Monster Mash: Metropolitan Museum of Art sued over Cezanne; Playboy artwork sells at auction

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Lawsuit: A Parisian engineer is suing New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to recover a Paul Cezanne painting that he says the Bolsheviks stole from his great-grandfather during the Russian Revolution. (Bloomberg)

From Hugh to you: Artwork that belonged to Playboy has been sold at auction in New York. (BBC News)

Stoking the flames: A profile of the conservative writer who helped to instigate the controversy over the David Wojnarowicz video at the National Portrait Gallery. (Washington City Paper)

Royal effort: Britain’s Prince William will serve as a patron of a new charity that will raise funds for a major exhibition at the Imperial War Museum commemorating World War I. (The Telegraph)

Planning ahead: The Cultural Olympiad’s London 2012 festival will feature a lineup of prominent artists and celebrities. (The Guardian)

Pushing the envelope: Qatar’s new modern art museum may raise a few eyebrows with its decision not to censor nudity. (CNN)

Cashing in: Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will sell up to $4.1 million of fine wines in an upcoming Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction. (Reuters)

Missing: Detectives are looking for a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin stolen from a London train station. (CNN)

Curtain: The Broadway production of ‘Time Stands Still,’ starring Laura Linney, is set to close Jan. 30. (Playbill)

New role: Leslie Uggams, currently at the Pasadena Playhouse in ‘Uptown Downtown,’ is joining the board of the Apollo Theater in Harlem. (Associated Press)

And in the L.A. Times: architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne reviews a new exhibition devoted to the late Stephen Kanner; Andrea Bocelli talks about the latest phase of his operatic and singing career.

-- David Ng