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Monster Mash: Broad museum breaks ground; De Niro saves dad’s art; $5-million reward in super-heist

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--School spirit: Michigan State University has broken ground on the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, a bold $45-million structure designed by Baghdad-born architect Zaha Hadid and financed by donations including $28 million from L.A. philanthropists Broad, a Michigan State grad, and his wife. (Detroit Free Press)

--Rescued work: Actor Robert De Niro has kept six paintings and drawings by his father, the late artist Robert De Niro Sr., from going up for auction in a settlement with a scandal-ridden Manhattan gallery that had filed for bankruptcy.(Wall Street Journal)

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--Help wanted: The FBI has placed billboards featuring Rembrandt’s ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’ along Massachusetts interstates to announce a $5-million reward in what is considered to be the world’s biggest art heist -- the theft of 13 works, including the Rembrandt, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston 20 years ago. (Boston Globe)

--Western romp: After bringing ‘The Producers’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’ to the stage, Mel Brooks says he’s starting to write songs for a possible theatrical version of another of his films, the 1974 flick ‘Blazing Saddles’ (Edmonton Sun)

--Feeling blue: A ‘Blue Period’ Picasso -- ‘Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker)’ -- reportedly may bring up to $60.9 million when it is sold at auction by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s charity foundation. (Bloomberg)

--Big finish: Nineteen past, present and future Billys will perform in a specially choreographed finale to mark the fifth anniversary of the original London production of ‘Billy Elliot--the Musical.’ (Playbill)

--Stepping down: Vicente Todoli says he will be leaving as director of London’s Tate Modern after leading the museum since 2003. (Art Forum)

And in the L.A. Times: Most of Southern California’s billionaires aren’t known for giving big sums to the arts.

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--Karen Wada

Above: Actor Robert De Niro has kept six of his father’s paintings and drawings from the auction block. Credit: Dan Steinberg / Associated Press

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