The 18th-century Hohenzollern Stadtschloss in Berlin was “a hulking, unlovable pile. Even the emperors didn’t want to live there.” Damaged in WWII, the Schloss was torn down by the East German government and replaced with the Palace of the Republic, which was in turn torn down after German reunification. Now the government wants to rebuild the Schloss, and not everyone likes the idea.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Mystery Writer Donald E. Westlake, 75
“Donald E. Westlake, a prolific, award-winning mystery novelist who pounded out more than 100 books and 5 screenplays on manual typewriters during a career of nearly 50 years, died on Wednesday night. He was 75.”
It Is, It Is A Glorious Thing To Be A Pirate King
“To Hollywood executives, he’s public enemy number one. To film fans around the world, he’s a modern-day Robin Hood. As the internet’s most prolific pirate makes his 1,000th illegal film download available to the masses, Tim Walker investigates the mysterious figure known only as aXXo.”
Picking Up A Holbein For A Quick €2,000
“When the dusty heirlooms and bric-a-brac of a once-stately French family went under the hammer at a minor auction eight years ago, an anonymous portrait of the Dutch scholar Erasmus sold for €2000… [now] experts have established that the work was the last ever portrait that Holbein painted of an ageing Erasmus, and the painting – one of a tiny minority of Holbein works to be in private hands – is worth millions.”
Conceptual Artist Willoughby Sharp, 72
“Even by conceptual-art standards, Willoughby Sharp’s work stood out. There was his gestational spin in a clothes dryer. There was the curious affair of the talcum powder, the teddy bear and the tab of LSD. And there was the Oklahoma Gun Incident, which members of the art world still discuss, with a mixture of horror and awe, more than 30 years later.”
Robert Graham, 70, Civic Sculptor
“The sculptor Robert Graham, whose massive bronze works are seen on civic monuments across the United States, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington and the Duke Ellington Memorial in New York,” has died in Los Angeles at age 70. (He is survived by his wife, actress Anjelica Huston.)
Actress Stuck In Traffic Calls Cops
“Former glamour girl Linda Lusardi dialled 999 [Britain’s 911] when heavy traffic threatened to make her late for a pantomime performance of Snow White, police said today.”
What’s The Opposite Of A Blockbuster Exhibition?
“Dr Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery in London, who has previously criticised the growth of blockbuster exhibitions that offer up major artists, is advocating recession austerity for 2009 with exhibitions consisting of a single work of art.” He also calls for admission fees of £1.
The Queen Honours Robert Plant, Terry Pratchett, Courtney Pine For 2009
In Her Majesty’s New Year’s Honours, Discworld novelist Terry Pratchett is knighted, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine get CBEs, and actor Michael Sheen (of Frost/Nixon), gets an OBE.
Meanwhile, The Dominion Honours Céline Dion
Québec’s most famous export is promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest honour. Tenor Ben Heppner is also made a Companion, while Montreal dancer Louise Lecavalier, television host Suzanne Lapointe and poet Don McKay are named to the Order.