Word: museums
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...Gist:The great museums of the world are stuffed with spoils of war. They're crammed with stolen relics and permanently borrowed treasures, beautiful icons obtained through shady means and cultural riches that their countries of origin want back - right now. In her look at the debate over who owns ancient art, Waxman, a former Hollywood reporter for the New York Times profiles four museums - the Louvre, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum - and poses the question, "Shall we empty [them] because one source country after another seeks the return of treasures...
Highlight Reel:1. On the exceptionalism of the Louvre: "The elitist strain that is built into the Louvre has an explicitly nationalist component. No object that has become part of the French museum system can ever be sold, since it has officially become French patrimony. To someone who comes from Greece, this must seem like a strange concept: the Parthenon frieze in the possession of the Louvre has become, ipso facto, French. The building of a national collection was central to creating the narrative of French greatness, of the power and glory of its empire. Like so much in French...
...museum-builders' attitudes towards antiquities: "It was a different time, with attitudes that are shocking to today's sensibilities. At that time, what antiquities you saw and you liked, you took. Perhaps you took it for the glory of your country, or for the glory of your country estate. What you left untouched was either out of a vague sense of propriety, or for lack of logistical support, or for fear of running afoul of an unpredictable, often-distant authority...For centuries, plunder had been the rule rather than the exception, and the privileges of colonial tribute seemed to bestow...
Halloween wasn’t the only event celebrated this past weekend—the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology ensured that “Dia de los Muertos,” a festival with Mexican and Central American origins, was commemorated as well. This weekend, the museum staged a two-part celebration. During the day, it held a family-oriented series of activities which included sugar skull painting, papel picado craft, and skull mask making. Harvard Ballet Folklórico de Aztlán, a traditional Mexican folk dancing troupe, also made an appearance. Later...
Before there was Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz, there was Yousuf Karsh. “Karsh 100: A Biography in Images,” on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through Jan. 19, is largely an exploration of Karsh’s strikingly beautiful and expressive black and white portraiture, though it also delves in bits and pieces into both his early work and images outside the portrait milieu. Though these digressions from Karsh’s most famous pieces help elucidate the character of the artist, they cannot compare to the power, intensity, and soulfulness...