Thursday's Art Notes

_A picture taken on September 9, 2010 at the Palace of Versailles shows 'Flower Matango', a sculpture by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. The "exhibition":http://chateauversailles.fr/news-/events/expositions/murakami-versailles-en/murakami-versailles/biographie-de-lartiste-1-en, running from September 12 to December 12, will be Murakami's first major retrospective in France. His installation comes after Jeff Koons showed works at the palace in 2008, and Frenchman Xavier Veilhan last year. Murakami, who was born in Tokyo in 1962, will display his sculptures and paintings in 15 rooms in the palace's Hall of Mirrors and the apartments of the King and the Queen. Photo by Pierre Verdy/ AFP/ Getty Images_ Some French traditionalists have protested the use of Versailles as a exhibition location for contemporary art, via the "Los Angeles Times":http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/09/murakami-versailles.html. Murakami's work will also be showing up at a very important American institution this fall: the Macy's Day Parade, via "The New York Times":http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/from-mickey-to-murakami-kaikai-and-kiki-to-join-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/. * The newly-installed official portrait of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gets an assessment from "The Wall Street Journal":http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/08/paulsons-portrait-informal-like-his-management-style/. * The Philadelphia Orchestra gets a gift of $4.5 million to help breach a major expected budget gap, via "The Philadelphia Inquirer":http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/peter_dobrin/20100909_Orchestra_to_get__4_5_million.html. * Known as the world's most expensive book, a rare copy of John James Audubon's "Birds of America" will go up for auction in December, via "The Associated Press":http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gcEPqNB42MM6rxowGzA7LW0xa2XwD9I4DKH80.