BEST?

The Making of MoMA 2.0 – Just how did the Museum of Modern Art raise more than $400 million to revamp their Manhattan digs? Plus, see pictures from the museum’s modern art galleries before it reopens to the public, and get tips on highlights of the new layout.

Crowdsource Detectives – The users of an online forum helped validate a painting at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool as a legitimate work by Anthony van Dyck.

Star Lots – At Sotheby’s fall auctions, a $35-million painting by Willem de Kooning consigned by Robert Mnuchin is one of the most anticipated lots.

Nara’s Record Auction – A giant painting depicting a pouty little girl has sold for $25 million in Hong Kong, blasting through Yoshitomo Nara’s previous auction record.

Million-Dollar Doodles – Speaking of Nara, once upon a time he hastily scribbled doodle in an East Village dive bar. Now, it could be worth millions.

Alec Monopoly Rolls the Dice – This artist may be getting the last laugh after all, no matter that the art world think’s he’s a joke.

WORST?

Remembering Matthew Wong – The artist died age 35 this week, and we heard from fellow artists and admirers who mourned the loss of the vibrant painter.

Candice Breitz Removes Work – To protest against the inclusion of an artist convicted of murdering a sex worker, artist Candice Breitz pulled her own work from a show at the museum.

No Loans to the Louvre – The upcoming exhibition honoring El Greco will be missing loans from the Prado Museum, which refused to lend their holdings to the Louvre.

Vitruvian Man Gets Vetoed – At the last minute, an Italian nationalist group helped block the loan of Leonardo’s famed drawing to the Louvre for its blockbuster exhibition.

Fly in the Ointment – During the press preview for the newly revamped Museum of Modern Art, our intrepid reporter Nate Freeman discovered an errant hair in van Gogh’s Starry Night, which by all accounts had not been there prior to its recent conservation.