Author: Douglas McLennan

SMARTING UP

A new serious magazine about music has debuted. The International Record Review has “an impressive list of contributors and includes many authoritative names familiar from The Gramophone and even its long-lamented American counterpart High Fidelity. In fact the new magazine looks a lot like an issue of The Gramophone from 20 years ago and clearly represents disaffection with the direction that venerable magazine has taken in the last two years.” – Boston Globe

A REASON TO DIE

The New England Journal of Medicine is reporting that new research shows that playwright Eugene O’Neill “died from complications of a rare neurological disease that consumed the last 12 years of his life yet left his brilliance intact – and not, as has often been speculated, from a combination of Parkinson’s disease and chronic alcoholism.” – Boston Globe

RUSSIAN RETURN

  • Police have recovered 16 paintings stolen from St. Petersburg’s Academy of Arts last year, and two suspects have been detained. Last December thieves broke into the second floor of the museum and took the paintings, most of which dated from the 19th century. “One of the burglars pretended to be an art historian and obtained false documents allowing him to visit the academy’s library for [a period of] nearly two months. He repeatedly cut the alarm system in several places, so that people got used to it sounding constantly and became less attentive, making it easier to steal the paintings.” – St. Petersburg Times (Russia)

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

Last fall a series of watercolors attributed to Georgia O’Keeffe owned by the Kemper Museum was thrown into dispute when experts cast doubt on their authenticity. The controversy was heightened because other experts from the National Gallery in Washington had previously praised the work and recommended them. The Santa Fe New Mexican delves into the tangled story behind the art transactions. – Santa Fe New Mexican

THEY LOVES THEIR DRINKING HOLES IN SOUTH-EAST

Investing in interesting architecture and yoking it to an artistic purpose has become the preferred way of driving economic and cultural renewal in many a distressed community – can you say Bilbao? But a landmark building in southeast Britain is about to join the ranks of missed opportunities. It’s about to be wholesaled off by city councilors. “Offered the chance to transform the pavilion into the leading arts centre for the South-East, they prefer to turn it into a pub.” – The Telegraph (UK)

ARCHAEOLOGY WITHOUT A LICENSE

The Indian army and the country’s State Archaeology Directorate have gotten into a battle over the discovery of rock paintings in Kaimur Hills of central Bihar. The army says it has discovered 52 rock shelters replete with prehistoric paintings, while the Archaeology Directorate rebuffs the claim as being “unprofessional, inadmissible and doubtful”. – Hindustan Times (India)

WAS IT A SANDSTORM?

Archaeologists are planning a foray into Egypt’s Western Desert next month to try to solve an ancient mystery –  the fate of the lost Persian army of Cambyses. Experts think they may have discovered the place where the army of Persian King Cambyses, who finished off the 26th dynasty of the Pharaohs in 525 BC, ushering in two centuries of Persian rule in ancient Egypt, disappeared and perished in the desert. – ABC News