Monster Mash: Banksy’s graffiti defaced; Oregon Shakespeare Festival surprise; Caravaggio’s self-portrait

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--Everyone’s a critic: A mural by British graffiti artist Banksy was defaced during a vote on whether the artwork ought to be preserved. (BBC News)

--Box office surprise: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival says it saw record attendance and revenue for its 2009 season. (Associated Press)

--A lot of Windex: A Jeff Koons sculpture cost a couple between $75,000 and $100,000 a year to maintain. (Connecticut Post, via Art Info)

--Big plans: Billionaire Victor Pinchuk said he will build a contemporary arts center in Kiev, Ukraine. (Bloomberg)

--Where’s Caravaggio? Art experts say they have found a tiny self-portrait of Caravaggio hidden in his 1597 painting ‘Bacchus.’ (Telegraph)

--Setting a date: Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum says it will reveal its 125,000-square-foot expansion in October 2010. (Crocker Art Museum)

--Summer in the park: The Public Theater said it will stage Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and ‘A Winter’s Tale’ next summer in New York’s Central Park. (Playbill)

--Lucrative project: Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire is set to adapt an upcoming series of children’s books by William Joyce for DreamWorks Animation. (Variety)

--In memory: Britain’s Evening Standard Awards has renamed one of its annual honors after the late Natasha Richardson. (The Stage)

--Expensive wheels: Bicycles that Lance Armstrong used during the Tour de France have fetched $1.3 million in a charity auction for his cancer foundation. (Bloomberg)

--Invaluable documents: The Juilliard School announced the acquisition of manuscripts by Beethoven and Mendelssohn. (New York Times)

--Fast on their feet: The nominations and honorees for the Isadora Duncan Awards -- honoring the best in the Bay Area dance community -- have been announced. (San Francisco Chronicle)

--And in the L.A. Times: Researchers say that the ancient Nazca people of Peru hastened their own demise through deforestation; President Obama makes 25 appointments to his Committee on the Arts and the Humanities; Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Kooza’ extends through Dec. 20 in Santa Monica.

-- David Ng