Monster Mash: Breaking arts news and headlines

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-- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has named Richard Armstrong as its next director. Armstrong, who has led the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh for 12 years, will succeed Thomas Krens, who announced in February that he was stepping down after nearly 20 years.

-- UCLA architecture professor Greg Lynn was a winner at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale for his work ‘Recycled Toys Furniture,’ which received the award for best installation project.

-- New York’s city council is expected to approve today expansion plans for the Whitney Museum of American Art. The museum wishes to construct a 185,000 square-foot building, designed by Renzo Piano, in downtown Manhattan. What remains less certain is the museum’s ability to meet its current fundraising goal of $680 million.

-- The Columbus Symphony Orchestra has reached an agreement between managers and musicians on a new three-year contract, allowing the orchestra to return to the stage following a suspension of operations in June. The orchestra is expected to resume performances at the Ohio Theater next month.

-- “American Psycho: The Musical?” A stage adaptation of the ultra-violent 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel is in the works, with three companies attached to produce. No dates have been announced yet but the development team has begun the selection process for writers to pen the score and the book.

-- A director at Gagosian Gallery has stated that art collectors from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union accounted for almost 50% of total global sales for the gallery. Four years ago, Gagosian had almost no Russian buyers.

-- ‘Xanadu,’ the goofy Broadway musical based on the 1980 cult film, will close its doors two weeks earlier than previously announced. The new closing date is Sept. 28. Southern California audiences will still get a chance to see the musical when it opens at La Jolla Playhouse in November.

-- The Actors’ Playhouse in New York will serve as the location for a new reality TV show about actors putting on competing theater productions.

-- Placido Domingo’s performance in Verdi’s ‘Otello’ will be one of many videos available over the Internet for the first time thanks to a new Metropolitan Opera service that will offer online subscriptions to 120 audio recordings and 50 full-length videos.

-- Edvard Munch’s 1894 painting ‘Vampire’ will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York for an estimated $35 million. The painting has resided for more than 70 years in the hands of a private collector. The auction is scheduled to take place Nov. 3.

-- The chair of Britain’s Arts Council is up for grabs. Names being mentioned for the position include theater titans Richard Eyre, Nicholas Hytner and Genista McIntosh.

-- China’s fake art industry is experiencing a severe economic slump. Exports of fake Van Goghs, Rembrandts, Monets and Warhols have reportedly fallen by a third this year.

— David Ng