July 18, 1980

TRENTON, July 17--The New Jersey Supreme Court today reversed a lower court's ruling granting the artist Georgia O'Keeffe possession of three of her paintings that she said had been stolen in 1946.

DINING in the Hamptons has taken a sophisticated turn. An abundance of commendable restaurants, new or recycled, have opened this season with limited but ambitious menus and stylish cooking. Local farms and waters may be the sources of supply, but the inspiration is likely to be urban and French.

WHAT can you do with four 200,000-ton supertankers made virtually obsolete by reduced oil consumption and the crosscurrents of the shipping business? One possibility is to slice them apart and try to make them smaller.

The National Iranian Oil Company has reduced the official selling price of some of its crude oil by as much as $1 a barrel, or about 3 percent, according to Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, a newsletter published in New York.

DETROIT, July 17--The effort to put former President Gerald R. Ford into the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket with Ronald Reagan failed late last night after Mr. Ford's representatives put forth conditions that would have given Mr. Ford operational control of the executive branch of the Government, according to sources close to both sides of the discussions.

WHAT, you've never laid eyes on the spinettino made in 1540 for Eleonora d'Este, Duchess of Urbino? Or the 15th-century Annunciation tapestry with the "sliding Christ child" image? Or the bronze Mosan aquamanile depicting Phyllis, beloved of Alexander the Great, perched on the back of Aristotle, who crawls on all fours? These are magnificent objects at the ...

WASHINGTON, July 17--Following a precipitous decline earlier this year, builders began to construct new homes last month at an annual rate of almost 1.2 million units, up 30 percent over May, the Commerce Department reported today.

A year ago there was no mistaking the caution top executives in big corporations displayed toward Ronald Reagan. John Connally--familiar, exuberant and aggressive--was their man.

Mayor Koch ended an intense competition among four developers yesterday by selecting a $274 million multifaceted project known as River Walk to be constructed along a desolate stretch of waterfront on Manhattan's East Side.

Richard Burton began last night's performance in his starring role in "Camelot" with unsteady movements and blurred speech and as he began his first song, about five minutes into the musical, he stopped abruptly and turned his back to the audience, apparently unable to continue.