Category: issues

A French appeals court has ruled that art historian Hector Feliciano did not commit libel for suggesting in his book about art stolen by the Nazis that the late art dealer Georges Wildenstein may have collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. – Nando Times

When the feature film was invented all those years ago, there was a hum of excitement about its miraculous potential. The hum has returned, as digital technologies and the internet once again hold out a sense of amazing possibility. “The excitement that leaps off the news pages was much like the heat of the Edison-Griffith days: the sense that mankind was making a leap forward in consciousness at such speed and of such importance that no one could yet calculate its size or reach.” – The New Republic

In the waning moments of the Connecticut legislature’s session, a $9 million boost for the arts materializes from the state budget surplus. – Hartford Courant

— vows to make Taiwan a cultural power. Chen Shui-bian said Taiwan has managed to create an economic miracle over the past five decades. But “we must make continued efforts to boost Taiwan’s cultural development.” Noting that cultural development won’t be accomplished with a “miracle”  he said that “devotion and perseverance are needed to refine local cultural essence to win it worldwide recognition.” – China Times

Australia’s federal government gave in to the State of Victoria’s demands and announced a $2.6 million package to establish the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne. In return the Victorian Government went along with bigger funding for the arts nationally.  Victoria had refused to support the Feds’ funding plan because “it offered greater financial support to the Sydney Theatre Company than the Melbourne Theatre Company.” – Sydney Morning Herald

The chairperson of India’s film censor board is under fire for some recent cuts of “American Beauty.” “I was adamant about all the expletives being deleted. I won’t allow filthy language in any film.” – Times of India

Zhou Weihui’s book “Shanghai Baby” has sold perhaps 100,000 copies in China, making it something of a hit. But Zhou’s publisher has now had the page proofs and all of the books in stock destroyed, saying that the novel is “in poor taste and that Ms. Zhou, 27, was too outlandish.” State media are denouncing Zhou as “decadent, debauched and a slave of foreign culture” and thousands of copies of the book are being destroyed even while the book seems to have found an audience. – New York Times

The St. Petersburg government tries to close down a festival of contemporary art, music and theater, but the Russian Ministry of Culture intervenes to keep the show on schedule.- The Art Newspaper

NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s wife, actress Donna Hanover, who was supposed to perform in the sexually suggestive “The Vagina Monologues” Off-Broadway has postponed her appearance in the show, citing family circumstances. – Chicago Sun-Times (AP)

For decades, a statue of explorer Samuel de Champlain stood on a cliff in Ottawa, with a much smaller sculpture of a native scout kneeling beneath him. Last year, Native Canadians complained, saying the scout was depicted in a subservient position to Champlain, so the statue was moved. Now an artist complains that “discussion about how public landmarks depict the place of aboriginal people in Canadian society has stopped. Are we adjusting history to be politically correct? Now we don’t have that dialogue going on.” – CBC