Photographer Annie Leibovitz has turned to a private equity firm to help restructure her enormous debt load. Last summer the celebrity photographer narrowly averted foreclosure after she missed a payment deadline for her $24 million loans owed to Art Capital Group. Her properties and archives were used as collateral for the loan.

Los Angeles-based Colony Capital said it had “formed a new partnership” with Leibovitz.

The simple title "2010" for this year's Whitney Biennial seems appropriate for a recession-era show with a pared-down selection of works. From art described as "mere decorative" to "humanistic," this 75th iteration of the influential American art venue, on view at the Whitney Museum through May 30, has a foot in the traditional while exploring new approaches.

View a selection of works including Aurel Schmidt's jarring drawing made with pencil, beer, dirt, and blood as well as a jewel-like, small-scale abstraction by Lesley Vance.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Sunday that the Western Reserve Historical Society has been quietly selling pieces from its collections at auctions to pay down a staggering $7.2 million debt.

The Ohio institution's debt has been reduced to $2.6 million, but gone from the collections are donations like a 1949 Indy race car, hundreds of examples of American Indian art and artifacts, guns, and furniture.

Restorers used ultraviolet light to examine paintings by Giotto, who is credited as the first of the Renaissance masters, in the Peruzzi Chapel inside Florence's Santa Croce church. Centuries-old restorations have obscured the chiaroscuro effects and original details by the artist's hand. Under the UV light, Giotto's masterful work, as admired by Michelangelo in the 1500s, was visible to the restorers.

The scenes in the lives of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, painted in about 1320, were evaluated for four months by restoration laboratory Opificio delle Pietre Dure, funded in part by the Getty Foundation, to determine the best course for restoration.

Nearly 500 lots, dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries, in a wide variety of styles and price ranges, is on offer at the Bonhams & Butterfields Fine European Furniture and Decorative Arts sale in Los Angeles on March 29. With a focus on pieces of English, French, Italian, Spanish and German origin, the sale is noteworthy for a strong collection of 30 clocks by prominent makers.

One highlight is a 117-inch tall French gilt bronze mounted marble regulateur from the 19th century. The estimate is $70,000-90,000.

Some exhibiting galleries at the bevy of fairs making up New York's Armory Week, which ended March 7, report the art market is back to "crazy," although collectors were keen to get quality at the right price.

Sales at the Art Show included small watercolors depicting flowers and pregnant silhouettes by Louise Bourgeois, priced between $65,000 and $75,000 each, at Cheim & Reid. Unsold at the fair's close, but much admired, was a $35 million canvas collage by Robert Rauschenberg at Faurschou Gallery’s booth.

Following last week's announcement that Bonhams will open an outpost in Tokyo, Robert Brooks, the London-based chairman of the international auction house, now plans to relaunch a branch in Australia. Bonhams already has a presence in Hong Kong, where rivals Christie's and Sotheby's have also set up shop and added more sales recently, including important wine, jewelry and fine art auctions. Last year, Christie's saw a 94% increase in the value of items purchased by Chinese buyers.

Sotheby’s reported a fourth-quarter profit of $73.6 million, its second best quarter ever, reportedly due to a downsizing of staff (1/5 lost jobs), salary cuts, and the elimination of money-losing price guarantees.

Chief Executive Officer William Ruprecht has now had his full salary restored to $700,000 after taking a voluntary $100,000 pay cut last May. Ruprecht's 2008 compensation package was valued at $6.4 million, but his total take for 2009 is expected to be more conservative when the figure is disclosed in a few weeks.

The collecting bug hit Jon Deeter, of the Ohio Decoy Collectors and Carvers Association (ODCCA), with the gift of an old, beat-up decoy carved in the 1930s. He now pursues the thrill of hunting down antique decoys, especially vintage Mason Decoy Factory.

The 33rd annual ODCCA Show on March 19-21 at the Westlake Holiday Inn offers both antique and contemporary decoy carving.