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Art · Museums · Heritage
Chagall's 1924 etching goes to Besançon museum after twenty years in French customs
Marc Chagall's 1924 etching L'Acrobate au violon spent twenty years in a French customs warehouse and has now been handed over to the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon. In 2006 the French authorities stopped a lorry that was taking works of art out
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Construction work on a city riverbank beneath cumulus clouds
NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
I continue to keep watch over my favourite building site in Moscow, the pedestrian bridge on Bolotnaya Embankment
I continue to keep watch over my favourite building site in Moscow, the pedestrian bridge on Bolotnaya Embankment. The bridge is taking on convincing outlines, and soon we shall be testing the new promenade route
NB! · Society · People
President of Italy Sergio Mattarella Turns 85
The President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, is 85 years old. He has held the post since 2015. In Italy the president is elected by secret ballot, at a joint session of both chambers of parliament and special delegates from the regions, for a term of seven years
Archaeology · Observations · Science · Nature
In an article on how the inhabitants of southern Norway could make wooden fish traps at least seven thousand years ago, I came upon a suggestion that at about the same time people carried commercially valuable salmonids, namely brown trout, into mountain
In an article on how the inhabitants of southern Norway could make wooden fish traps at least seven thousand years ago, I came upon a suggestion that at about the same time people carried commercially valuable salmonids, namely brown trout, into mountain lakes. The hunter-fisher-gatherers, according to the
Observations · Science · Ethnography · Humour
Misiak and Tureček build a model of cannibalism as an economic practice
A Polish-Czech team of scholars investigates the complexities of cannibalism. They are, of course, careful to stipulate that they are merely modelling, not conducting fieldwork. The aim is to explain why cannibalism never took hold as a regular strategy, and why a taboo arose in different cultures. Why, indeed?
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Stacks of old books on a shelf and a hanging ham in a wooden interior
The East · Monarchies · Mores · People
Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari, wife of the Shah of Iran, and her divorce over the lack of an heir
Empress or Queen of Iran: Soraya in 1953. Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary was born in 1932 to an Iranian diplomat and a German aristocrat. She spoke several languages fluently, received a European education and from her youth stood out for her extraordinary beauty. In 1951 Soraya married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah
Archaeology · Art · Science · Nature
That Magdalenian art is not a random jumble of animal figures but a specially ordered structure is, on the whole, not a new idea
That Magdalenian art is not a random jumble of animal figures but a specially ordered structure is, on the whole, not a new idea. André Leroi-Gourhan wrote about it in the 1960s. He arranged the Stone Age herd around the horse and the bison. The scheme was discussed from
Observations · Science · Society
Researcher Tushar Sen reports a journal reviewer demanded money for a positive review
A new scandal may be looming in the scientific world over the policies of academic journals; at least its outlines are already visible. Tushar Sen, an Indian software researcher, reports that a reviewer for a major journal extorted money from him in exchange for a favourable report. The paper, on
Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations
The Pushkin Museum's 2026 logo and a call to return to the previous one
I thought the Pushkin Museum's previous logo was a failure, but now they have replaced it with something even more abstract: just four columns, although the portico of the main building rests on six. And yet they could simply have admitted the mistake of 2024 and gone back