From Austin based photographer and new media artist Ben Aqua, a hellish take on wrestling's pre-match pump-up. A masked challenger taunts viewers with cryptic come-ons over a soundtrack of sexualized grunts and groans in Certain Death's hypermasculine display of creepiness.

The woman who lost her balance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Friday and created a six-inch tear in a 105-year-old painting by Pablo Picasso did quite a bit of damage. Although the work will be restored over the coming weeks—and the gash will resemble a "tiny pencil line, if that" once that's done—an appraiser says the $130 million painting may be worth half as much following the accident. [NYT, NYP]

The woman who tripped and hit a $130M Picasso painting apparently reduced its value by half. That's $25M more expensive than the time Steve Wynn put an elbow through his Picasso. Obviously, this is Picasso's fault for messing with perspective.

Banksy on his movie: "Please don't give away the ending on Twitter." Good luck, dude.

Since Gawker now covers art: A woman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday got way too excited about Picasso's "The Actor". She fell into it, ripping a six-inch hole in the rare Rose Period painting. Update:

Art! Who goes there? We do, now. In the latest installment of our fortnightly art column, Kesley Keith handicaps who's going to be running New York's gallery scene, now that Jeffrey Deitch is going to LA. Bets: on the table!

And of course, Banksy has promised the local cops he won't do any graffiti. So. [Animal NY has the whole story. Pic: trentcall]

A new documentary about superfamous/ semi-anonymous street artist Banksy is reportedly screening at Sundance this year, and Banksy pieces (another photo below) are popping up around Park City, Utah. After Mali and New Orleans, we guess he deserves a vacation.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then mass-market imitation must really stroke one's ego. Just ask renegade street artist Banksy, whose iconic 'Balloon Girl' work has been knocked-off and slapped on a hoodie by junk-clothier Forever 21. [TheFrisky]

What is happening in the "art world" these days? Well, Wu-Tang's RZA is remixing 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' in typical Wu style (buy now!), in addition to directing his first movie. Biggest art thing since that dead shark! Wu-reminisce, below.

It's official: Jeffrey Deitch is the new LA MOCA director. See Kelsey Keith's backgrounder here.

New York art impresario Jeffrey Deitch is Los Angeles-bound: He's been named the new director of LA's Museum of Contemporary Art, which makes him "the only art dealer/gallery owner to assume leadership of a major U.S. museum." [LAT, NYT]

Art! Who goes there? Now: we do. In the second installment of our fortnightly Sunday art column, Kelsey Keith explains what a Jeffrey Deitch is, and why after tomorrow, the entire art world will be watching his every move.

Or is it James Franco's General Hospital experiment? Either way, his arc for the past two months has kept stay-at-home moms and the unemployed entranced. But Franco's role is more than just a cameo—it's a conceptual art coup.

Dickchicken would like to be the next Neckface or Poster Boy or other ubiquitous street art dude, but he has two problems: 1. His name, and 2. His logo. Anyhow, click through for a video of his dickness at work.

Art! Who goes there? Now: we do. In the first installment of our Sunday art column, Kelsey Keith's got a few ideas for some people who think they know what art's good for New York City's taxis.

Instead of throwing their old cell phones away, ad agency LBI "up-cycled" them and turned them into a living, breathing, interactive sculpture (and AMAZING website) called "mobile-mobile." It just so happens to also play awesome Christmas tunes.

Serge Gainsbourg was a musical pioneer, a harrasser of Whitney Houston, and a French legend. His home in Paris also has a TON of graffiti on it. Here's an amazing timelapse of that graffiti over the past five years.

Last month's auction of Bernie and Ruth Madoff's personal property was pretty successful, raising close to a million bucks for the victims of the giant Ponzi scheme. Now there's a fraudster who is looking to make a buck by promoting auctions full of fake Madoff merchandise. A gallery that planned to auction off art work this weekend in Connecticut that it claimed once belonged to the couple—including one that featured phony paintings by Chagall and Picasso—was shut down after the state's attorney general vowed to take legal action. [ConnPost via AMM]

Tom Hoving, the former head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died this morning, reports Michael Gross, the author of Rogues' Gallery, the tell-all about the museum that was published this past spring. A "scholar, curator, commissioner of parks in New York City, bestselling author, magazine editor, raconteur, and perennial thorn in the side of the museum mafia," Hoving long had testy relations with the man he picked to succeed him, Philippe de Montebello. But the two men settled their differences in the days leading up to Hoving's death, says Gross. "The city of New York and the museum world will be far less fun without him." [MGross.com]