The Digest. 09.17.08.

Scheme in Moscow. (Image courtesy of Streetfiles.org.)

• Amazing Hurricane Ike photos at Big Picture. (Via NotCot.)
• Andres Serrano selling photos of poo for $24,000 a poop.
• Call the Bomb Squad: There are guys in bear suits in D.C.
• Hirst-a-palooza! The garage sale went well, reports Bloomberg. More on the blowout in ArtInfo, the NY Times, and the Times of London. The latter makes the interesting point that one of Hirst’s gallerists, Jay Jopling of White Cube, bid on 20 of the 56 lots on Monday night — presumably to avoid a general devaluation of Hirst’s work. In the meantime, while Rome the financial industry burned, lots o’ people bought very expensive animals in formaldehyde.
• In related news: Charlotte Higgins at the Guardian has an excellent idea! Now that Hirst is richer than ever, he can buy those Titians for Britian’s National Galleries.
• Oh yeah! The NY Times has a story about Julian Schnabel that announces the lucky winner of the Schnabel/Mastercard “priceless” campaign.
• And yet another report from the world of Art Hype: Daria Zhukova, girlfriend of Russian billionaire, opens a contemporary non-profit art gallery — billed as Russia’s answer to the Tate Modern and MoMA — in Moscow (via A.J.). More here.
• How the A.I.G. meltdown will affect the art industry.
• Five stolen Dutch master paintings taken from the Frans Hals Museum in ’02 have been recovered. (Via A.J.)
• The Getty Center’s new television ad. Well done. (Via NotCot.)
• Wax Hitler back on display. Head and all.
• Art Press Release of the Day.
• Photos of a piece by Vito Acconci and Helene Brandt in Da Bronx.
• Nothing Like a Little Imperial Gloating: Russia puts its spoils from the invasion of Georgia on display at the Central Museum of Armed Forces in Moscow.
• An overview of the architecture at the Venice Biennale, whose main exhibit the L.A. Times thinks is “a decade out of date.” The action, reports Christopher Hawthorne, is at the national pavilions. More here and here.
• A first look at Renzo Piano’s “green” re-do of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
• Images of a very flooded Farnsworth House.
• A visual round-up of the Bush Years. Just in case you’ve forgotten how badly they’ve sucked. (Via ackackack.)
• Your moment of barking cat.