– One Member of Pussy Riot Freed: One of the members of Russian feminist punk band/art troupe Pussy Riot, Yekaterina Samutsevich, has been released. Her two-year prison camp sentence was suspended in light of her lawyers' claim that she was kicked out of Moscow's Christ the Savior cathedral before the group began the performance that eventually led to their conviction on charges of hooliganism. "We're glad that Yekaterina Samutsevich has been freed," said Mark Feigin, one of the band's lawyers, "but we think the other two girls should also be released." [BBC]

– Martha Stewart Signs Glitter Autograph at PAD: Martha Stewart made a dream come true for artist Rob Pruitt yesterday at London's Pavilion of Art and Design. The lifestyle guru, who was among the first to arrive at the fair's opening, agreed to sign her autograph in glitter for the artist, who has collected celeb signatures for more than 30 years. (Two hundred of them, known as "The Signature Series," go on display this week at Luxembourg & Dayan.) “I’ve been waiting 20 years to get the signatures of Jasper Johns and Stewart,” he said. “I got Jasper’s recently, too. So now I need a new goal.” [TAN] 

– Picasso Pioneered Use of House Paint: A groundbreaking partnership between the Art Institute of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory that began in 2006 has revealed — thanks to X-rays and cans of old paints bought on eBay — that Pablo Picasso began using the earliest known versions of commercial house paint in his paintings beginning in 1912. "It's so much easier for me to talk to my neighbors about Picasso paints than quantum gravity theory," said Argonne physicist Volker Rose. [Chicago Tribune]

– Rijksmuseum Sends Vermeer on World Tour: In an effort to drum up excitement for its grand reopening, Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum is sending one of its masterpieces on tour. This winter, Vermeer's "Woman Reading a Letter" will go on show at the new China Art Museum in Shanghai, the Museu de Arte in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The Rijksmuseum will open in April 2013, after 10 years of renovation. [Press Release]

– At Frieze, an Audiotour Full of Outsiders: At Frieze Art Fair in London, even the audiotour is a work of art. Created by Cécile B. Evans, a 29-year-old Belgian-born artist and winner of the fair's Emdash Award, the audioguide does the opposite of what audio tours typically do. It does not provide names, dates, or other contextualizing information, but rather offers voices of people from outside the art world responding to works of art in an entirely personal way. "My main interest is in putting emotional value into the fair," Evans said. [NYT]

– Johanna Burton Returns to the New Museum: The respected curator, who most recently served as director of the graduate program at the Center of Curatorial Studies at Bard College, has taken a job at the New Museum. Burton has been appointed director and curator of education and public engagement, a position previously held by Eungie Joo. The new gig is a homecoming of sorts: Nearly a decade ago, Burton was a curatorial fellow at the museum. [Press Release]

– National Museum of Suburbia Proposed: Vying for a spot on ARTINFO's list of the 20 weirdest museums in the United States is the National Museum of Suburbia in Kansas, a project recently proposed by local museum officials. The institution would feature exhibitions of lawn furniture and a backyard fence with peepholes that allow visitors to spy on fake suburban neighbors played by actors in period clothing. Some locals aren't on board with the $34 million project, however. "I just don't think it's a big turn-on to see something you can see every day," said Steve Rose. [WSJ]

– Restoration Fail Easy to Reverse: The fantastically botched restoration of the 19th-century "Ecce Homo" fresco by Cecilia Gimenez could be fixed in a matter of minutes, according to professor Maria Gomez, a specialist at the University of Valencia. "Cecilia's repaint is still fresh and very diluted," Gomez said. Of course, fixing the startlingly popular painting might cause even greater uproar than Gimenez's original blunder. [NYDN]

– Juan A. Gaitán Tapped for 2014 Berlin Biennale: The writer and independent curator, who splits his time between Mexico City and Berlin, has been named as the curator for the German capital's eighth biennial, slated to open in the spring of 2014. A former adjunct professor at CalArts, Gaitán has served as a curator for Rotterdam's Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and Vancouver's Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. [Artforum]