Monster Mash: Two new L.A. arts schools open; New York truncates Jean Nouvel tower; Michelle Obama takes after Michelangelo painting

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-- Back to school: The opening of two arts schools in L.A. provides an intriguing study in contrasts.

-- Truncated: New York City has decided to remove 200 feet from architect Jean Nouvel’s design for a midtown skyscraper.

-- Shock art: London’s National Portrait Gallery has purchased and unveiled artist Marc Quinn’s 2006 head sculpture made from his own frozen blood.

-- Lawsuit: A San Diego man is making progress in his attempt to secure the return on a Nazi-looted painting.

-- Nice guns: There’s an art-history parallel between Michelle Obama’s arms and Michelangelo’s painting ‘Doni Tondo.’

-- Try, try again: New designs are revealed for part of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

-- Major purchase: The Library of Congress has acquired photographs depicting the U.S. Air Force taken by Nicholas A. Price.

-- Emerald isle: The tax-exempt status of artists in Ireland could soon be coming to an end.

-- For sale: A collection of Ingmar Bergman’s belongings is set to hit the auction block in Sweden on Sept. 28.

-- Restoration: The Metropolitan Museum of Art says that an unfinished portrait is the work of Spanish artist Velazquez.

-- Big aspirations: The new jukebox musical ‘Baby It’s You!’ opens this fall at the Pasadena Playhouse, with the hope of transferring to Broadway.

-- David Ng