Category: visual

“Buoyed by the brighter look of the Colosseum’s restoration, which was officially unveiled on Friday, Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, announced that 18 million euros ($20 million) have been found to replace, by the end of 2018, the arena’s long vanished floor with one that could support modern-day entertainment, although monument-rocking rock concerts have been ruled out.”

“Five hundred years ago in 1516, the first rhinoceros seen in Europe since the days of the Roman Empire drowned off the coast of Italy in a shipwreck. … This was the rhinoceros portrayed by Albrecht Dürer in his famous woodblock print of 1515. … [He] was like most people in Europe: he never actually saw the rhinoceros. He relied on a written description and sketch sent from Lisbon.”

In the middle of the night earlier this month, 33-year-old Jorge Arizamendoza pried open an iron gate and scaled a fence at the Ancient Spanish Monastery in North Miami Beach, a 12th-century structure from Segovia which William Randolph Hearst brought to the U.S. piece by piece. He then destroyed the head of a statue of King Alfonso VII of Castile and León from 1141. (Three days later, he came for Sunday Mass and threatened to shoot the priest and congregation, at which point he was arrested.)

“Mas Subramanian and his team at Oregon State University weren’t looking to create colors; they were just mixing chemicals together to see what they could produce. They were aiming for something with an electronics application. Instead, they got YInMn Blue – a new and vibrant blue pigment.”

The three-year, €11 million project – which will repair cracks in the masonry that are causing structural instability, overhaul the slate roofing, repair fractured lead ornaments and corroded soldering in the stained-glass windows, and restore degraded exterior statuary – will begin next year. Concerts and other activities inside the chapel should not be affected. (in French; Google Translate version here)

“A group of architects from one of the world’s most densely populated cities has created the kind of convertible spaces that make it possible for two humans and three cats to reside in the same 309-square-foot area.” (video)

“Robert Michael Slayton was taken into custody Thursday on suspicion of grand theft, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. … Detectives found the stolen trailer in Slayton’s backyard … But not all of the stolen art has been recovered.”

The departure is a shocking turn of events for MOCA, which has undergone wholesale transformations of its mandate, philosophy and even location in the space of less than a year.

“The destruction of the Temple of Nabu in the Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq by the Islamic State has been condemned by UNESCO and a leading UK archaeologist. As part of its propaganda campaign, the jihadist group issued video footage earlier this month that appeared to show part of the ancient archaeological site being blown up.”

“Bourne & Shepherd, named for its founding British photographers, Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd, officially closed earlier this month, following its last owners’ loss of a 14-year legal battle over the company’s sole space, a building in Kolkata’s busy Esplanade area.”