“A federal appeals court today struck down as unconstitutional a 2002 California law giving owners and heirs to artworks looted by the Nazis extra time — until the end of 2010 — to sue for their return.” Left undecided: “Does the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena really own one of the most prized works hanging in its galleries,” or should its Adam and Eve “be handed over to the daughter-in-law of a Jewish art dealer who left the panels in Holland when he fled the invading Germans in 1940?”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
China Determined To Become An Opera Powerhouse
“Chinese culture officials point out that older Chinese were all raised on the Red Classics, and that the genre is closer to Western Opera than other traditional Chinese opera, such as Peking Opera, which include elements of acrobatics and martial arts. … Whatever people may think of the Red Classics, for now at least, China’s government is promoting them as the country’s official contribution to the body of world opera.”
Viewers’ Tweeted Picks, Pans May Have Instant B.O. Impact
“This summer, movies such as ‘Bruno’ and ‘G.I. Joe’ have had unexpected tumbles at the box office — just within their opening weekends — while ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ survived blistering critical reaction to become a blockbuster. Box-office watchers say the dramatic swings might be caused by Twitter and other social networking sites that can blast instant raves — or pans — to hundreds of people just minutes after the credits roll.”
Calatrava: Here’s Why Ground Zero Hub Costs $3.2 Billion
“‘The station itself is a fraction of this cost,’ said Calatrava. Indeed the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has swept a great amount of peripheral work into the station project — including 500,000 square feet of retail — which may prove far too much. … ‘I have designed stations in Zurich, Lisbon, and Lyons,’ Calatrava said. ‘And this is the most complex I have done.'”
Mona Lisa‘s Assailant Joins Long Tradition Of Art Attacks
“Mentally, a large number of art attackers appear to be several sandwiches short of the full picnic. … Nonetheless, such onslaughts on famous works of art cannot be exclusively explained by lunacy. There’s a spectrum of motivation ranging from the batty to the (almost) legitimate.”
Christie’s Nixes Art-Investment Fund, Loan Division
“Christie’s International has scrapped plans to start an art-investment fund and a lending division, according to two people involved with the projects. The move is another sign that the global economic slump is hurting the once-booming art market. … The closely held company wanted to compete more directly with Sotheby’s Financial Services, a subsidiary of Christie’s main auction-house rival.”
Lawyer: Google Settlement Abuses Class-Action Process
“When the [Google books] settlement was announced last October, Google and the groups representing authors and publishers who had originally sued the company hailed the agreement as a public good.” But lately, objections to it have been snowballing, and the Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe. Now a prominent Washington lawyer, who’s also an author, “plans to file a sweeping opposition to the settlement on Wednesday.”
The Show Must Go On, But The Actors May Call In Sick
So many actors, including leads, have been missing performances of “West Side Story” on Broadway “that last week Arthur Laurents, who wrote the show and directed this revival, read his cast the riot act. His tone, I’m told, was chilling. The 91-year-old told them that professionals don’t miss performances, and that they’d better get their acts together or find another line of work. … Producers say actors today, especially kids in their 20s, think nothing of calling in sick.”
When It’s Down And Troubled, BSO’s Got A Friend
A weeklong Tanglewood festival celebrating James Taylor has been a boon to the Boston Symphony’s bottom line, and not just because tickets flew out the door. “Instead of being paid for the gig, Taylor will give the symphony $500,000, his earnings after expenses.” Taylor and “his wife, Kim, [who] was a longtime [BSO] staffer and has now been elected to serve as a trustee,” have donated more than $1 million to the BSO in the past few years.
Berlin Phil May Make Online Concertgoing Worthwhile
“The Berlin Philharmonic (aka the Berliner Philharmoniker, aka the world’s greatest orchestra) will launch its first full season of live webcasts on August 28 with Simon Rattle conducting,” and “the Berliner’s Digital Concert Hall” is “terrific: a high-definition image (Flash H.264 encoding), exceptional sound quality (data transfer rate of up to 320 kbit/s, close to CD quality) and even good camera work (remote controlled).” High quality is pretty much required, however, because the webcasts aren’t free.