Monster Mash: Artist Louise Bourgeois dies at 98; Sydney Opera House safety, financial problems denied

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-- Art world’s grande dame: Louise Bourgeois, whose intensely personal works of art were inspired by psychological conflict, feminist consciousness and a fertile imagination, has died at 98 in New York. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Center of controversy: The New South Wales government denies reports in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph that aging stage machinery at the Sydney Opera House poses safety risks and that the arts complex faces a financial crisis. (Daily Telegraph and the Australian)

-- New York marathon: Marina Abramovic has ended a 700-hour performance-art piece at the Museum of Modern Art after spending nearly every day since March 14 sitting in a chair staring at strangers. (CNN)

-- Hopper show: New Museum of Contemporary Art director Jeffrey Deitch says the late actor and artist Dennis Hopper was ‘closely involved’ in preparations for MOCA’s upcoming survey exhibition of his work. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Calling it quits: Emmanuel Villaume, music director for opera and orchestra at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, S.C., says he will resign after this year’s fest ends in mid-June. (Post and Courier)

-- Market watch: A 500-year-old bronze statue of the Amitayus Buddha and antique rhinoceros-horn cups have sold for record prices at a Hong Kong auction that saw Europeans and Americans rival Chinese bidders. (Bloomberg)

-- Happy homecoming: A treasured collection of medieval and Renaissance art has temporarily returned to Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, R.I., that once belonged to the Vanderbilts. (Associated Press)

-- Piano prize: Russian Denis Kozhukhin has won the 16th Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Belgium. (Queen Elisabeth Competition)

-- Cartoon hero: Memorabilia relating to Tintin, Belgian artist Herge’s intrepid comic-book reporter, has fetched more than $1.3 million in Paris. (Associated Press)

-- Early warning: A former head of Scotland Yard’s art-and-antiquities squad says not enough is being done to protect Britain’s cultural and religious sites from thieves during the 2012 London Olympics. (Guardian)

-- Once upon a time: PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria and Solvang will present the 2011 U.S. premiere of ‘My Fairytale,’ a musical about Hans Christian Andersen for which Stephen Schwartz (‘Wicked,’ ‘Pippin’) has written the music and lyrics. (Playbill)

-- Longtime leader: Mark Malkovich, artistic director of the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island for 35 years, has died in a car crash. He was 79. (Providence Journal)

Also in the Los Angeles Times: Music critic Mark Swed says problems and complaints have been set aside as beauty and spectacle take over during the first half of Los Angeles Opera’s ‘Ring’ cycle; art critic Christopher Knight suggests that new director Jeffrey Deitch expand the Museum of Contemporary Art’s hours and offer free general admission; Swed looks back at Gustavo Dudamel’s first season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

-- Karen Wada