Museums · Heritage · Society · Paris

French Parliament unanimously passes law on restitution of colonial artefacts

The French National Assembly has unanimously passed a law on the restitution of cultural artefacts removed from former colonies between 1815 and 1972. The year 1815 is that of the Congress of Vienna, after which France returned what Napoleon had plundered across Europe. The year 1972 is the date of

Archaeology · Heritage · Society · Nature · Ethnography

Contractor's machinery destroyed a quarter of the Las Playas Intaglio geoglyph in Arizona

Construction crews building Trump's border wall have damaged part of a Native American archaeological complex in Arizona at least a thousand years old. The Las Playas Intaglio is a sacred geoglyph in the shape of a fish, laid out on the desert surface in the Cabeza Prieta National

Archaeology · Faith · The East · Museums · Heritage

In 1625, in the environs of Xi'an, the ancient capital of Tang China, Jesuit monks discovered beneath creepers and a layer of earth a stone stele almost three metres high, bearing a text in Chinese with Syriac insertions

In 1625, in the environs of Xi'an, the ancient capital of Tang China, Jesuit monks discovered beneath creepers and a layer of earth a stone stele almost three metres high, bearing a text in Chinese with Syriac insertions. The stele is dated to 781. The inscription described the

Cinema · Moscow · Heritage · Humour

Ilyukhina, that photo where you seem to be sneaking into the Kremlin is legendary

In real life, one ought to be rather careful with such objects, of course. Besides fines and arrest, such a prank could carry several other cheerless consequences: a preventive entry in the databases of the security services, registration with a psychiatrist, referral for compulsory psychiatric evaluation and, naturally, compensation for

Architecture · Cinema · Observations · Heritage · Society

Trump decides to change the colour of the pool bottom on the National Mall in Washington

Trump Plans to Rebuild the Reflecting Pool, the Very One Between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, Along Which Forrest Gump Ran to Jenny and Around Which a Crowd of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Listened to Martin Luther King. I've probably built more than a hundred

Architecture · Faith · Art · Heritage · Society · Paris

Will Claire Tabouret's Ugly Botch Still Replace Viollet-le-Duc's Historic Windows, Which Survived the Burning of Notre-Dame?

So, let us take matters in order. In December 2023 Macron announced that in the six chapels of the south nave of Notre-Dame, which came through the fire of 2019 undamaged, Viollet-le-Duc's stained glass would be replaced with contemporary windows by the French artist Claire

Archaeology · Observations · Heritage

At the Greek Consulate General in Chicago, an American family handed over to Greece's Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, a collection of antiquities purchased in the 1970s and 1980s

At the Greek Consulate General in Chicago, an American family handed over to Greece's Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, a collection of antiquities purchased in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the items returned are two black-figure Attic vases, an amphora, a jug, a bronze mirror, a headless

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Heritage

The Crucifix in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, painted before 1288 by the Italian painter Cimabue, was severely damaged in the Arno flood of 1966 and has been only partially restored

Archaeology · Geography · Heritage · Ethnography

The Mexico City to Querétaro rail route was moved after 16 rock drawings were found

In Mexico, during construction of the $8 billion Mexico City–Querétaro high-speed railway, 16 rock paintings and petroglyphs were discovered along its route. It was then decided to move the route, so as to save the site of the rock images from destruction. The finds belong to two eras.

Observations · Heritage · Mores · Paris

Saw this photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson (1) and remembered one of my favourite Parisian eateries, or rather brasseries: Lipp, on the Boulevard Saint-Germain

Léonard Lipp opened it after the Franco-Prussian War, when he left occupied Alsace and came to Paris. He brought his recipes with him: sauerkraut, sausages, cold beer. This was Alsatian cooking in its most direct form, hearty, unpretentious and at a reasonable price. The Saint-Germain quarter of that

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Seven Years Have Slipped By Unnoticed Since Notre-Dame Burned

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Heritage

A House of the Early Sixteenth Century Has Been Put on Stilts in Manchester

A house of the early sixteenth century has been put on stilts in Manchester. It is interesting at last to see how old buildings can, after all, remain within modern urban development, were there only the will