Three finalists remain in our contest to pick a new idea to be painted by pancake artist Dan Lacey. Will it be Rahm Emanuel? Maddow & Olbermann? Or fat Rush and Michael Steele? Vote below:

War on art! A famous Japanese pop artist was doing just a little bit of vandalism down in the subways, and was arrested. Why doesn't Mayor Bloomberg just let people draw in the streets?

Last week you people submitted more than 100 fantastical ideas for Pancake Painter of Light and Happiness Dan Lacey. Below are the ten best. Vote now and make one come to life:

Several hundred people are expected to turn up at the MoMa at noon today to pay tribute to Eli Broad, the billionaire philanthropist who is being honored with the David Rockefeller Award. What will all the financiers (Steve Cohen), dealers (Larry Gagosian), and socialites (Mercedes Bass) be chatting about at the reception? Vanity Fair has a few ideas. [VF]

At last month's orgy of consumption that was the Yves Saint-Laurent's art auction, a $28 million armchair claimed the prize for decadence. Now The Economist has revealed the mogul who flaunted his obscene wealth:

If you were an art dealer at Armory Week with expensive paintings to sell, you probably went home disappointed, like David Zwirner, whose Bernie Madoff portrait didn't find a buyer. "I went there with low expectations, said Zwirner gloomily "and they were not met." According to New York's Alexandra Peers, the works that sold at the Armory Show and its satellite fairs like Volta and Pulse were cheap (meaning under $25,000) and tended to look "homemade, handmade, self-conscious."

The economic meltdown is supposed to "reenergize [the] creative economy" of New York by breaking the city's expensive obsession with finance. Instead, it's wrecking artists' best shot at wealth: Through Larry Gagosian.

Animated GIFs to stare at all weekend (maybe forever). (Via)

Shepard Fairey is America's darling, ever since that Obama 'HOPE' poster. The AP looked like jerks when they complained about him stealing their photo. But! Fairey will sue your ass for stealing his brand, quick.

Dan Lacey, our favorite fantastical pancake painter, has just completed this Josephine Baker-themed vision of Michelle Obama. Otherworldly. Now we're giving you a chance to come up with an idea for Dan to paint. Historic!

A new politically themed subway poster remix! The Post thinks this is the work of our friend Poster Boy, but we're not sure. It's a little slicker than his earlier political soliloquies:

So everyone knows that the art world's in the doldrums, that even deep-pocketed collectors are holding off buying, and that the only reason people even show up to art openings anymore is to quaff the free champagne. But you'd think that a seven foot-wide portrait of a smirking Bernie Madoff, priced at a mere $100,000, would have some takers, right? Strangely not: Disappointingly for the artist Yan Pei-Ming, his masterpiece, on sale at the Armory Show which kicked off yesterday at the West Side Piers, has so far attracted no interest.

Chris Burden, the controversial performance artist, has become a high-profile victim of Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford. Stanford never delivered the artist's precious, artistic pile of gold bars.

Well now, here is a crafty postscript to the humongous Yves Saint Laurent auction that saved the art world: a Chinese insurgent says that he patriotically sabotaged the bidding on the most controversial items.

MoMA, which allegedly stands for "Museum of Modern Art," has fired a guy for wantonly associating the MoMA name with art, of the modern variety.

That big Yves Saint Laurent art auction certainly has saved the art world. By proving that the dumb money is still out there. That $28 million chair was just one of the craziest buys:

The sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's vast art collection has ended and the final sales tally is in. All told, the Christie's event took in $484.6 million, making it the biggest private art auction in history. If you missed the action in Paris and you're a bit bummed about it, do note that Bergé says he now plans to sell Saint Laurent's former apartment on Rue de Babylone. You couldn't find a pied-à-terre in Paris with a more impressive pedigree if you tried! [WWD]

Well now, our vandalartist friend Poster Boy has become embroiled in an edgy art world to-do! He's out doing authorized vandalmixes of MOMA posters. Uh, or is he? Yes he is. Is that bad?

It's hard for the rich to find good, expensive things to spend their money on these days without causing a populist uproar. So a $28 million chair is, like, perfect!

Perhaps "artistic depths" is a better term than "heights:" German artist Edgar Müller created this miles-deep, 3D visual crevasse for the "Festival of World Culture" in Ireland last year. Video went online just over a week ago, offering Gotham's public arts administrators an idea for a viable, cheap, recession-era alternative to last year's waterfalls.