Links that Stink: Christie's Maier Sales, Salander Bankruptcy, Walton Effect Redux, Abu Dhabi Museum News

---Christa Desrets of the Lynchburg, VA, News & Advance reports that the motion for a temporary injunction to stop the Christie's auctions of four works from Randolph College's Maier Museum (scheduled for Nov. 19 and 29) is to be heard in Lynchburg Circuit Court on Thursday. It's all up to Judge Leyburn Mosby Jr.

---Word arrived from Bloomberg yesterday and the NY Times today on embattled dealer Lawrence Salander's bankruptcy filing. Bloomberg's tireless Philip Boroff keeps advancing the story, with revelations about one of Salander O'Reilly's biggest creditors, First Republic Bank, which Merrill Lynch bought last September. The unfolding scandal, involving a dealer who, until recently, was a member of the prestigious Art Dealers Association of America, cannot help but shake art-consumer confidence. Will a statement from ADAA, which purports to promote "the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship and ethical practice within the profession," be forthcoming? I wouldn't count on it.

---Bob Workman, executive director of Crystal Bridges, Alice Walton's nascent American art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, talks back, in the pages of the Benton County Daily Record, to those (including, by name, me) who fret about the Walton Effect's impact on the artworld [via].

---Here's the shortlist of architects now being considered for the Sheikh Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi. With displays about the eponymous first president of the United Arab Emirates and about the history and traditions of Abu Dhabi, the museum is planned for Saadiyat Island, future home to branch offices for the Guggenheim and Louvre brands. Those still in the running in the National Museum competition are: Foster & Partners, Great Britain; Snohetta, Norway; Shingeru Ban, Japan; Moriyama & Teshima, Canada.