Thursday's Art Notes

_The Peacock Room, an elaborately decorated 19th century exhibition space, was first installed in London, but later transported to Detroit to house the ceramics collection of Charles Lang Freer. Freer founded the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery in Washington, which is where the Peacock Room is now installed and "will be on display through spring of 2013":http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/peacockRoom.asp. The work in its current state was designed by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), an American artist who lived in Britain. Photo by Neil Greentree_ * Chinese authorities are building a case against Ai Weiwei by claiming he may have committed tax evasion and bigamy and say the artist has even begun to confess, via "The Guardian":http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/14/ai-weiwei-confessing-crimes-china. * The New York Times "has a dispatch":http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/world/europe/14iht-m14-turkey-bazaar.html on a 15th century bazaar in Turkey that's badly in need of preservation. * Meanwhile, Italy launches a new restoration plan for Pompeii, which has suffered significant damage in recent months, and has been a source of embarrassment and scorn for the government, via "AFP":http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jRZdDe9DRAMeF9hOv7xtDG7_zrgg?docId=CNG.c23ef9e190bc8070027a323661b96865.121. * On Tuesday, a cache of work papers written out by Walt Whitman during his time as a federal employee were released, via "The Washington Post":http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/walt-whitman-the-poet-as-federal-worker/2011/04/12/AFdWdDSD_story.html. * Randy Wood, a music producer who helped popularize rock 'n roll in America by having white artists like Pat Boone record black R&B songs in the 1950s, has died at age 94, via the "Los Angeles Times":http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-me-randy-wood-20110414,0,2619241.story.