Monster Mash: Breaking news and headlines

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-- The rich get poorer: The J. Paul Getty Trust, the richest art institution in the world, slashes its operating budget by 25% in an emergency response to severe investment losses.

-- Actor-activist dies: Ron Silver, who won a Tony Award for ‘Speed-the-Plow’ dies of cancer at 62.

-- Support from the playwright: Steve Martin offers to pay for banned high school student production of his ‘Picasso at the Lapin Agile.’

-- Big fan of the artist: Steel billionaire Victor Pinchuk to host largest show of Damien Hirst’s works in Kiev, Ukraine.

-- Stage debut: Filmmaker Taylor Hackford (‘Ray’) tries his hand at theater in Los Angeles.

-- Yuck: Russian artist perfects technique to transform bodies into art materials.

-- Sell-off: Guy Ullens, founder of Beijing’s largest private art museum, plans to sell 900-year-old painting to raise funds for museum.

-- Buy art, cut staff: Prior to announcing staff cuts, store closings, Metropolitan Museum pays $1 million for an Old Master painting.

-- More museum cuts: Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art cuts staff to deal with economic woes.

--Police inquiry: Australian art dealer under investigation for millions of dollars in fraud.

-- Lisa Fung