, accused of running a Ponzi scheme. His assets, including Stanford Coins and Bullion, the company that sold Gagosian the required gold, have been frozen by court order.

DALLAS — If you're looking for quiet and unassuming, Jordan Burroughs might not be your man. Not that you would expect reticence from someone who spends his days grabbing people and throwing them to the ground. This is a guy who does not hesitate to proclaim himself the new "face of USA wrestling. " A guy who will be tweeting from the 2012 London Olympics under the name "alliseeisgold. " "Obviously, it rubs some people the wrong way," he said. "A lot of people mistake my confidence for cockiness.

Staples Center is home to four professional sports franchises, the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks. Each team has a different set-up on the arena floor. It is up to the crew overseen by the Staples Center operations department to reconfigure the floor for each game. Several times a year they must make the changeover twice or more over one weekend in between games. Last Saturday afternoon, while fans were still heading for the exits after the Clippers' 103-100 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, 65 workers began transforming the arena for the Kings' game against the Calgary Flames that night.

DALLAS -- Anna Tunnicliffe was born and raised in England. And she has the British accent to prove it. "With certain words it comes out," she acknowledged. But that does not, she insists, make this summer's Olympic Games a homecoming. "I'm American," said Tunnicliffe, who became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and an Olympic gold medalist five years later. "I've spent more than half my life in America. I'm going to England to compete. "I love the country. But no, I'm not going home.

IF it's been a year or two since you've shopped for a mattress, you're in for some surprises. That memory foam bed that once seemed so novel? It's now decidedly mainstream. Latex is the hot material of choice. And that's not all that's changed. Choices are multiplying -- especially on the luxury end -- and prices are too.

When American families sit down to dinner later today, I'd wager that at many tables the traditional expressions of gratitude -- for family, security, friendship, health -- will be joined by this one: Thank you, Wall Street, for the price of gold. Is anybody unaware that gold is currently trading at a record price, having closed at $1,186.90 an ounce on Wednesday? "The consciousness of the general public about this is amazing right now," Stan Walter told me this week.

Unlike the gold, interest in the Tropico Gold Mine has yet to run out. Although there are constant inquiries from would-be visitors, Southern California's largest gold mine today stands deserted, an abandoned boom town since closing in 1956. Located about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles near the Kern County community of Rosamond, the 100-year-old mine proved a popular tourist attraction before closing because of a lack of liability insurance.

Nestled in a small fishing village along the Japan Sea coast is a jewelry factory with enough dazzle to rock precious metal markets from Zurich to New York. Mention Kuwayama Corp. to a couple shopping for an engagement ring and you are likely to get a blank stare. But the Kuwayama factory, surrounded by snow-covered mountains and paddy fields in tiny Uozu village in central Japan, is a household name in the precious metal industry.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York melted down $23 million worth of Nazi gold bars and recast them in the 1950s, replacing the swastika with a U.S. seal, the New York Times reported today. Citing recently released memos from the Federal Reserve, the newspaper said the United States Treasury knew that the bars had been looted by the Nazis from Belgium and the Netherlands.

Charles McDougald looked every bit a real-life Indiana Jones one recent afternoon as he sat cross-legged outside the World War II-era Japanese torture chamber where he and half a dozen other American treasure hunters are convinced lie buried more than 400 tons of gold worth at least $7 billion.

Do you remember those plexiglass dollhouses that museum shops sold for a while -- brightly colored things that looked like the "Brady Bunch" house as re-imagined by a unicorn? The new Venice restaurant Sunny Spot is a little like that, a bit of Midcentury Modern on an institutional strip of Washington Boulevard in Venice with a flat roof, acres of windows and glowing, color-washed dining rooms that can't quite decide whether they're outside or in. As Beechwood, this space felt slightly generic, a loungy "Playboy After Dark" kind of place centered on its fire pit. As Sunny Spot, it booms with reggae and supports both a serious cocktail crowd and a multitude of lobster-red beer guys fresh from an afternoon on Venice Beach.

The United States is the only country to have medaled in each of the first three Olympic water polo tournaments for women. And Coach Adam Krikorian relied heavily on that experience Thursday when he selected the 13-woman team for this summer's London Games. Eight of the players Krikorian named have at least one Olympic medal, and attackers Brenda Villa and Heather Petri have three. "We have focused on becoming a team in and out of the water, which will help us in London," said Villa, the U.S. captain and one of 11 Californians on the team.

DALLAS -- Rarely do the Olympics, javelinas and chewing tobacco wind up in the same story. But then, rarely do the Olympics encounter someone like Brady Ellison. The young man tugs a faded cap down over curls of blond hair and explains that, if it weren't for a steady hand and a sharp eye, he might still be hunting hogs on the ranch. "I'm a country boy at heart," he says. For now, his singular talents have led him in a different direction: Ellison heads into summer as the world's top-ranked archer and a good bet to win gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

Fashion jewelry design is in the midst of a renaissance the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1980s. And Alexis Bittar blazed the trail. In the last two decades, the New York-based jewelry designer has gone from selling his signature colorful, hand-carved Lucite pieces on the streets of SoHo to bejeweling leading ladies in Hollywood and beyond, including Lady Gaga, First Lady Michelle Obama, Madonna, Cameron Diaz, Meryl Streep and Rihanna....

It is a cool, overcast morning in Irvine and 10 swimmers of varying skills are taking a lesson in one corner of the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center. Some bellies hang over the swimsuits and a woman keeps mumbling about getting water in her ear. These aren't pros or even talented youngsters. They are in their 20s and 30s and are so different from the solitary man in the fifth lane who has arrived carrying a black mesh bag that holds goggles, a pair of fins, a small parachute and a snorkel that looks like one your 10-year-old might take to the beach.

The Olympics are (almost) back, and it's a good time to sing again the ballad of Jesse Owens, the black American track star who put the lie to Adolf Hitler's master-race malarkey at the 1936 Summer Olympics by winning four gold medals. (It's never not a good time to sing that song, of course.) "Jesse Owens," premiering Tuesday on PBS SoCal as part of the series "American Experience," is the latest work to take up that inspiring tune. Written by Stanley Nelson, directed by Laurens Grant ("Freedom Riders")

The year was 1987. Daniel Montano recalls sitting pensively in a Manila coffee shop as Agustine Jimenez, a 67-year-old former mine worker, told him a tale of a Philippine gold mine abandoned long ago. As Montano tells it, he studied a warped and faded photograph of a young Jimenez and five other Filipino miners holding 12 gold bars in their hands. The bars were from a mine in the Paracale district of the Philippines, an area Jimenez claimed was rich in gold deposits.

Juggling glasses of white wine and baggies filled with baubles, dozens of women descended on a well-appointed Orange County home this week to trade in their old golden treasures for hefty checks. There were earrings from ex-boyfriends, ring settings with missing stones and chain bracelets from sorority sisters. One woman brought in her husband's wedding ring -- from a previous marriage.

It's not that there haven't been other great Olympic horses. Rembrandt, ridden byGermany'sNicole Uphuff, won two individual gold medals and two team gold medals during the 1988 and 1992 Olympics in dressage. But Rembrandt wouldn't stick his nose in a trash can because curiosity trumped caution. Rembrandt wouldn't turn around and try to reenter Tampa Stadium after a major competition to return immediately to the scene of triumph. As far as great U.S. Olympic horses are concerned, Authentic is the tops.

COLOMA-LOTUS VALLEY, Calif — In the week since a fireball shot across the sky and exploded, scattering a rare type of meteorite over California's Gold Country, these hills have drawn a new rush of treasure seekers. Once again there are lively saloons, fortune hunters jockeying for prime spots and astounding tales of luck — including that of Brenda Salveson, a local who found a valuable space rock while walking her dog Sheldon, named after the theoretical physicist on the TV show "The Big Bang Theory.