Monster Mash: SFMoMA picks architecture firm; Obama receives painting from graffiti artist

-- And the winner is ...: SFMoMA has chosen the Oslo-based architecture firm Snøhetta for its $250- million expansion. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Diplomatic gift: Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron, has presented President Obama with a painting, pictured at left, by a British graffiti artist. (Daily Telegraph)

-- "Personal reasons": Peter Stein, a celebrated German theater and opera director, has abruptly pulled out of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of "Boris Gudonov." (New York Times)

-- Ancient find: Archaeologists have found a new structure at the site of Stonehenge. (Reuters)

-- On the rocks: A museum in New Zealand has thawed a 100-year-old bottle of Scotch that was frozen in Antarctic ice. (The New Zealand Herald)

-- Fragile ecosystem: Specimens at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History may help scientists understand life in the Gulf of Mexico. (NBC Washington)

-- On again, for now: Rehearsals for Broadway's "Spider-Man" are now set to begin Aug. 16, after some high-profile delays. (New York Times)

-- Legal trouble: Thailand has canceled the visa of Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev, who is facing child rape charges. (Agence France-Presse)

-- Moving east: "The Twentieth-Century Way," a new drama that debuted in May in Pasadena at the Theatre @ Boston Court, will play at the New York International Fringe Festival. (Playbill)

-- Also in the L.A. Times: The Bowers Museum has selected a new chairwoman for its board of directors.

-- David Ng

Photo: "Twenty First Century City," a work by British artist Ben Eine that was given to President Obama by Prime Minister David Cameron. Credit: EPA / White House