Monster Mash: a record-breaking Picasso; Ojai Music Festival taps Dawn Upshaw as guest music director

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--Super sale: Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, ‘Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,’ has fetched $106.5 million at Christie’s New York, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The painting came from the estate of Los Angeles arts patron Frances Brody. (Los Angeles Times)

--New music: The Ojai Music Festival has named soprano Dawn Upshaw as music director for 2011, which means the opera and concert stage star will help create next summer’s programming. Ojai also announced a new partnership that will send festival artists and programs to UC Berkeley. (Los Angeles Times)

--Major face lift: Officials from Belgium and the Getty Foundation are set to announce Wednesday that the 15th-century Ghent Altarpiece will undergo extensive restoration as part of an initiative by the Los Angeles-based foundation, the Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum aimed at training a new generation of specialists in the art of restoring paintings on wood panel. (New York Times)

--Quick exit: After missing out on a Tony nomination for best play, Lucy Prebble’s London hit, ‘Enron,’ will close on Sunday less than two weeks after its Broadway debut. (Playbill)

--Water damage: Severe flooding in Nashville has harmed the operating mechanism and console of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center’s prized $2.5-million Schoenstein pipe organ. (Nashville Scene via ArtsJournal)

--New maestro: The Santa Fe Opera has chosen Paris-born composer, conductor and pianist Frédéric Chaslin as its chief conductor. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

--Market watch: Chinese collectors -- increasingly keen on acquiring high-quality historical objects -- are expected to travel to Salisbury, Britain, to bid as much as $3 million for a pair of 18th century jade elephants that once adorned the throne room of the Emperor Qianlong. (Bloomberg)

Also in the Los Angeles Times: theater critic Charles McNulty reviews the 2010 Tony nominations after what he calls a ‘mixed-bag year;’ the Los Angeles Philharmonic seeks donated instruments to help expand its Youth Orchestra L.A. programs.

-- Karen Wada