Beginning tomorrow, contemporary art overlord Larry Gagosian will present a retrospective of the late American artist Robert Rauschenberg’s selected works. If you’re a fan of Americana mixed with the provocative, you should stop by. Or, if you're Steve Cohen/the emir of Qatar, maybe buy the whole show.

Giving the lip-synching pretty girl a run for her Yen, the lavish, new American embassy opened last week in Beijing, winning its own legion of fawning admirers. But its sparkling exteriors are just part of the embassy's charm. Inside, the walls sport $800,000 worth of art by Robert Rauschenberg, Yun-Fei Ji, Guggenheim favorite Louise Bourgeois, and others. And at 8stories tall and 10 sprawling acres, the embassy proves that beauty does not preclude bombast and grandeur.