Art · Museums · Heritage

Three works by Cézanne, Matisse and Renoir stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation near Parma

A new high-profile theft. Three small-format works with a combined estimated value of about €9 million have been stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, a private collection of Old Masters and modern art near Parma: Paul Cézanne's "Cup and Plate of Cherries", Henri Matisse&

Faith · The East · Books · Society

A cardinal moved the Mass from the closed Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Mount of Olives

The Pharisees tried to prevent the Italian cardinal and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Holy Sepulchre. Instead of the closed Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the cardinal decided to move the Mass to the Mount of Olives, precisely to the place where Jesus

NB! · Architecture · Faith · The East · Art

The wall painting “Christ Entering Jerusalem” in the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Akdamar Island, tenth century

Books · Observations

A poem in the voice of an animal whose pelt becomes hats and fur coats

Yunna Morits has a poem from 1998. What a marvellous beast I am, all in a golden fleece. My pelt is prized, tomorrow, yesterday, today!.. Descendants walk past in hats made of me. Their beauties, slim and slender, in furs made of me. ...The snow at the close of day

Faith · Art · Ethnography

A Lithuanian Girl with a Willow Branch on Palm Sunday

By the Polish-Lithuanian artist Kanuty Rusiecki, 1840s. A reminder that Palm Sunday, the feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, falls this year on 5 April, and Holy Easter on 12 April. Two weeks of Great Lent remain.

Faith · Cinema · Observations · Society

On the one hand, there are many questions about what is happening in the frame: why consecrate an Oscar statuette in a church, and why turn it into a show?

On the other hand, one recalls every exposé of the Hollywood fraternity and the context of this particular award, and understands that such filth can be cleansed only by divine power. For those who have not recognised him, the photograph shows Alexei Uminsky performing the rite of consecration over an

NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour

Spouses Boris Dmitrievich and Maria Vasilyevna Vostryakov flagrantly flout Venice's 2008 ban on feeding pigeons, punishable by a fine of up to 500 euros, on their honeymoon in 1898

NB! · Cinema · Observations · People

I remember Alexei Batalov not as Gosha from "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", but as the tightrope walker Tibul from "The Three Fat Men"

Faith · Observations · Society

The Serbian football club Crvena Zvezda has been fined €95,000 by UEFA because its supporters unfurled on the stands an image of the Orthodox saint Venerable Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming and the inscription "May our faith lead us to victory" during a Europa

The Serbian football club Crvena Zvezda has been fined €95,000 by UEFA because its supporters unfurled on the stands an image of the Orthodox saint Venerable Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming and the inscription "May our faith lead us to victory" during a Europa League match against Lille.

NB! · Pop Culture · Humour

A Typical Millennial Who Has Saved a Couple of Reels on Healthy Eating

NB! · Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums

The queue for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" at the Pushkin Museum in July 1974

Archaeology · Archive · In the Press · The East · Observations

1913 newspaper reports of temple chambers inside the Great Sphinx and Reisner's denial

I have told this story before, but in view of the alternative news I shall repeat myself. In 1913 a number of English-language newspapers carried an article reporting that several chambers of a temple-like character had been discovered inside the Great Sphinx. The text claimed that a fairly

Alexandr Radayev