Category: visual

Israeli agents have recovered a plundered ancient Roman-era bust after a four-year hunt. In the process they busted an ancient-artifacts laundering ring, and for the first time have traced a sophisticated scheme for moving stolen artifacts. “The bust quietly passed through the hands of the thief to a number of mediators and merchants, until finally appearing this week proudly for sale in the shop window of an antiquities store on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem’s Old City.” – Jerusalem Post

“Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schultz told his family he didn’t want anyone else drawing his strip, and that animated shows based on the characters should end as well. But when Schultz began the strip in the 1950s cartoonists routinely gave up their copyrights to distributors.  United Media owns the “Peanuts” copyright and it got 61 percent of its $84.9 million in 1998 revenues from the comics, TV shows and licensing deals. Think they’ll let the franchise go dark? – San Francisco Examiner (AP)

After inspecting how the Louvre has cleaned a prominent painting by Italian master Veronese, a French conservation expert despairs: “Clothes that were originally red were now green. The whole spatial and wonderful chromatic harmony is distorted. When you look at the painting . . . black, red and blue colors seem to be floating among other colors like pieces of a broken puzzle. The light is now a cold, artificial, modern one.” – The Times (UK)

Who’s who and what’s what in the auction-house scandals. – New York Observer

— gets architects’ approval for controversial expansion designed by American James Freed. – Haaretz (Israel)

by publishing a list of art in British museums that might have been stolen by the Nazis, what are American museums waiting for? “How is it possible that in Britain alone there are 350 works that may have been stolen and U.S. museums can’t find any?” asked Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP)

• An example to the world. – Chicago Tribune

Exhibitions of ancient art are sexy – a few beautiful objects organized around a theme and artfully displayed. “It is one thing to make the perfectly accurate point that all we have are a few remarkable artifacts coming out of what is largely a historical void. It is another to begin to fill in that void with a story which sounds so familiar, and hence so beguiling, to modern ears. There is no challenge to the imagination here, just a confirmation of things which we feel we must already know.” – Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt)

Publication of a list of 350 artworks in Britain with questionable provenance during Nazi years, had British museum organization on the defensive Tuesday. “in Britain some museum directors after the war had not been ‘fastidious’ about checking whether paintings they bought or were given might have had a Nazi connection. But the organization believes many of the gaps in history are innocent but cannot yet be explained because papers have been lost, owners have died or dealers and auction houses are unwilling to release documents.” – The Telegraph (UK)

• List “far less sensational” than headlines suggest. – The Telegraph (UK) 
  
  
• Proving ownership difficult. – The Telegraph (UK)
  
  
• “No factual evidence that any of the works had been stolen by the Nazis” – New York Times

Three weeks after rival Christie’s lowers its sales commissions, Sotheby’s follows suit. Did you talk to each other about the new fees, guys?  Nah…. “We did this in light of the competitive environment we’re in,” said William F. Ruprecht, Sotheby’s new president and chief executive. – New York Times