Category: visual

A German team of archaeologists believe they have discovered the 2,500-year-old ancient tomb of Gilgamesh. The “expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk – including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King. ‘I don’t want to say definitely it was the grave of King Gilgamesh, but it looks very similar to that described in the epic’.”

“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.”

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.

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…”

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.”

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.”

Detectives investigating the theft of £1 million of artwork from the Manchester art gallery recovered three paintings after an anonymous phone call. “The Whitworth Gallery’s three paintings, works by Picasso, Gauguin and Van Gogh, are thought to have been damaged by heavy overnight rain. The extent of the damage, and the authenticity of the works, is still being assessed by experts.”

The theft of three paintings from the Manchester gallery was meticulously planned and executed. “With no noise, no fuss and no suspicion, thieves had entered overnight and coolly strolled out with £1m worth of work. The only sign of the drawings by Gauguin, Picasso and Van Gogh were the blank spaces left on the white wall of a ground-floor gallery, where the frames had hung side by side.”

Thieves stole a Van Gogh, Picasso and Gauguin valued at an estimated £1 million from a Manchester (England) gallery over the weekend.
The robbery was discovered at noon yesterday when staff at the Whitworth art gallery arrived for work. It is thought that the paintings were taken overnight.”

Was architect Frank Lloyd immortal, as he declared? “More than 50 years later, it would seem the flamboyant, self-promoting genius heralded by himself and others as the “greatest architect” may have been right. Of the more than 500 buildings he designed, 400 are still standing. His legacy as both an architect and interior designer is such that each May thousands of devoted fans line up for the privilege of standing in a Frank Lloyd Wright ‘space’ for just a few minutes.”