– Fancypants Suspect Arrested in Picasso Theft: San Francisco police have booked a man for the sockless theft of a $200,000 Picasso drawing from the city's Weinstein Gallery, and, as his Nantucket-on-a-summer-Sunday foot attire would suggest, he's not exactly a hardened thief. Meet Mark Lugo, a 30-year-old Hoboken resident who has worked as a sommelier (at least till recently) at New York's BLT Fish restaurant and, before that, at Per Se.Evidently someone with a taste for the finer things in life, Lugo was arrested after cops traced him to a Napa apartment and found Picasso's 1965 "Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman)" professionally boxed in a Fed-Ex package, ready to ship to an unknown destination. He has since been jailed "on suspicion of burglary, theft, possession of stolen property and drug possession," and slapped with a $5 million bail. Expect to hearmore about our soigné new friend. [SF Chronicle] 
 
– Sasha Grey's Art... Disappoints: For some reason, people on the Internet seem inordinately interested in the artistic dabblings of one Sasha Grey,a plucky young woman who has built a name for herself in the porn industry, and this must be the reason that Artnet has graced her new "monograph" "Neü Sex" with a full review. Here, in the same spirit of serving the public interest, we present a link to the incisive critique,which sadly concludes that despite Grey's "great promise" the book is not a "meaningful work[] of art." However, she seems to have taken the project seriously, and we hope she keeps at it. [Artnet]

– Obama Borrows Civil-Rights Rockwell: In tribute to the 50th anniversary of six-year-old Ruby Bridges's integration of an elementary school in New Orleans, President Obama has borrowed Norman Rockwell'siconic and still-emotion-inducing painting of U.S. marshals accompanying the girl to school. The work, "The Problem We All Live With," will hang outside the Oval Office until October 31. In a sweet turn, Bridges, who is now 56, is a trustee at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, New York, which is loaning the work. [Berkshire Eagle]

– The Cindy Sherman of the Monkey World?: A clever macaque monkey recently purloined the unattended camera of award-winning photographer David Slaterwhile he was visiting a national park in Indonesia. The creature then proceeded to take several extremely expressive portraits of herself both smiling andlooking rather serious, thereby calling into question notions of personae, monkeyhood, affect, and the history of photography itself. [Daily Mail]

– See "The Clock" Again: After screening it in May, LACMA is again holding one complete screening of Christian Marclays blockbuster piece from 5pm July 28 to 5pm July 29. This is the first screening of the work since Marclay won the Golden Lion for best artist at the Venice Biennale. [LA Times]

– Hipster War Photography?: Two experienced photojournalists—Teru Kuwayama and Balazs Gardi — have been using iPhone app Hipstamaticto document a battalion of US marines in Afghanistan. The iPhone "was the ideal, rugged piece of gear for southern Afghanistan," said Kuwayama. [Guardian]

– Family Fun at PS1: PS1's Warm Up party has becomea favorite of an unexpected crowd — kids. The event is a local institution for families, as their toddlers dance to obscure noise musicalongside that drunk girl in the cutoffs. [NYT]

– Britain Hates AbEx: In the wake of Cy Twomblys death, Jonathan Jones calls Britain, yes as a whole, out on its general disdain for abstract expressionism. [Guardian]

– Crystal Cathedral May Have New Owners: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has revealed it is considering buying LA's bankrupt Crystal Cathedral — the 3,000 seat megachurch of Sunday morning TV staple Rev. Robert H Schuller. Some churchgoers rue the conversion of the Crystal Cathedral's "Space Age ministry" into a Catholic cathedral. [LA Times]

– Sotheby’s Gives Back: Sotheby's has announced that works by Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder will be auctioned off at its second annual Art for Africa charity auction on November 17. All proceeds benefit children in south and eastern African rural communities. [Reuters]

– VIDEO OF THE DAY: Experts weigh in on the controversy over the stewardship of "Cleopatra's Needle," the Egyptian Obelisk in Central Park's that seems to be in the process of disintegrating. [NYT]