“The government contended in its filing on Friday that both parties knew the statue, a mythic Hindu warrior known as Duryodhanna, valued at up to $3 million, was stolen when they agreed to ship it from Belgium to New York.”
Tag: 11.15.12
Record Contemporary Art Auction Sales This Week
“The US art season ended with a record-breaking sales total of $412m (£259.9m) for Christie’s, with records set for works by 11 artists.”
Our Patent System Broken? Microsoft Says No
“As companies such as Google and Twitter complain that the patent system is horribly broken — bemoaning the quality of patents being issued, the “trolls” that do nothing but try and squeeze money from hardworking entrepreneurs, and the high cost of patent litigation — other big tech outfits such as Microsoft and IBM describe the landscape very differently. It isn’t hard to see why.”
A Model Model To Do Archaeological Conservation
“Compared with its better-known Vesuvian neighbor, Pompeii, where local officials, constrained by inadequate and mismanaged government funds, have long struggled in their efforts to conserve and protect the sprawling open-air site — and even to prevent the periodic and well publicized collapse of walls — Herculaneum has become a textbook case of successful archaeological conservation.”
Louise Erdrich, Katherine Boo Win US National Book Awards
“Beating out an unusually competitive field, Louise Erdrich won the National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday night for The Round House, a novel about a teenage boy’s effort to investigate an attack on his mother on a North Dakota reservation.” The nonfiction prize went to Katherine Boo for Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.
Osmo Vänskä Speaks Out About Minnesota Orchestra Lockout
Writing that he is “desperately anxious” about the ensemble’s future, the music director responsible for the Minnesotans’ rise to international prominence asks the board, management and musicians, “Please, do what it takes, find a way, talk together, listen to each other and come to a resolution of this dreadful situation,”
Poet Jack Gilbert Dead At 87
“Famous for eschewing fame, he did not go to writers’ conferences or cocktail parties, gave readings sporadically and did not publish a great deal, either.” Yet audience members in tears were a common sight at his (rare) public readings, and readers often told him that his work had changed their lives.
Pompeii May Be A Disaster (Again), But Herculaneum Is A Success
“Compared with its better-known Vesuvian neighbor, Pompeii, where local officials, constrained by inadequate and mismanaged government funds, have long struggled in their efforts to conserve and protect the sprawling open-air site – and even to prevent the periodic and well publicized collapse of walls – Herculaneum has become a textbook case of successful archaeological conservation.”
Apollo Theater To Transform Itself Into Cotton Club-Style Harlem Cabaret
“The Apollo Theater is about to rip out its orchestra seats, extend its stage and plop its audience right into the heart of the action as its recreates the long-vanished era of the Harlem nightclub of the 1930s and ’40s.” (Don’t worry, Amateur Night fans: the change will be for one week in February.)