Art · Museums · Observations
And they lived happily ever after! A very charming piece of ceramics by Alice Mackler, 2014. Mackler is a most interesting artist who began to win recognition as a sculptor only after the age of eighty, when a solo exhibition of her work was held in New York in 2013.
Archaeology · Science · People
At the Guatemalan site of Xultun, archaeologists have for the first time deciphered the name of an ancient Maya mathematician-astronomer: Sak Tan Wash, "White-Breasted Fox". The inscription was found among more than fifty mathematical micro-texts on the wall of a small room that researchers regard
London · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Expectation versus reality: a collage. Cam and Di in the very same earrings. Though, judging by the fact that Camilla's ears are not pierced, there are two possibilities: either they were glued on for her, or remade as clip-ons. The original pair was presented to Alexandra of
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Archaeology · Archive · Faith
A well-preserved papal bulla, a fourteenth-century lead seal belonging to Pope Clement V, has been found during excavations in the centre of Tallinn. The find was made in a medieval cultural layer together with pottery and other artefacts. The archaeologist Mihkel Tammet believes that the seal may have
Archive · Art · Society · Humour
A poster of the Perestroika era
Archaeology · The East · Museums · Heritage · New York · People
An interesting man, to be sure, the Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos, who since 2003, when he witnessed the mass looting in Baghdad with his own eyes, has devoted himself to fighting the trade in stolen antiquities. The unit of the New York police that he heads has seized thousands of
Art · Heritage · New York · Society
The Zeckendorf family of New York developers has filed suit against the heirs of the Weis collectors, claiming that a 1958 painting by Pierre Soulages, sold at Christie's last autumn for almost five million dollars, was stolen from their family between 1977 and 1980. The canvas came from
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage
Ground collapse in the courtyard of the Scriabin Museum. I hope it can all be put right without any serious consequences
Coming Up · Archive · Art · Museums · Observations
An exhibition called "Beyond the Hundred-and-First Kilometre. Nonconformists in Tarusa" has opened in Tarusa, marking the 65th anniversary of the "first free exhibition" of unofficial artists, held here in 1961 in the premises of the town club. That was a year before the Manege
Archaeology · Observations · Science
The search for extraterrestrial life is currently built on two pillars: chemistry and radio signals. Astrobiologists, astronomers and planetary scientists use spectroscopy to look in the atmospheres of distant planets for oxygen and methane, which may point to life in general, even if only bacteria. Radio astronomers listen for radio
It is well known that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania remained the last major pagan state in Europe until 1387, when Grand Duke Jogaila formally accepted Catholicism in exchange for the Polish crown. There are now some stirrings towards establishing that Lithuania was ethnically mixed long before its baptism. The