The Los Angeles Police have reported that a multi-million dollar collection of Andy Warhol art work has been stolen from the house of businessman Richard Weisman. Dubbed “The Athletes” collection, these missing works include 10 brightly colored silk screen paintings depicting famous athletes like Muhammad Ali and OJ Simpson, among others, and a portrait of Weisman himself. The collector — who was a friend of Warhol and a former investment banker, discovered the theft on September 3rd.  As of now, there are no immediate leads or suspects. [via Luxuo]

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Parisian designer Natalia Brilli has a special talent. She loves to wrap whatever she gets her hands on in lambskin leather. One of StyleCrave’s favorite and previously featured in here — who can forget the rocking skeletons band — Brilli’s leather-pampered collection just got bolder with a new skateboard deck and a matching backpack to go along. Encased with the finest leather and suede, similar to those used by glove makers, you’ll have to rope in a good $1,200 for the fragile skateboard and some $1,650 for the premium Sac à Dos. [via Selectism]

Featuring a series of BMW racing sportscars worked by some of the world’s foremost artists, the BMW Art Car Collection showcases a bond between art, cultural trends and motorsport. First introduced by French auctioneer and ardent racing driver Hervé Poulain in 1975, each car of the collection has its own special story to tell. Having already exhibited in the world’s greatest museums including the Louvre and the Guggenheim, this fascinating visual experience will be in New York for the two weeks starting today. Now this is truly the difference between art on cars and the art of cars. [BMW Drives and NY Times]

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Photographer and artist Mike Stimpson has a sense of humor when it comes to the images that have shaped our world.  While history’s greatest photographs have represented some of the highest peaks and the lowest failures of humanity, Stimpson represents them with a child-like sense of humor.  He rebuilds them with Legos.  Dubbed the “Classics in Lego” collection, Mike Stimpson has shared a playful, new perspective on photography’s best, from politics to war to sports and the achievements of humanity.  Kudos to Mike Stimpson, enjoy the photography, readers! [mike stimpson, more pics at flickr]

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Swiss-born artist Mathias Schmied is a master of paper medium. His pieces are based in sketches, photos and illustrations that are richly colored, detailed and then deconstructed. Paper is cut, peeled, swirled and frayed away from pinned-up pinup starlets and provocatively posed magazine models. Schmied was born in Berne and lives and works in Crest, France. His work has been the subject of numerous gallery exhibitions and his 2004 “Venetian Blinds” drawings was included in MoMa’s Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection. [via fabrikproject]

Yuko Shimizu was been drawing since she was a child. The influence on her traditional Japanese family sweeps through her sketches and illustrations of guitar-wielding and turntable-tacking rockstar. But Shimizu’s boldness is offset by deft touches of whimsy. On the set of a fashion feature, she helped create hand-drawn backgrounds of childhood storybooks, which contrast with grownup models revisiting favorite childhood characters like Dr. Seuss.  [via fabrikproject]

Polish artist Jan Smaga has always been fascinated with presenting 3-D objects through a flat medium. His photographs are odd, existential and almost always illusionary. The Warsaw-born artist has long studied shape and form. His 2005 series, “YMCA,” explored architectural and structural spaces, while his “Water” series traced the volumes of swimming pools through illuminated lightboxes. Pieces like his “Untited (dog)”photo (pictured above) combine whimsical imagery with formal presentation, inviting viewers to peer closer at pictures that seem to extend beyond the paper. [via fabrikproject]

When Mexican photographer Victor Ayala points the lens at his subjects, he forever freezes their character. To capture the over-the-top personalities of lucha libre wrestlers, Ayala — whose shots have been published in Playboy, Esquire and Popular Mechanics among others — combines traditional study at  focuses on framing, dramatic setting and lighting. Whether the wrestlers were strategically posed or expertly coached and captured, they exude an odd ferocity that’s part superhero and real-world villain. [via fabrikproject]

This is what 15 years of tension, tragedy and triumph looks like. Color-coding the subjects highlighted in New York Times headlines from 1990-2005, A. J. Bocchino has created a chronological map of news history. The subject of several gallery shows, Bocchino’s work can now help transform your home into a sobering exhibition space through 10-foot by 3.5-foot wallpaper rolls. The colored bars are printed atop the actual NYT headlines, which provide detail to obvious patterns in events and coverage. A color key details the news hues, and helps explain the history behind specific swatch swaths. [via wallpaperlab]