But how to draw the distinction between unauthorized graffiti and murals? Late last year, city officials issued thousands of dollars worth of fines before admitting they couldn't tell the difference between vandalism and authorized artwork (they eventually dismissed the fines). To correct this, Castañeda-López says the city is working on the seemingly Herculean task of creating a registry for all Detroit's existing street art. — metrotimes.com

Vandals broke into the historic New York State Pavilion last weekend, setting a stolen van on fire and damaging a piece of its deteriorating terrazzo map, park watchdogs said.

The shocking mayhem in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was heartbreaking for volunteers who have been working for years to spruce up the aging 1964 World’s Fair relic. — nydailynews.com

Using images provided by cultural organizations worldwide, some of which were captured with Google’s Street View camera technology, [the Google Cultural Institute's Street Art Project] includes street art from around the globe, including work that no longer exists [...]

Google is the latest organization to wade into debates about how or whether to institutionalize, let alone commercialize, art that is ephemeral and often willfully created subversively. — nytimes.com

Vandals have smashed an ‘irreplaceable’ stained-glass window after breaking into Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel in eastern France.

The hand-painted, coloured glass window designed by the Swiss architect in the early 1950s was destroyed, it is understood, as the intruders forced entry into the famous Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut.

Once inside the vandals lifted a concrete collection box and threw it outside. — Architect's Journal

The woman wrote “AE911” on the bottom right-hand corner of the painting before she was challenged by a security guard and a visitor.

A Louvre conservation expert cleaned off the writing yesterday and the unharmed painting will be on show to the public once again this morning.

“AE911Truth” is the name of a website for Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, a group which claims that the official version of the terrorist attacks on Manhattan and Washington on 11 September 2001 is a cover-up. — independent.co.uk

Soon after the September 2010 theft, leaders of the Unitarian Universalist church and the restoration foundation assembled a team of architects, Wright scholars and others to help design precise replicas of the letters and determine how to attach them to the structure.

After extensive research, replicas were crafted and installed in May. As shiny as experts believe the originals looked when the church was dedicated in 1909, the new letters look brighter than the stolen ones... — featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com