Today in the Art World...

Collector and Gap founder Donald Fisher, who wants to build a contemporary art museum in San Francisco's Presidio, and the Presidio Historical Association, which has proposed a "History Center of the Golden Gate" for the spot instead, faced off on Monday night when they discussed their plans at a public hearing. The Presidio Trust is expected to award one or the other the right to build in early 2008.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has greenlighted Nicholas Penny to assume the directorhip of the National Gallery in London.

Russia's first Kandinsky Prize, described by Russian newspapers as the country's Turner Prize, was awarded to the sculptor Anatoly Osmolovsky yesterday. At the ceremony, two policemen shared a kiss center stage in protest of the Culture Ministry's decision to censor a photograph of two smooching law enforcement officials from an exhibition of Russian art currently on view in Paris. A review of the controversial show here.

The New York Sun offers a peek at the Old Master works on the block in London today and tomorrow.

Did Monet's cataracts turn the Impressionist painter into an Abstract Expressionist?

Damien Hirst tried to buy a 3.3 pound, $330,000 truffle.