— Louvre to Open New Islamic Art Galleries: Following in the footsteps of the Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre will debut a new permanent home for its collection of Islamic art on September 22. Over 2,500 objects, many of which have never been on public view, will occupy nearly 3,000 square meters of gallery space. To celebrate the opening, the museum will launch a full year of public programming devoted to contemporary Islamic culture featuring such well known names as Orhan Pamuk and Walid Raad. [Press Release]

— Big Ben Chimes In for Creed: London's tallest timepiece will participate in Martin Creed's Olympics-launching participatory performance, "All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes," ringing 40 times in a three minute span on Friday to mark the beginning of the games. This will be the first time in 60 years that Big Ben has chimed outside its normal schedule — the last time, February 15, 1952, was to mark the funeral of King George VI. [BBC]

— Amsterdam's Red Light District Gets an Art Fair: From September 20-23, coinciding with the opening of the Stedelijk Museum's new galleries, the Art in Redlight art fair will make its debut in Amsterdam's red light district. The venue, a gothic church dating from 1300, is the oldest building in the city and will host works by some 60 Dutch and international artists, and an auction benefiting pregnant women in Africa with HIV. [TAN]

— Hanksy Outs George Clooney?: A new wheatpaste mural by the pop culture pun-happy New York street artist Hanksy titled "Bi-Curious George" — an image of actor George Clooney as the cartoon primate Curious George preparing to eat a very phallic banana — lending street cred to persistent rumors that the two-time People's Magazine "Sexiest Man Alive" may be gay. "Regarding 'Bi-Curious George,'" Hanksy later tweeted, "don't get your undies in a pundle, it was all for the wordplay." [Bowery Boogie]

— Memphis Art College Sells Collection: In an effort to balance its shrinking budget, the Memphis College of Art is selling off most of its sizable art collection. "Why should we have 550 pieces of art by people from the past when we have faculty and students who are artists, and there's a need to raise revenue?" asked the college's president Ron Jones. Since the MCA is not a museum, Jones notes, it isn't restricted by American Association of Museums guidelines that prohibit the sale of artwork to cover operating costs. [AP]

— Wu Tsang Doc Wins Hollywood Award: "Wildness," a documentary by fast-rising artist Wu Tsang about a Los Angeles bar's unlikely mix of patrons — young performance artists and transgender immigrant workers — was named the Outstanding Documentary Feature Film at this week's Outfest, L.A.'s 30th annual gay and lesbian film festival. The festival's top prize, meanwhile, went to Ira Sachs's film "Keep the Lights On." [HollywoodReporter]

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