Hammer Museum

Anila Rubiku grew up in a country that no longer exists, at least not the isolated, repressed and paranoid state that was Albania before Eastern Europe's anti-Communist revolutions. The Balkan country that broke away from its iron-fisted mentors in Moscow, Beijing and Belgrade to pursue an even more Stalinist path has changed dramatically in the two decades since democracy began making inroads. But the scars of despotism remain visible on the landscape and in the mentality of Albanians, tens of thousands of them having endured unimaginable brutality in “re-education camps” during the long post-World War II dictatorship of Enver Hoxha . Hoxha sowed fear among the 3 million inhabitants of his remote Adriatic Sea enclave with constant warnings of imminent invasion by Albania's real and imagined enemies.

Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art has appointed three new trustees, including Bruce Karatz, the former chief executive of KB Homes who was convicted three years ago on four felony counts of failing to disclose the backdating of stock options. Also joining the board are prominent investor Stanley Gold and Beverly Hills attorney and art collector Orna Amir Wolens, who has been a member of the Hammer Museum's Hammer Circle support group. MOCA's announcement Wednesday that Karatz, Gold and Wolens had been elected to the board follows museum leaders' recent decision to remain independent rather than accept an offer from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to absorb MOCA.

This story has been corrected. Please see note below. "The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne," a highly prized painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the collection of the Louvre, is having a big year. Last spring, the sensitive portrayal of St. Anne with her daughter and grandson was the keystone of an exhibition at the Parisian museum. For the first time, Leonardo's "final masterpiece" - in process for years and left unfinished at the artist's death in 1519 - was exhibited with his compositional sketches, preparatory drawings and landscape studies, along with related works by other artists.

Hahn-Bin: 'The Five Poisons' Where: Bill Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum, Westwood When: 8 p.m. Thursday Tickets: Free Information: (310) 443-7000 or hammer.ucla.edu

'All My Friends Are Funeral Singers,' Califone Where: Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles When: 8 tonight Price: Free Contact: (310) 443-7000