Thursday's Art Notes

_View of three surveillance photographs taken outside the U.S. Embassy in east Berlin by members of the former east German secret police (STASI), at German artist Simon Menner's exhibition 'Images from the Secret Stasi Archives' at the Morgen Contemporary gallery in Berlin. Menner sifted through the photographic archives of the secret police of the former east German Communist state to select and reproduce images from clandestine searches in appartments, general surveillance, and even examples of 'spy camouflage'and secret sign language. Photo by John MacDougall/ AFP/ Getty Images_ * Venice struggles with how to preserve or replace one of its iconic landmarks, via "ARTINFO":http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38375/plan-to-remake-venices-historic-accademia-bridge-in-glass-and-steel-sparks-a-preservationist-outcry/. * YouTube has made an agreement with music publishers on liscensing the songs that appear in user generated videos, via the "Los Angeles Times":http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/08/youtube-signs-licenses-with-music-publishers-settling-lawsuit.html. * The New York Times "traces":http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/world/europe/18bolshoi.html the long restoration process of Moscow's storied Bolshoi Theater. * Robert Breer, an artist who pioneered animation art, has died at age 84, via "The New York Times":http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/movies/robert-breer-pioneer-of-avant-garde-animation-dies-at-84.html.