The Digest. 01.29.09.

Gregoire Peinturier in France. (Photo by gregoirepeinturier.)

• Strange statues around the world. (museumy.)
• R.I.P. Dina Vierny, Maillol’s model. (Mercy, Gabrielle.)
• Berlin’s Tacheles art squat is threatened by developers.
• Brandeis may be backpedaling on selling off its art, but the president still wants to shut down the museum. Plus: Tyler Green interviews the museum’s director.
• Does it really matter if the Colussus wasn’t painted by Goya?
• The Day in Creative Revenue Streams: A museum near the Washington/Oregon border has found a way of making money through wind power.
• Wow, somebody’s actually buying stuff. Dallas Museum of Art acquires works by Marlene Dumas, Yayoi Kusama and Jim Hodges.
• Nooan, a blog about animals.
• On Colbert: Dennis Dutton talks about how art is a tool for propagating.
• iPhone by Da Vinci. (Thank you, Big Papi G.)
• “You’re a brunette, 6′, long legs, 25-30, intelligent, articulate and drop dead gorgeous. I, on the other hand, have the looks of Herve Villechaize and an odour of wheat.” The personal ads in the London Review of Books. (ackackack.)
• What can you make with a bed and a camera and some creatively folded bed sheets? No, not porn. A well-done stop-motion animation film. (UpDownAcross.)
• The Man Who Couldn’t Cry.
• A Q&A with Steve Lambert, anti-advertising executive. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
• Today’s Graff: Erpel in Berlin.
• An interview with Marsea Goldberg of New Image Art in L.A., on the occasion of the gallery’s 15th anniversary.
• Looks like a box with the Death Star wedged in on one side: Rem Koolhaas wins competition to design the Taipei Performing Arts Center.
• Mies Van der Rohe gas station on Canada’s Île-des-Soeurs is shut down. (Hello Beautiful.)
• Your moment of the 2006 Putin-frolicking-with-dolphins wall calendar.