“It was just over 39 years ago that the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College experienced what was likely its worst moment: Thieves broke in on a winter night and made off with three centuries-old paintings valued at more than $400,000.” Two of the works were recovered in 1989; authorities now hope to locate the third.
Tag: 02.22.14
Why It’s a Good Thing When the News Makes Us Angry
Alain de Botton: “Beneath the rage, one senses a touching belief that the problems of the world are basically solvable, it’s just they aren’t being dealt with swiftly or decisively enough for the simple reason, to which every new day provides fresh testimony, that we are ruled by crooks and idiots. The relevant insights are there, just in the wrong hands.”
Why Winning A Book Award Leads To Harsher Reader Reviews
“First, some people are simply more critical of popular things… Secondly, as a book is read by more and more readers, it is subjected to an increasingly diverse range of literary tastes.”
The Problem With The “Great American Novel” (And The Academics Who Write About It)
American Studies circa 2014 is an academic pursuit undone by its own prose style.
So, Is Ice Dance Headed For Reality TV Too?
Gold-medal winners Davis and White “have a small window of opportunity. The Winter Olympics soon will be forgotten by general sports fans, who quickly will move on to other things, because spring training is heating up and then March Madness is right around the corner.”
The Oscars As (Blood) Sport
The second-year producers suit up for the big game day.
A Battle (Lightly) Wages In London, Should Heritage Or Development Come First?
“In a wise world a way might be found to have the best of both plans. The hall could be kept, along with a new office building higher than the low-ish stepped design currently proposed, which for reasons of townscape feels obliged to limbo dance beneath an invisible height limit. It could be beautiful, this coexistence of market and office building, not a compromise.”
Even The New York Times Editorial Board Has Feelings About The Four Seasons Picasso
“Those who seldom or never dine at the Four Seasons may feel estranged from an argument about the artistic integrity of a place where billionaires cluster over bluefin sashimi and roast squab with truffle sauce. But the survival of a Picasso, even a semipublic one, should concern everybody.”
Fake Art Historians ‘Verifying’ Faked Art? Yes, And It’s Disgusting
One art historian: “The more wobbly things are shoved to the side. The various kinds of evidence, their status and what job they do in proving the case are never really inspected.”
Wait, Why Is The NSA Interested In My ‘Angry Birds’ App?
“The spy agencies call these ‘leaky apps.’ The spies collect information from among others, Google Maps, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo’s Flickr, which in turn can transmit location, buddy lists, browsing history, and more.”