Models of Obama homes in Chicago and White House in holiday train shows at botanical gardens

Model Obama homes in garden holiday train shows

Chinese prepare for ‘Oba Mao’ visit with flaming statue of US president, counterfeit goods

Chinese greet ‘Oba Mao’ with flaming statue, fakes

Artist makes sculpture of New Zealand lawmaker from cow manure to protest pollution policy

NZ lawmaker sculpted in cow manure

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A sculpture of a New Zealand government minister crafted from cow manure sold for New Zealand dollars 3,080 ($2,220) on an auction Web site.

Da Vinci mode: Shows about art, invention around the country

Cities host shows about da Vinci art, inventions

Sculpture from Cleveland man’s garden fetches $118K; work created by Egyptian sculptor Mokhtar

Egyptian sculpture from OH garden sells for $118K

Wall Street’s loss is art lovers’ gain: Philadelphia auctioneer selling off Lehman’s art trove

Everything must go! Lehman Bros. art auctioned off

Louisville’s 21c basks in glow of No. 1 ranking in magazine survey of top US hotels

Louisville hotel wins top ranking

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Wade Johnson has plopped down in plenty of hotels, but the business consultant ranks his stays at 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville as a one-of-a-kind experience.

Let there be opulence: Versailles exhibit reflects glory of palace creator, Sun King Louis XIV

PARIS — The Sun King shines again at Versailles.

Organizers say ArtPrize will come back to Grand Rapids next year

GRAND RAPID, Mich. — A new art festival held this fall in Grand Rapids was so successful that organizers say they’ll do it again next year and maybe even make it an annual event.

Maurice Agis, UK sculptor whose runaway artwork killed 2 women in 2006 accident, dies at 77

LONDON — British police say a sculptor whose inflatable artwork blew away and killed two people in a 2006 accident has died.

Russian gays express disappointment in Clinton not decrying homophobia in Russia

MOSCOW — Russia’s leading gay activist said Wednesday that he was disappointed that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with an outspoken foe of gay rights during her two-day trip to Russia and did not decry homophobia in the country.

Soviet past lives in Moldova’s tiny Trans-Dniester

TIRASPOL, Moldova — Soaring statues of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, portraits of the city’s most productive workers adorning a square, red flags fluttering in the wind during a Communist demonstration.

List of 10 winners of ArtPrize art competition taking place in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich.

The winners of ArtPrize, a new art competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., were announced Thursday. The event offers one of the world’s biggest art prizes: $250,000 for first place.

Rio erupts in celebration after announcement the city will host 2016 Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO — Nearly 50,000 people cheered in celebration when Rio de Janeiro was announced as host of the 2016 Olympics, jumping and shouting in a Carnival-like party on Copacabana beach.

Northern Illinois University unveils memorial sculpture for victims of campus shooting

DEKALB, Ill. — Officials at Northern Illinois University have unveiled a sculpture at the site of a campus shooting that left five students dead in 2008.

Da Vinci’s forgotten sculptures, other rare works make first US appearance at Atlanta museum

ATLANTA — Leonardo da Vinci once spent nearly two decades creating a 26-foot sculpture of a horse to honor a royal Italian family, only to have the plaster masterpiece destroyed by French soldiers.

Researchers seek to unbury Boston’s black history at centuries-old cemetery

BOSTON — Somewhere among the grassy hills, canopy trees and 19th century angel sculptures rest Butler and Mary Wilson.

British Museum seeks to remake Montezuma’s reputation with major show about last Aztec ruler

LONDON — The world-famous British Museum, home of the contested Elgin Marbles sought by Greece, is leaping into another controversy with a special exhibit re-examining the life of Montezuma, the doomed last ruler of the Aztecs.

Missing sculpture prompts tighter security at Bernard Madoff’s former NY beach home

MONTAUK, N.Y. — Security has been tightened at Bernard Madoff’s former beach home after the theft of a sculpture off the front porch.

Picture this: New art competition in Mich. offers $250K for the top prize, public picks winner

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A school of glimmering, silvery-white fish wriggle high above a downtown river. A few blocks away on a Michigan sidewalk, four stark red piranhas have taken large bites out of a running man’s briefcase and rear end. A purple, 10-foot-tall jelly bean stands outside a nearby castle.

Bronze sculpture valued at $500,000 was donated to Goodwill; now it’s going to back to owner

MIAMI — A valuable bronze sculpture that was donated to charity without the donor or recipient realizing its worth is going back to its owner.

For sale: Luxury NYC duplex where Madoff fraud came crashing down; Fla. estate also available

NEW YORK — It’s where Bernard Madoff broke down and confessed to his massive fraud, frantically wrote checks for millions of dollars as the scheme unraveled and appeared in a bathrobe to greet the FBI agents who arrested him.

Man butts heads with Colorado town officials over bare-bottom statue

SILT, Colo. — At least one critic in the western Colorado town of Silt said a new sculpture of a bare-bottom rock climber is exposing the public to a little too much art. The statue shows a climber of undetermined gender scaling a cliff. It stands at a downtown intersection.

Allentown, Pa., museum acquires collection from estate of modernist artist Peter Grippe

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An eastern Pennsylvania art museum has received one of its largest gifts ever — about 500 works and property once owned by modernist artist Peter Grippe.

Tickets on sale for Chinese terra cotta warriors exhibit in Washington

WASHINGTON — Fifteen of China’s famous terra cotta warriors are coming to Washington in November for an exhibit at the National Geographic Museum. It’s the final U.S. venue for the extraordinary statues, which have also been on display in Santa Ana, Calif., in Atlanta and in Houston.

Barcelona: Take it all in by cable car, bike, or on a stroll

BARCELONA, Spain — By metro, tram, bus, bike, car or on foot, taking in the streetscapes, panoramas and often-startling architecture of Barcelona can make for a full itinerary. But while you’re here, you’ll also want to check out what’s inside — art, history, and of course, tapas and wine.

Risking Islamic ire, Saudi Arabia opens a rich history to foreign archaeologists

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Much of the world knows Petra, the ancient ruin in modern-day Jordan that is celebrated in poetry as “the rose-red city, ‘half as old as time,’” and which provided the climactic backdrop for “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Well-traveled rare American goose decoy to be auctioned in NYC after time in Pa., Argentina

NEW YORK — A rare, 19th century hand-carved goose decoy that once plied Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River before being sold in Argentina, and considered by some to be a floating sculpture, is going on the auction block. It could bring in as much as $400,000.

German police confiscate hundreds of sculptures attributed to Giacometti

BERLIN — German police have confiscated hundreds of bronze and plaster statues alleged to be the works of Alberto Giacometti and arrested an art dealer and two others on suspicion of selling the fakes across the globe.

Dinosaurs from the friendly to threatening stalk the trail at this NC museum

DURHAM, N.C. — The 18-foot-long Parasaurolophus is friendly and patient, allowing children to climb its back, sit on its tail and pat its bumpy, coral-colored skin.

Unusual tours give glimpse of hidden, off-the-beaten path Paris

PARIS — You’ve posed for a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower, checked out the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and walked to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. If you think you’ve done it all in Paris, don’t worry, there are plenty of off-the-beaten-path adventures for your return.

Happy Birthday Mr. President: Antigua’s gift is to rename highest peak “Mount Obama”

ST JOHN’S, Antigua — Antigua’s highest mountain officially became “Mount Obama” on Tuesday as the small Caribbean nation celebrated the American president on his birthday and saluted him as a symbol of black achievement.

Greece’s Acropolis Museum to restore film reference to Christians vandalizing Parthenon

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s new Acropolis Museum said Tuesday it would restore references to early Christians vandalizing the ancient Parthenon temple, which were deleted from a film shown to visitors for fear of angering the country’s powerful Orthodox Church.

Travel briefs

Leaf-peeping in Iowa: Mississippi River, bridges of Madison County

Work by major South African artists erected in Johannesburg, part of public art collection

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s bustling commercial capital paused for art Wednesday, with an unveiling ceremony for a monumental sculpture on a downtown traffic island.