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An exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the Library of Foreign Literature itself and the 120th anniversary of its founder, Margarita Ivanovna Rudomino, has opened at the library

An exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the Library of Foreign Literature itself and the 120th anniversary of its founder, Margarita Ivanovna Rudomino, has opened at the library. The display includes the first director's personal belongings, letters and photographs. It also features an unusual multimedia element: an interview

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Sarcophagus of King Ahiram found in Paris, buried under junk: it serves as a storeroom for brooms and mops in a littered utility room of an administrative building

The sarcophagus discovered in a Franco-Lebanese house is a cast of the original kept in the National Museum of Beirut, incidentally one of its chief treasures. The magnificent sarcophagus of Ahiram, found by the French archaeologist Pierre Montet in 1923, is considered a symbol of Franco-Lebanese friendship: that,

Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

I hope my analogies will not unduly trouble anyone, but judge for yourselves: the bird-catcher Papageno from "The Magic Flute", especially as played by Lucien Fugère, is the very image of Ernie the Giant Chicken from "Family Guy", locked in combat with…

I hope my analogies will not unduly trouble anyone, but judge for yourselves: the bird-catcher Papageno from "The Magic Flute", especially as played by Lucien Fugère, is the very image of Ernie the Giant Chicken from "Family Guy", locked in combat with Peter - well, let

Archive · Art · Observations · Humour

Baritone Fouger sang Papageno at 74 and kept performing after the age of 80

Expectation and reality: Jacques Drésa's costume design for Papageno the bird-catcher in Mozart's "The Magic Flute", and the same costume realised for Lucien Fugère in the 1922 production of the opera. To my mind, Papageno looks far more striking in the flesh. Do

Museums · Observations · Society

Well, today on his annual phone-in Putin announced a "Pushkin Card" for young people aged 14 to 22, due to come into operation as early as the autumn

Well, today on his annual phone-in Putin announced a "Pushkin Card" for young people aged 14 to 22, due to come into operation as early as the autumn. The card is promised a balance of 3,000 roubles. For some period, until next year or thereabouts, it

Four panels: a white swan on water, a marble bust of a bearded man, and a woman in a floral headband, first smiling, then looking puzzled.

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Collage: a swan, an antique bust and a woman in a floral headband

Faith · Observations · People · Rome

Pope Francis congratulated Benedict XVI on 70 years since his priestly ordination

Yesterday the 85-year-old Pope Francis I congratulated his predecessor and good friend, His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, on the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination. Benedict is now 94; he lives in a monastery on the territory of the Vatican and prays unceasingly for the Holy Church.

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture

Yesterday was the birthday of Henry VIII of England, who, one suspects, may be the most frequently invoked ruler in popular culture, somewhere in the vicinity of Genghis Khan, King Arthur and Caesar

Monarchies · Society · People

Alexander I, from agitation against Napoleon to rapprochement with him at Tilsit

Alexander I Kisses Napoleon on a Raft in the Middle of the Niemen during the Conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit in June 1807. Napoleon would later describe Alexander I as "a true Byzantine, cunning, feigning, subtle". Indeed, only shortly before the meeting on the Niemen and the

Art · Moscow · Heritage · People · Nature

Artist Sofya Matveyeva and her dried-plant panels at the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden

In the Stock Greenhouse of the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden, the decorative treatment of the doors has been touchingly preserved: panels of dried plants assembled by the Soviet artist Sofya Vasilyevna Matveyeva (1904-1986). Sofya Matveyeva worked in the Main Botanical Garden almost from its founding, under Nikolai Tsitsin himself,

Five people stand on the grass under a spreading tree on a sunny day. A woman in a red dress speaks into a microphone while the others listen. A wooden house is visible in the distance.

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Five people on a meadow under a tree, a woman speaking into a microphone

Architecture · Books · Reportage · Society Pages

Alexander Brodsky's park opens in the former Veretyevo pioneer camp near Dubna

Today sees the long-awaited opening of the mysterious park in the former pioneer camp of Veretyevo near Dubna, designed by Alexander Brodsky himself, who conducted one of the first tours between the clumps of nettles and thickets of thistle. The landscape park, laid out right on a bog, is

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