Thieves made light work of stealing a 462-lb. book with a Salvador Dali bronze cover from a private museum in France.

Gallery owner Joseph Foret designed The Book of the Apocalypse between 1958 and 1961 featuring work by artists including Jean Cocteau and Ossip Zadkine as well as Dali's cover.

It was stolen sometime over the last two days from the town of Issoire near Clement-Ferrand.

Its owner Christian Karutzos told local radio the book had "no equivalent in the world" and the thieves had "killed France" and "killed French cultural heritage".

The theft of the book, said to be worth several million dollars, is the latest high-profile crime to hit Europe's museums in recent years.

See the sculpture, order the smoothie.

Fans of Alexander Calder's fountain sculpture Three Quintains (Hello Girls) can indulge their love of it even further at LACMA by ordering a smoothie inspired by the work.

They can then drink it in the cafe overlooking it outside the new David Geffen galleries.

If the gray smoothie with yellow, blue, white and pink splotches, created to resemble the piece, is not enough then $645 also gets you a hoodie, cap and a tote bag all inspired by his work.

The Los Angeles museum also owns a maquette of the sculpture which is not currently on show.

The asking price for a house built in Sedona, Arizona, by Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, where they lived and worked for 13 years decorating it with surreal sculptures embedded into the walls.

Bilbao Fine Arts Museum certainly got its money's worth when it appointed architect Norman Foster to lead a $51 million redevelopment - not only did it come in on time but he also donated three works to the collection.

Foster and his wife, Spanish curator and publisher Elena Ochoa, gave an Anselm Kiefer work and two sculptures by Anthony Caro on permanent loan.

But even those acts of generosity do not guarantee Foster any special privileges at the commendably democratic museum.

In an interview with El Pais to mark its reopening today, the 91-year-old explained his tour of the building was too short, saying: "We were a very large group and couldn't see everything."

Who knew museums could have a midlife crisis as well?

The Musee d'Orsay in Paris is marking its 40th anniversary with a sold-out display of introspection in the form of a mock trial where the city's young lawyers will debate its legacy.

Its president Annick Lemoine told Le Monde: "If I were the prosecutor, I would ask whether our works still speak to today's audiences, whether we are still bold. I would like us to be, even more so."

She also revealed the museum plans to recruit six researchers to examine the provenance of more than 200 works which were not returned to their rightful owners after World War II, saying: "We hope to succeed in resolving certain highly complex cases that have stumped us until now."

1 - Exhibitions dedicated to Paula Rego and Sean Scully are among the shows announced by London's Pitzhanger gallery. The 19th-century country house in the west of the city will show Rego's works inspired by children's nursery rhymes and a series of large paintings and sculptures by Scully next year.

2 - Mexico's Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey (MARCO) is hosting the first retrospective of Flavio Garciandia outside his native Cuba. The show, curated by Tobias Ostrander, runs to April 18.

3 - Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art has been given $5 million by philanthropist and board member Leslie Bluhm to buy and show work by female artists. The gift is named in honor of Madeleine Grynsztejn who is stepping down as the museum's director at the end of this year after 18 years in charge.

4 - Joan Weinstein is one of three new members appointed to the board of directors at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Weinstein, who works in strategy for Getty across its museum, foundation, and research and conservation departments, is joined on the board of the Californian museum by philanthropist Leslie McMorrow and attorney Alicia Minana de Lovelace.

5 - The bomb squad was called out to Florence's Piazzale Michelangelo after a gas canister was found next to the statue of David. The area was briefly closed yesterday morning until the canister was examined and found to be empty and not at risk of exploding.