The Japanese embassy in London has been hit by art thieves. “For the past two years, it is thought, a British voluntary librarian allegedly stole about 150 books, selling them via the auction house and to private dealers. The collection had been stored at the embassy by the Japan Society, which promotes relations between Britain and Japan, because it had run out of space and wanted greater security.” – The Telegraph (UK)
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ANTIQUES CLICKSHOW
Internet auctions have transformed the antique business. But “while the online market has helped to boost antique prices as demand grows, some dealers say online auctions are stripping antiquing of its romance, reducing the thrill of the hunt to a bland point and click. – CNN
BESIDES, WRITING’S MORE FUN
When Australia’s National Gallery hired a critic as its curator of Australian art last year, there were plenty of complaints that John McDonald “had no curatorial experience and was hostile to contemporary art.” Now, less than a year into the job McDonald is considering quitting, complaining that 90 per cent of the job is administrative, “whereas he had originally thought paperwork would take only half his time.” – The Australian
HOW DO THEY DO THAT?
At its top, the Tower of Pisa is 15 feet out of alignment with the bottom, in danger of tipping over. But the lean is being painstakingly corrected. It’s “a delicate operation in which dirt is being extracted through thin drill pipes— the geotechnical equivalent of laboratory pipettes— from under the north, upstream side of the tower foundations, allowing it to settle toward the upright direction. The rate of soil extraction amounts to just a few dozen shovelfuls a day; anything faster might jolt the tower over the brink.” – Discover Magazine
ART IN GRIM PLACES
Life expectancy for a Russian orphan is 26 years. A Russian artist went into an orphanage bringing art and invited the orphans to draw their dreams. “They painted brilliant rainbows, pink buses and staircases to cotton-candy skies. They were joyous images that belied their grim surroundings. The purpose of this project is not to turn children into artists. The purpose is to help them to overcome the various obstacles that they face because they’re orphans.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
CLUTTERED ATTIC?
America has finally gotten better at protecting its cultural past, trying to preserve important pieces of its history. But are we going to far, now? “Here, for instance, we find millions of dollars allocated for tenement and prison renovation, the repair of fetid laundry rooms and leaky school roofs. Yes, there is funding for traditional cultural activity such as repair of classic houses designed by H.H. Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright. But there is also money for sprucing up tourist traps and old scrapbooks.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
ANOTHER REASON THEY COST TOO MUCH
Twenty-eight US states have filed a price-fixing suit against five big manufacturers of compact disks. The suit contends that because of the manufacturers collusion, consumers have paid $480 million more than they should have for recordings over the past five years. – Variety
SHOWDOWN IN BERLIN
Since he took it over eight years ago, Daniel Barenboim has turned the former East Berlin Staatsoper company into Berlin’s leading opera house. But Berlin is broke, and Barenboim is demanding another 10 million marks for his budget as a condition of his staying. Last week drastic plans by the Berlin Senate were revealed to amalgamate the city’s three major opera houses with Barenboim to be offered the job of general manager, or “intendant,” of the new super-company. – Chicago Tribune
POET ADVOCATE GENERAL
“Is there something churlish about Canadians that we balk at the idea of an official poet laureate? Are we too modest, too embarrassed? We certainly need an advocate for poetry. Poetry is the least honoured and the most respected of our art forms. A poet laureate would bring poetry to the people, giving us, as John Newlove said, ‘the pride, the grand poem / of our land, of the earth itself’.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
- WHAT A DREADFUL IDEA: “Poets are already considered to be on the very bottom of the arts ladder, frantically vying with the likes of documentary filmmakers, performance artists and other degenerates. And Canadian poetry, in the main, is horrible, consisting primarily of nuanced references to woodchippers, and surprisingly vulgar accounts of childbirth. To crown a laureate then would be something like appointing a pantomime artist to remember the dead for us each November – a poignantly awful idea.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
CHARACTER BUILDING EXPERIENCES
Thomas Keneally, author of “Schindler’s List,” seems to be fascinated with suffering and adversity; he has written about the Holocaust, the famine in 19th-century Ireland and British convicts being deported to Australia. His most recent subject of focus has been the struggling African county Eritrea. “‘Novelists,’ he says, ‘write about fraternity and love across borders, race and culture and about characters who have everything against them “because the best stories are there.'” – Sydney Morning Herald