Salman Rushdie last night at the Metropolitan Opera for the premiere of 'Manon.' (Courtesy Patrick McMullan Company)

Writer Salman Rushdie is ubiquitous on the art party circuit [NYT]

Some members of the Friends of the High Line would like to bring Train, Jeff Koons's $25 million sculpture of a 1943 locomotive hanging from a crane, to the elevated semipublic park that they support. "We’ve had a crush on the Train for a while now,” Friends of the High Line co-founder Robert Hammond said. [NYT]

The "Colorful Realm of Living Beings," a 30-scroll set of paintings from the 1700s owned by Japan's royal family, is being shown in its entirety at an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It's the first time it has ever left the country. [Artdaily]

Controversial Georgian-born artist Zurab Tsereteli opened the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art in his hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, on Feb. 29. [The Art Newspaper]

It wouldn't be a morning links post without some sort of diatribe against—or defense of—Damien Hirst. Today we have Julian Spalding, who declares that the artist's works "are the sub-prime of the art world." [The Independent]

This past weekend, artist Dustin Yellin offered a glimpse of his gigantic new Red Hook space, which is still undergoing construction work. Brownstoner declares that "the rafters are swoon-worthy." [Brownstoner]

Piet Mondrian hated trees, apparently. [Bloomberg]

A real estate mogul accused of various financial shenanigans has organized an art exhibition that attacks Russian elites. [NYT]