Word: ils
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...read the moving letter to Aldo Moro, published in Milan's daily Il Giorno. It capped a series of urgent appeals last week from U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim and other prominent figures to Moro's Red Brigades kidnapers to release unharmed the missing Christian Democratic leader and former Italian Premier. But as the agonizing human tragedy entered its seventh week, only Moro's captors knew for sure whether he was alive or dead, and they gave no hints as to what they might do next...
...first problem in describing Paul Mellon's role as patron is to draw comparisons. "Medicean" is the cliché for large acts of art patronage. This myth dies hard: started by the ruthless city-boss Lorenzo Il magnifico himself, prolonged by his sons, nourished by poets, flacks and hero-seeking historians from Poliziano to Jakob Burckhardt, it seems ineradicable, like kudzu. In fact, Lorenzo de Medici was not a remarkable art patron; he preferred jewelry, knickknacks, antiques and rare manuscripts to either painting or contemporary sculpture. The idea of disinterested art patronage in the service of some imagined "public...
...same time, the exhaustive hunt for Moro and his captors continued. Police threw everything into the search, including dogs and helicopters. Military and police roadblocks created long but patient queues on the autostrade. Not so patient was the tone of a message sent to Rome's daily Il Messaggero. Italian underworld bosses, supposedly annoyed that the intensive police presence was hurting business, issued an "ultimatum" demanding Moro's release by 4 p.m. last Thursday -or else the boys from the mob would see to it that their colleagues behind bars would bump off Red Brigades members who were...
...most infamous terrorist gang (see box), produced a Polaroid photograph of the captured Moro and a handbill warning that he would be subjected to a "people's trial." The typewritten flyer, emblazoned with the awkward five-pointed Red Brigades star, was sent mysteriously to Rome's daily Il Messaggero and left in a phone booth near the RAI state-run TV headquarters. It did not otherwise state any specific demands for Moro's release, but said further communiques would follow. Nonetheless, there was a growing belief that foreign extremists, probably Germans, had helped plan Moro...
...quick jolt to the sense of reality which, unlike the pleasures of more organized or complex art, fails to renew itself. It all ends up as Norman Rockwell in 3-D and grimy jeans, minus the period optimism: not contemptible, but not the stuff of which anything but il lustration can be made . Robert Hughes