With the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Boston Globe is reporting that the famed Hyannis summer compound “will probably be turned over to a national nonprofit group, possibly to be opened up as a museum or retreat center.”

The property, purchased by Joseph Kennedy in the late 1920s, has been strongly identified with the family for generations.

Robert A. Kret, director of the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee is the new director of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, according to news reports here and here.

Kret replaces George King, who left the O’Keeffe after 11 years to run the American Federation of Arts.

A $3 million Brice Marden painting on route to Sotheby’s for auction was destroyed during airport transit, according court papers filed Friday and reported in the New York Post.

Marden’s 1969 “Au Centre” was shipped by Gagosian Gallery’s London branch from Moscow to New York. A forklift operator smashed the painting at the Frankfurt airport. Lufthansa Airlines carried the cargo, according to the Post.

The New York Post has an item about hedge funder Richard Perry’s Sutton Place penthouse terrace, adorned with a green Jeff Koons diamond-ring like sculpture. The neighbors don’t love it.

Chameleon artist Cindy Sherman, 55, is featured in Vogue magazine’s August, 2009 “The Age Issue.” She is the poster-child for aging   gracefully into the 50s, and admits she has quit kickboxing and given Botox a whirl.

The article is illustrated by a striking Sherman self-portrait of the slender blond artist bundled in a creamy Narciso Rodriguez ball gown, standing before a gumdrop green backdrop. She is obscured by cameras, lights and tripod legs. A dented mannequin head bobs beside Sherman’s own head, underscoring artifice and reality.

Vogue’s art scribe Dodie Kazanjian visits Sherman in her downtown duplex penthouse. Sherman is interviewed with her green pet macaw – named Frieda—perched on her shoulder.

The pad features two outdoor gardens.  Fashion designer Todd Oldham is assisting with the décor, according to Kazanjian. Sherman has hung her apartment with artworks by Martin Kippenberger and Dana Schutz, among others.

I love Dodie for winding up in Sherman’s closet. “Her shoes, mostly sky-high platforms, fill at least 20 floor to ceiling shelves in two other closets,” she reports.

Sherman also dishes to Vogue about her two-and-a-half year romance with musician David…

As reported by Crain’s New York Business, real estate developer Aby Rosen, and partner Michael Fuchs, have been sued for $145 million for a loan they personally guaranteed. These funds were intended for the development of a Shangri-La Asia Limited hotel on Lexington and 53rd Street, says Crain’s. The lenders have filed to foreclose on the project.

Nicholas Berggruen, the billionaire hedge fund and private equity mogul–and son of the late famed German art dealer Heinz Berggruen– lives in hotel rooms and generally shuns press. He spoke with the Wall Street Journal recently about his recent $2.6 million purchase of a U.K. life insurance company.

No mention of his growing art collection in the story, but in April, the Art Newspaper published reports that Berggruen intends to open a museum in Berlin to house his collection.

In 2000, his father sold his own collection to the Berlin State Museums for $120 million, estimated to be a tenth of its value, forming the Berggruen Museum in Berlin.

Berggruen’s brothers work in the arts. His brother John Berggruen owns a gallery in San Francisco. Another brother, Olivier, is a curator.

The London-based Art Newspaper reports that the Christie’s-owned international gallery chain Haunch of Venison will shutter its four-year old Zurich outpost.

Haunch of Venison to close Zürich gallery

Contemporary dealer says expansion in London, Berlin and New York is behind the move

By Gareth Harris
Published online 2.7.09

London. Contemporary art dealer Haunch of Venison has announced the closure of its 3,500 sq. ft space in Zürich which opened in 2005. Haunch, which is owned by Christie’s, denied that the economic slump has prompted the Swiss withdrawal, saying in a statement: “To ensure the continued support of their roster of international artists and an expanding exhibition programme in London, Berlin and New York, contemporary gallery Haunch of Venison announces the closure of their Swiss exhibition space, Haunch of Venison Zürich, at the end of 2009…

Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn reports on the start of London’s Old Master week, covering Christie’s sale.

Christie’s Auction Sells $32.7 Million of Art as Market Shrinks

By Scott Reyburn

July 8 (Bloomberg) — A London auction ended with the sale of 20.3 million pounds ($32.7 million) of art last night as the market for traditional paintings continued to shrink…

The May American painting auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s revealed that market to be about six months behind the contemporary downturn–and results weren’t pretty. Read my take from The Art Newspaper:

Prices for 18th- to mid-20th-century American art plunged in May as Sotheby’s and Christie’s struggled to sell just 60% of their New York auctions, making $32.1m, down from $159.6m a year ago. “There were fewer bidders than we’ve seen in a decade,” said Dara Mitchell, the head of Sotheby’s American painting department. “People were cautious and really waiting to see where this market is going.” …