The Best of 2006

With 2006 coming to a close, it's tempting to look back at the year's most memorable encounters with art.  In April, a large crowd of journalists gathered inside a plastic tent in the courtyard of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  It was raining cats and dogs but Michael Govan, the recently appointed museum director, was resolutely upbeat.  Five famous paintings by Gustav Klimt, that were considered to be Austrian national treasures, were returned to Maria Altmann, a Los Angeles resident and niece of the previous owners.  Over the next few months long lines of bewitched visitors formed in front of the Museum gallery to see these paintings, among them two mesmerizing portraits of Maria Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer...