Today in the Art World...

Time's Richard Lacayo reports that John Elderfield, the chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, is retiring in July 2008. Lacayo writes, "World's easiest New Year's prediction — the search for his succesor is going to be the obsession of 2008."

Lord Norman Foster's Foster + Partners has been chosen to design the Sheikh Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi. The museum, which is to feature a social, political, and natural history of the emirate, will join Frank Gehry's Guggenheim museum, Jean Nouvel's Louvre museum, Zaha Hadid's performing arts centre, and Tadao Ando's maritime museum on Saadiyat Island.

Larry Gagosian opens another gallery — this time, in Rome — on Saturday.

The newest members of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), an organization of respected galleries: Regen Projects, Blue & Poe, Howard Greenberg Gallery, Debra Force Fine Art, Inc.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has lifted the warning it placed on Randolph College one year ago after an investigation proved that the school was, in fact, not spending too much of its endowment. You'll remember that Randolph cited a need to build up its endowment as a reason to sell those four paintings from its Maier Museum.

The Barnes Foundation moves another step closer to its new home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

More today on LACMA's windfall...as well as the fake Gaugin.

Damien Hirst has given the Tate four of his works.