Norton Simon Museum

"Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose" is back at the Norton Simon Museum after a revealing conservation job. But you'd better be quick if you want to see its new look before the 1633 painting by Francisco de Zurbaran takes a trip to New York. A crown jewel of the Simon collection and one of the finest Spanish still lifes in the United States, the painting recently got some expert TLC at the J. Paul Getty Museum's conservation laboratory. Like an aging beauty queen who quietly retreats, then slips back into the public eye looking younger, the 375-year-old artwork has returned to the Pasadena museum refreshed and ready for close-up viewing.

NEW YORK — Federal agents have threatened to seize from Sotheby's a 10th century Cambodian sandstone statue, alleging the auction house planned to sell it despite warnings that looters had stolen the piece from its rightful place, adorning an ancient temple in the former Khmer kingdom. Court documents filed Wednesday in New York say the statue of an ancient warrior was torn from the Prasat Chen Temple in Koh Ker in northern Cambodia sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s, when the Asian nation was engulfed in civil unrest.

Jennifer Jones became one of the top stars of the 1940s and '50s under the guidance of her second husband, uber-producer David O. Selznick. Because of Selznick's firm grip, though, Jones didn't make as many movies as some of her contemporaries, such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. As a result, many people today aren't familiar with her work, save perhaps for her final role as Fred Astaire's love interest in 1974's "The Towering Inferno. " But during her career, Jones earned a lead actress Oscar for 1943's "The Song of Bernadette" and received nominations for 1944's "Since You Went Away," 1945's "Love Letters," 1946's "Duel in the Sun" and 1955's "Love Is a Many Splendored-Thing.

At the Norton Simon Museum, an exhibition examining the L.A. area's postwar printmaking boom begins with a different sort of graphic. It's not a Richard Diebenkorn lithograph, an Ed Ruscha screenprint or any of the 150 or so other works in "Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California. " Gracing the title wall is a six-foot-wide bubble diagram - what "Proof" curator Leah Lehmbeck calls "a map of all the complexities, crossovers, key institutions and people covered in the show," which runs at the Pasadena museum through April 2. PHOTOS: Richard Diebenkorn The exhibition delves into an important chapter in American art history: the L.A.-based renaissance in the '60s and '70s, during which printmaking was embraced as a contemporary art form.

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is focusing on liquid pleasure in two summer exhibitions. "The Lure of the Water: Impressionists at the Seashore" (through Sept. 26) consists of ocean paintings and beach scenes by Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Eugene Boudin and other French artists. "Seascape/Cityscape: The Art of Lyonel Feininger" (through Jan.

Collector Without Walls Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best Sara Campbell Yale University Press: 496 pp., 2,250 illus., $65 Of all the eccentricities attributed to Norton Simon, his lack of interest in publishing scholarly books about his art collection is among the most baffling. Was Simon, one of the 20th century's premier collectors, spurning the academic establishment to which he didn't belong? Or just being himself, a brilliant contrarian and proud of it?

Jennifer Jones Film Series Where: Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena When: 2 p.m. each Saturday in October Price: No charge beyond the $8 museum admission Information: (626) 844-6990; http://www.nortonsimon.org/jennifer-jones-film-series

Jennifer Jones became one of the top stars of the 1940s and '50s under the guidance of her second husband, uber-producer David O. Selznick. Because of Selznick's firm grip, though, Jones didn't make as many movies as some of her contemporaries, such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. As a result, many people today aren't familiar with her work, save perhaps for her final role as Fred Astaire's love interest in 1974's "The Towering Inferno. " But during her career, Jones earned a lead actress Oscar for 1943's "The Song of Bernadette" and received nominations for 1944's "Since You Went Away," 1945's "Love Letters," 1946's "Duel in the Sun" and 1955's "Love Is a Many Splendored-Thing.

Eli Broad, Los Angeles' leading philanthropist, is asking the city and county to give him a piece of property downtown for an art museum to house his collection — a museum he's offering to build and endow. As they consider that request, the Board of Supervisors, the City Council and other agencies of local government should base their decisions not on what is best for Broad but on what best serves the public. And they should approve this deal. There is no direct cost to the public in Broad's proposal.

Two hundred years ago, Dutch merchants opened shipments of porcelain from Japan to find the packing material was delicate rice paper, printed with brightly colored scenes of Japanese life. When the prints arrived, it didn't take long for some of the artists behind them to be recognized as masters. Mass-produced from carved woodblocks, the images were known as ukiyo-e . Today, the "images of the floating world" continue to be appreciated as more than so many little bits of paper.

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.), Holly Myers (H.M.), David Pagel (D.P.) and Leah Ollman (L.O.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. Critics' Choices Divine Demons: Wrathful Deities in Buddhist Art When one thinks of Buddhist art, one tends to conjure up images of tranquillity and bliss. This show presents a different picture, conjuring up a panoply of teeth-baring, arm-waving, serpent-stomping creatures that are there to step in when celestial composure is not enough (H.M.