“Working to locate those treasures – which reach back 7,000 years to the advent of civilization – archaeologists are building a comprehensive, searchable image database of the tens of thousands of objects that are missing and presumed to be in the hands of professional art thieves. The Lost Iraqi Heritage project is a joint effort of over 80 universities, museums and individuals working to create a tool that law enforcement, customs officials and art dealers can use to prevent the sale and export of stolen objects. The group, which is coordinated by professors at the University of Chicago, includes the Archaeological Institute of America, University of California at Berkeley and the University of Michigan. Archaeologists say they are motivated by what they see as an unprecedented, incalculable loss.”
Blog
Cleaning David – It Takes A Gentle Touch
So the caretakers of Michelangelo’s “David” and the woman hired to clean the statue are fighting over how to clean the sculpture. It’s no small matter, writes James Beck. Too many great artworks have been damaged or altered during cleaning, and overzealousness in getting all the dirt off isn’t a good thing.
Is London The World’s Art Capital?
Michael Kimmelman goes to London to look at art and is impressed with the level of buzz. “It’s just possible that for now even New York doesn’t rival London’s appetite for new art, and I don’t mean simply the local fixation on Charles Saatchi’s heavily promoted gallery of aging Young British Artists…”
English National Opera Dismisses Exec Director
The Times reports that Caroline Felton, a financial expert brought in nine months ago to help turn the English National Opera’s fortunes around, has been sacked. Her term as acting head was “marked by strikes and walkouts backstage and controversy on it.”
Stolen Paintings Recovered, Damaged
Paintings stolen from a Manchester gallery were recovered damaged, but can be repaired. “The paintings – Van Gogh’s The Fortification of Paris with Houses, Picasso’s Poverty and Gauguin’s Tahitian Landscape – were found the next day crammed into a tube behind a public toilet. A spokeswoman for Manchester University, of which the gallery is a part, said the paintings had suffered weather damage, and the Van Gogh had suffered a tear in the fabric, but added that all could be repaired. A note was attached to the paintings claiming the motive of the thieves was to highlight poor security at the gallery.”
ENO Chief Not Fired Says Company
“A spokeswoman for ENO denied reports in Monday’s Times newspaper that Ms Felton had been sacked, saying she had been given a new advisory role. ‘Caroline Felton has been on a monthly contract and remains on a monthly contract. She will be still be working in a part-time capacity, probably until the end of the season’.”
Making A Point About Security?
Is security lax at the Manchester gallery where three paintings were stolen this weekend? That’s the contention of the thieves who stole the paintings and left a note to that effect. “The person who is trying to make this point has shown total irresponsibility if they have left them outside a public toilet not properly wrapped, and not protected from the elements. I would tar them with the same brush as a common thief.”
Frank Gehry’s “Bionic Bunny”
Justin Davidson thinks Frank Gehry’s new performing arts center at Bard College looks “vaguely mammalian, a mound of muscled curves – slick and powerful like a sea lion, but also armored, robotic. Gehry has built a bionic bunny crouching at the edge of a field.” So how does it sound? “Fill the grape-colored stage with musicians, and they will make more sound than an audience can absorb. And yet, perhaps, that’s just the sort of surplus a small, arts-oriented school like Bard should have. There’s something terribly attractive about the notion of a house so full of music that notes try to bust through concrete walls.”
Give Me Some Of That Publishing Mojo
Everyone, it seems wants to publish a book. “The lines for ‘How to Get an Agent,’ a panel over the weekend at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, had been rock-concert long. And it was pretty clear from the wildly waving hands that marked the beginning of the question-answer period that these folks wanted answers.”
Jazz Newcomer Signs £1 Million Record Deal – Can He Possibly Be Worth It?
Last week 23-year-old British jazz singer Jamie Cullum signed a £1 million recording deal. A jazz singer. £1 million. Why was Universal prepared to pay so much? “It was desperation. We’d have done anything to sign him. We’d have bungee-jumped off a cliff, if necessary. He’s the most talented musician we’ve ever come across.”