Monster Mash: Big gift for the Huntington; a $28.6-million Matisse; ‘The Bachelorette’ on Broadway

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-- Generous legacy: The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino -- named as an heir in the will of arts patron Frances Brody -- may receive the largest cash gift in its history after the sale of Brody’s home and of a collection of works that included the recordbreaking Picasso that sold for $106.5 million. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Market force: As the spring art sales continue, Asian collectors are making their presence felt. At Sotheby’s $195.7-million Impressionist and Modern art sale in New York, they bought several of the most expensive pieces and helped push up the price for the top work, Henri Matisse’s ‘Bouquet of Flowers for the 14th of July,’ which went for $28.6 million. (Wall Street Journal)

-- Leadership change: The Williamstown Theatre Festival has picked its first female artistic director -- Jenny Gersten, an associate producer at the Public Theater in New York and a former Williamstown associate producer. (Playbill)

-- Big plans: Stanford University is set to break ground on a $112-million concert hall that will be the cornerstone of a 21st century ‘arts district’ for the school. (San Jose Mercury News)

-- Big audition: In the sixth edition of ABC’s ‘The Bachelorette,’ which will premiere this month, Ali Fedotowsky will be hunting for Mr. Right at the Minskoff Theatre, where she will choose one of seven hopefuls to make his Broadway debut with her in a performance of ‘The Lion King.’ (Broadway World)

-- Public works: Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s new $5.5-billion casino resort in Singapore has a 2,560-room hotel, 4,000-car garage and more than $40 million in art installations, thanks to a government program that grants developers more land if they use it to provide public art. (Bloomberg)

-- Noted collector: Max Palevsky -- a computer magnate, political donor and philanthropist whose collections of Arts and Crafts movement works and Japanese woodblock prints were featured in shows at LACMA -- has died at 85 in Beverly Hills. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Popular diva: Italian mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato, whose easily recognizable voice made her an audience favorite at La Scala and other opera houses, has died at 99 in Rome. (Associated Press)

Also in the Los Angeles Times: A curator at L.A.’s historic El Pueblo hopes this Cinco de Mayo isn’t her last on the job; music critic Mark Swed reviews Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel’s first Green Umbrella concert.

-- Karen Wada

Above: Matisse’s ‘Bouquet of Flowers for the 14th of July,’ which sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $28.6 million. Credit: HO/AFP/Getty Images