Arthur Brand, a/k/a “the Indiana Jones of the art world,” has recovered Buste de femme (Dora Maar), a 1938 painting which was stolen from a Saudi sheikh’s yacht on the French Riviera in 1999. After Brand had spent four years following leads on the painting’s whereabouts through the Dutch criminal underworld, a pair of intermediaries brought the canvas to his Amsterdam home. – Yahoo! (AFP)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Those Kids Whose Rich Parents Bribe Their Way Into Elite Colleges? Here’s What It’s Like To Teach Them
“I know, because I teach at an elite American university – one of the oldest and best-known … In this setting, where teaching quality is at a premium and students expect faculty to give them extensive personal attention, the presence of unqualified students admitted through corrupt practices is an unmitigated disaster.” – The Guardian
This Is Why Columbus Dance Theatre’s Founding Director ‘Resigned’ Last Fall
Veach, who founded CDT in 1998, quietly stepped down in October, and he told the press in January that the reason was health-related. In fact, he was accused of “improper behavior” with two underage dance students and was formally charged by police with (and subsequently convicted of) serving alcohol to a minor. – The Columbus Dispatch
China Allows Cinemas To Screen ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, But Only With The Gay Parts Removed
“Several minutes of footage were edited out of the film, including scenes of two men kissing and the word ‘gay’. There has been significant reaction to the film’s release online. … Though some [social media] users complained of ‘half watching and half guessing’ as a result of the deleted scenes, others were pleased the film had been released at all.” – BBC
Victor Hochhauser, 95, Impresario Who Brought Great Performers From Behind The Iron Curtain To London
He was the first in Britain to stage operas for mass audiences in arenas, and his Sunday concerts at the Royal Albert Hall (though they irked critics) drew many newcomers to classical music. But he and his wife, Lilian, were best known for presenting the best musicians and artists from the Soviet Union — Oistrakh, Rostropovich, Richter, the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets, and many more. – The Guardian
Drunken Audience Member Convicted Of Assaulting Actor In All-Female ‘Othello’
Mike Fox, a 56-year-old comedy promoter in London, was fined a total of £500 and sentenced to 50 hours of community service for shoving one of the actors in a 36-seat-theatre production of the Shakespeare tragedy. The incident began with a shouting match between Fox and the director just after Othello killed Desdemona. – The Times (UK)
The Country That Practices Extreme Modernist Architecture On Vacation Houses
“Rather than fading deferentially into the terrain that surrounds them, the houses that best exemplify the new Chilean architecture are, like Neruda’s impure poetry, emphatically man-made — rough-hewn and, at times, surreal.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Wanda De Guébriant, World’s Leading Expert On Matisse, Dead At 69
“The daughter of a diplomat, born in Copenhagen in 1949 and raised in Buenos Aires, de Guébriant was introduced in 1975 to the artist’s daughter and archivist, Marguerite Duthuit, and became her assistant, working closely with her on Matisse catalogues and exhibitions. When Duthuit died in 1982, De Guebriant succeeded her as the only official specialist for Matisse’s work.” – The Art Newspaper
Batsheva Dance Company And Ohad Naharin At The Turning Point
“Last September, after nearly 30 years as the company’s artistic director, [Naharin] handed the reins to Gili Navot, a former dancer with the company, while he assumed the position of house choreographer. In that role, Mr. Naharin will continue to create new work, while Ms. Navot will be responsible for the daily decision-making and long-term direction of the company. Is this the beginning of a new era or just an administrative reorganization?” Brian Schaefer talks to them both to find out. – The New York Times
Theatre Without Actors? It Can, And Does, Happen
Peter Brook posited that any empty space in which one actor walks as someone else watched could be a theatre. The next year, Samuel Beckett wrote a play with no actors. And onward the idea has gone, from Punchdrunk shows, to Enda Walsh’s Rooms and the Royal Court’s Dismantle This Room, in which 15 audience members do precisely that. – The Guardian