The director of Iraq’s National Museum goes to London to describe what happened to his museum. “The looting was the crime of the century, Dr Donny George told representatives from some of the world’s leading museums at a meeting in London. The meeting, at the British Museum, saw photographs of the vandalism and heard that many of the 170,000 items in the collection had vanished. The aim of the London summit was to decide what can be done by the international community to restore Iraq’s devastated heritage.”
Tag: 04.29.03
Recovering Iraqi Art Loot – What’s Next…
“Unesco is to send a team of eight experts to Iraq to make an assessment of the situation and devise a plan for the next stage in the salvage operation. It is also calling on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution which would place an immediate embargo on all Iraqi cultural goods. This would also include the return of goods to Iraq that may have already entered the market. The UN organisation will then compile a database with all the archives, lists and inventories relating to Iraqi heritage.”
Language Police – Sensitizing Away All The Juice
“In ‘The Language Police’, Diane Ravitch — a historian of education at New York University and the author of “Left Back,” a 2000 book about failed school reform — provides an impassioned examination of how right-wing and left-wing pressure groups have succeeded in sanitizing textbooks and tests, how educational publishers have conspired in this censorship, and how this development over the last three decades is eviscerating the teaching of literature and history. The ‘bias and sensitivity reviewers’ employed by educational publishers, she argues, ‘work with assumptions that have the inevitable effect of stripping away everything that is potentially thought-provoking and colorful from the texts that children encounter,’ and as a result, school curriculums are being reduced to ‘bland pabulum’.”
Archaeologists Find Gilgamesh Tomb?
A German team of archaeologists believe they have discovered the 2,500-year-old ancient tomb of Gilgamesh. The “expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk – including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King. ‘I don’t want to say definitely it was the grave of King Gilgamesh, but it looks very similar to that described in the epic’.”
Cleaning David – It Takes A Gentle Touch
So the caretakers of Michelangelo’s “David” and the woman hired to clean the statue are fighting over how to clean the sculpture. It’s no small matter, writes James Beck. Too many great artworks have been damaged or altered during cleaning, and overzealousness in getting all the dirt off isn’t a good thing.
Is London The World’s Art Capital?
Michael Kimmelman goes to London to look at art and is impressed with the level of buzz. “It’s just possible that for now even New York doesn’t rival London’s appetite for new art, and I don’t mean simply the local fixation on Charles Saatchi’s heavily promoted gallery of aging Young British Artists…”
Making A Point About Security?
Is security lax at the Manchester gallery where three paintings were stolen this weekend? That’s the contention of the thieves who stole the paintings and left a note to that effect. “The person who is trying to make this point has shown total irresponsibility if they have left them outside a public toilet not properly wrapped, and not protected from the elements. I would tar them with the same brush as a common thief.”
Jazz Newcomer Signs £1 Million Record Deal – Can He Possibly Be Worth It?
Last week 23-year-old British jazz singer Jamie Cullum signed a £1 million recording deal. A jazz singer. £1 million. Why was Universal prepared to pay so much? “It was desperation. We’d have done anything to sign him. We’d have bungee-jumped off a cliff, if necessary. He’s the most talented musician we’ve ever come across.”
George Orwell – A Prophet For Our Times
George Orwell “was so ahead of his time that we are only now catching up with him. The concepts of Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink and Newspeak are all his inventions, and they resonate in our time with even greater force than they did in his. So how did a crusty Englishman who was born 100 years ago, and who died in 1950, see all these horrors coming our way? Was he simply gifted with incredible foresight?”
What’s Wrong With Today’s Young Singers?
Rupert Christiansen goes to this year’s Kathleen Ferrier competition and wonders: “What is it about young singers today? It’s not that their techniques are uniformly bad or that the sounds they make are unattractive. It’s just that they so seldom seem rigorous or engaged: there’s a crucial lack of depth, feeling, imagination. They leave you with the old-fart thought that they’ve had it too easy.”