Today in the Art World...

A committee selected by the government of Abu Dhabi will make decisions about acquisitions and commissions for the Guggenheim museum being built on Saadiyat Island. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the New York nucleus of the Guggenheim's expanding empire, will make recommendations. (Also, Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim foundation, didn't say how much the Guggenheim would be getting in exchange for its name.)

Tomorrow at 4:30 P.M. marks the deadline for opponents to Randolph College's proposed auction of four works from its Maier Museum at Christie's this month to come up with the $10 million bond necessary to block the sale pending other litigation. Anne Yestremski, executive director of Preserve Educational Choice, an organization funding lawsuits brought against the college, says it's unlikely that the opponents will be able to post bond.

The tables turned yesterday when Italy, which has recently repatriated a number of antiquities from major U.S. museums, returned looted artifacts to Iran.

Was Picasso's Guernica mishandled by the Reina Sofía, a museum in Madrid that holds the monumental painting in its collection?

It's Claude Monet's birthday.

Claude Monet, Waterlilies, Harmony in Blue