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Nobody:
Absolutely nobody: Peter I's decree "On Maintaining Cleanliness in Moscow": still in force
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In the Press · Art · Observations · Society · Humour
Former Art Basel head Marc Spiegler writes a column on the dangers of commercialising art
I read a column by Marc Spiegler, who ran Art Basel from 2007 to 2022. A comical piece. He laments that galleries are struggling, that the market shrank by some ten per cent in 2024, and that young investors are buying bitcoin instead of paintings. Duremar, having caught a pond
Faith · Reportage · Ethnography
In Tutayev, more than two thousand people walked in a procession of the cross along the right bank of the Volga with an icon that takes thirty men to lift
In Tutayev, more than two thousand people walked in a procession of the cross along the right bank of the Volga with an icon that takes thirty men to lift. This is the “Saviour Most Merciful” from the Resurrection Cathedral: a half-length Pantocrator with an open Gospel in his
Coming Up · Art · Museums · Observations · Education · Saint Petersburg
Elizaveta Zvantseva's art school exhibition at the Museum of Russian Impressionism to 4 October
In the house at 35 Tavricheskaya, one floor below Vyacheslav Ivanov's "Tower", where all Symbolist Petersburg gathered on Wednesdays, a drawing school operated from 1906. The school was founded by Elizaveta Zvantseva, a pupil of Repin and Serov. By the turn of the century the Academy
Books · Science · Society · People
Physicist Carlo Rovelli Publishes “85 Seconds to Midnight”, a Book Against Rearmament
The theoretical physicist and co-creator of loop quantum gravity Carlo Rovelli has published a book not about physics but about the looming danger of nuclear catastrophe. The book is called "85 Seconds to Midnight: A Physicist's Case Against Rearmament". The title refers to the Doomsday
Archaeology · Heritage · Science
Ancient human DNA recovered from cave walls in Spain and Portugal for the first time
Ancient human DNA has been extracted from cave walls in Spain and Portugal for the first time. Quite so: no bones, teeth or cultural layer were needed to obtain the DNA. From 24 panels in 11 caves, 54 samples were taken, and 5 of them yielded human mitochondrial DNA. The
NB!
Children at a swimming pool with yellow walls and blue doors in an Art Deco interior
Architecture · Cinema · Observations · Heritage · Paris
Piscine Pontoise in Paris: Lucien Pollet's 1933 Art Deco Pool and Its 2023 Restoration
Perhaps some will recall one of the most beautiful interiors in Paris from Kieślowski's "Three Colours: Blue" with Juliette Binoche, and from "Amélie". This canary yellow belongs to the Piscine de la Butte-aux-Cailles... or rather, to the Pontoise swimming pool. The landmark
Museums · Heritage · Palaeontology · Nature
Discovery of mammoth skeletons on Count Golovkin's estate in the Sumy region in 1839
The World's First Monument to a Mammoth Was Erected in 1841 in the Village of Kuleshovka. The inscription on the pedestal reads: This extraordinary rarity was discovered in the presence of the proprietor, Chief Chamberlain Count Yu. A. Golovkin The memorial commemorates a mammoth skeleton found on this
Archaeology · Science · Nature · Ethnography
The terms “invasive” and “non-native” carry fatal legal consequences for biological species
The terms “invasive” and “non-native” carry fatal legal consequences for biological species. These labels, in essence, open the way to measures up to and including the complete destruction of populations. In science this is called eradication. What mostly comes to mind are examples of the total eradication of species
NB! · Books
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Coming Up · Art · London · Monarchies
On 1 July Sotheby's in London will offer an amber heart-shaped pendant with a carved portrait of Elizabeth I
The appraisers expect £100,000 to £150,000. Yet last November an anonymous collector bought this pendant at auction in Edinburgh for £5,588, as a mere old article of amber. After careful attribution, the inconspicuous trinket was recognised as a Renaissance jewel bearing a portrait of Elizabeth, which added