Monster Mash: Breaking news and headlines

-- Billed as the world's most expensive new book, with a value of more than $100,000, a 62-pound handmade tome from Italy depicting the life and work of Michelangelo goes on view at the New York Public Library.

-- Members of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art meet at a trustee's residence to informally discuss solutions to the museum's financial crisis.

-- The Facebook support group MOCA Mobilization launches an online petition, with a goal of 10,000 signatures by Dec. 1.

-- Vancouver's City Council approves a one-time grant to help financially strapped Ballet BC, which this week laid off all of its dancers, its artistic director and other staff members.

-- Composer-lyricist Adam Gwon receives the fourth annual Fred Ebb Award. 

-- The Napa food and wine museum founded by the late vintner Robert Mondavi closes while it seeks more cash to continue operating.

-- Conductor Gustavo Dudamel discusses where he hopes to settle (not near the beach) and how he's learning English (Shakespeare).

-- About 60% of the lots in a London auction of Russian art fail to sell as collectors say prices and estimates were too high. In Canada, once-prized paintings by Canadian masters fail to sell at auction.

-- The Getty Center is among the organizations that will observe A Day Without Art on Dec. 1, when the international arts community pauses to remember and respond to the AIDS crisis and its impact on the arts.

-- Broadway attempts to go green with an eco-friendly initiative.

-- Lisa Fung

Photo: Michael Inman, New York Public Library curator of rare books, displays the marble cover page of "Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano."  Credit: Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press