Great works: Punch or May Day (1830) By Benjamin Robert Haydon – here is a marvelous example of Haydon’s work … now on view at Tate Britain.  

Inside the High-Stakes Gambling Ring the Government Wants to Take Down – interesting article on private poker games and the Nahmad family … where it all seems to have started and the other ‘players’ who are involved.  

Russian Fine Arts Museum Head Leaves After 52 Years – Irina Antonova, director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, is stepping down.  Antonova, who is now 91, has been in the position for more than half a century – wow! … More…

Ivory Virgin Joins $6.85 Million Coffee Pot in Art Sales  – well, the season may really be coming to an end (at least in the high-end of the auction realm); the Old Master sales take place this week.