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Artie Shaw, 94

Big band leader Artie Shaw quit the music business 50 years ago. But before he did: “A clarinetist and bandleader, Mr. Shaw’s music sold more than 100 million records with a stunning series of hit-making songs, including Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust.” His music so defined its period that Time magazine wrote that on the verge of World War II, the United States meant to the Germans ‘skyscrapers, Clark Gable and Artie Shaw’.”

Terry Teachout Remembers Artie Shaw

“In the first half of his long, spectacularly eventful life, he played jazz with Bix Beiderbecke and Mozart with Leonard Bernstein; married Lana Turner and Ava Gardner; made a movie with Fred Astaire; and was interrogated about his left-wing ties by Joe McCarthy. Then, at the age of 44, he stopped playing music and started writing fiction, eventually producing a monstrously long autobiographical novel called ‘The Education of Albie Snow’.”

Experts Warn Of Fake Bible-Era Objects

After important Bible-era fakes were proven so in an Israeli museum, experts have sent out a call to other museums to be on the lookout for more. “Scholars said the forgers were exploiting the deep emotional need of Jews and Christians to find physical evidence to reinforce their faith. ‘This does not discredit the profession. It discredits unscrupulous dealers and collectors’.”

Why Ruskin Might Have Faked Turner Bonfire

Why would famed art critic John Ruskin claim to have made a bonfire of JMW Turner drawings if he didn’t? “In an essay in the British Art Journal Ian Warrell argued that there are many reasons why Ruskin might have claimed the destruction: his undoubted utter shock at the discovery that his hero had feet and other working body parts of clay; his dismay at the scandalous allegations in a biography of Turner he had backed; and, crucially, the introduction of the first Obscene Publications Act of 1857, which provoked paranoia about art images and anxiety that curators could be prosecuted for works in gallery collections.”

Victoria And Albert Museum Hit By Robbers (It’s The Third Time)

For the third time in three months, the Victoria & Albert Museum has been hit by robbers. “The museum authorities disclosed yesterday that a series of Italian Renaissance bronze plaquettes, worth about £500,000, were stolen on Wednesday. The theft is the largest of the three robberies and a big embarrassment for the V&A, which, The Times revealed last month, has been severely criticised for its lax security.”

Lebrecht: The Year Recording Didn’t Die (But I Don’t Apologize)

Last year Norman Lebrecht brashly predicted that 2004 would be the end of the classical recording business. But a funny thing happened in the form of numerous interesting new releases. “With such exuberance on offer and more promised in the year ahead, what then of my rock-solid prediction 12 months ago that 2004 would see the end of the classical recording industry? Must I now eat humble pie, not mince? The evidence suggests otherwise. For effervescent as the new crop may seem, no-one is making any money.”

Vienna Philharmonic Donates For Disaster Relief

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra says it will donate $136,000 to the World Health Organization to help provide drinking water to survivors of the tsunami disaster. “We wish to express our solidarity with all those who have lost everything.” The orchestra typically donates $68,000 to humanitarian causes every New Year’s day from the poroceeds of its worldwide New Year’s broadcast.