According to The Independent’s Elizabeth Nash, documents relating to the acquisition of Guggenheim Bilbao's permanent collection between 1996 and 1998 reveal that Thomas Krens, the Guggenheim Foundation's New York director and founder of the Bilbao museum, paid more than market value for the works, offering whatever price the artists demanded, a Basque official who is examining the museum's records said on Thursday. The works were purchased with a budget of $120 million, provided mostly by Basque authorities.

As Richard Armstrong, former director of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Art Museum, prepares to become the Guggenheim Foundation's head next month, allegations are flying about the erratic way artworks were assembled for Guggenheim Bilbao by his predecessor. One controversial acquisition—questioned at the time by the Basque government's adviser to the museum between 1996 and 1998, Javier Gonzalez de Durana—was Large Blue Anthropometry by Yves Klein. The museum paid $2.7 million for the work, when it should not have paid more than $2 million, Durana wrote. He said Krens built up Guggenheim Bilbao's collection on the basis of “personal criteria and overpayments.”

In other news, the New York Times reports that three new members have been inducted into the Art Directors Club’s 2008 Hall of Fame. They are: Alex Bogusky, cochairman of Crispin Porter and Bogusky; Ray Eames, the late designer, architect, and filmmaker; John Hegarty, chairman and worldwide creative director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty; Maira Kalman, illustrator, artist, and designer; John Maeda, president of Rhode Island School of Design; R. Roger Remington, professor of design at the Rochester Institute of Technology; and Bruce Weber, the fashion photographer.