Tag: 02.24.18

Turmoil, Staff And Donor Departures At Boston’s Venerable Atheneum

The tumult is extraordinary at the Athenaeum, an elegant private library on Beacon Street whose five galleried floors house a valuable collection of more than 750,000 objects, including paintings by John Singer Sargent, a first edition folio of Audubon’s “The Birds of America,” and sections of the personal library of George Washington, among other rarities.

How Could A Museum Lose An 83,000-Pound Richard Serra Sculpture?

In 1986, the Madrid museum, one of the top contemporary art destinations in the Spanish capital, commissioned the famous sculptor to create a piece for a landmark exhibition, References: An Artistic Encounter in Time. Their idea was to show the work of three famous Spanish artists next to that of three renowned artists from the 20th century, including Richard Serra.

Director Ava DuVernay Talks About Changing The Voice, And The Lens, Of Hollywood

Don’t get her wrong; she’s not unhappy with her success, or the success of Ryan Coogler of Black Panther or Dee Rees of Mudbound, but she knows the tiny number of directors of color in Hollywood. “We kind of sit on the top of a broken system. … Until that system is fertile ground for real growth, then we will just kind of sit on top of it as sparkly, shiny things for people to feel good.”

How Did Stephen Rubin Climb Back Atop The Publishing Industry?

Two words: Michael Wolff. “Roughly nine years ago, when [Rubin] left Random House — where over the years he had made the authors Dan Brown and John Grisham into household names — for the less-glamorous perch of Henry Holt, some in the industry speculated that his once-powerful career was all but over. But Mr. Rubin now finds himself with a book that has arguably matched the heights of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘The Firm.'”

A Stolen Degas Painting Is Found, Nine Years Later, On A Bus

The painting, stolen in December, 2009, from a museum in Marseille, was (randomly, it appears) found in a suitcase on a bus outside of Paris during a customs check. “France Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen called the find a ‘happy rediscovery of a precious work belonging to the national collections, whose disappearance represented a heavy loss for French impressionist heritage.'”

Emma Chambers, Actress From Vicar of Dibley And Notting Hill, Has Died At 53

Her daffy, loopy Alice on the long-running “Vicar of Dibley” came from very hard work. “Chambers would go over every line to make sure she got the rhythm and the tone of the lunatic she was playing, says Paul Mayhew-Archer, co-writer of the Vicar of Dibley. He told BBC Radio 5 live that despite most comedy series having an idiot, ‘she made Alice a completely unique, very special idiot.'”