Archaeology · Archive · The East · London · Museums · Heritage

Layard found the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1849 and brought over 25,000 tablets to England

This Is How the British Museum Displays the Library of Nineveh. The legendary Library of King Ashurbanipal was discovered by the Englishman Austen Henry Layard in 1849. He managed to unearth one part of the vast library, which had been kept in the north-west palace on the banks of

Aristocracy · Archaeology · Moscow · Museums · People

Website on Alexey Uvarov, originator of the idea of the Historical Museum on Red Square

The Historical Museum has launched an online project dedicated to Count Alexei Uvarov, scholar, archaeologist, founder of the Moscow Archaeological Society, collector and patron of the arts. Uvarov was the author of the idea of creating the Historical Museum and devoted all his strength and knowledge to the successful realisation

Cinema · Monarchies · Museums · Observations · Paris · Humour

The helmet with Henry VIII's deranged expression that I saw recently in the Louvre has always reminded me of the mask worn by the dreadfully dangerous criminal Albert van den Bosch in the film "Taxi 4"

But in fact this helmet, which I wrote about briefly in my book, is the sole surviving piece of the armour presented by the Emperor Maximilian I as a diplomatic gift to the English king Henry VIII in 1514. I trust no one will dispute that the old man would

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · People

Igor Shelkovsky exhibition “Celestial City. The Artist’s Workshop” at MAMM until 15 December

The Multimedia Art Museum is hosting a major exhibition of Igor Shelkovsky, "Celestial City. The Artist's Studio". Together with the retrospective at the Tretyakov Gallery and MAMM, it is the largest exhibition of the master's work. Shelkovsky is one of the outstanding nonconformists, a

Archaeology · Art · Museums · Science

The Getty Museum bought a kouros for 10 million dollars, but later checks pointed to a forgery

At the close of 1983 the art dealer Gianfranco Becchina approached the Getty Museum in California, offering to sell it a beautifully preserved marble statue of the 6th century BC for a record 10 million dollars. The museum people naturally took the two-metre kouros away for examination, which pointed

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Museums

The State Seal of Catherine II

Coming Up · Archaeology · The East · Art · Moscow · Museums

The “Byzantine Symphony” exhibition has opened at the International Numismatic Club Museum

The exhibition "Byzantine Symphony. Treasures Earthly and Heavenly" has opened at the Museum of the International Numismatic Club in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane. The display offers a reinterpretation of the legacy of Byzantine art in a contemporary space. Forms borrowed from medieval ecclesiastical and secular architecture create a special

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Paris · People

The Dress in Which Marie Antoinette Was Executed

A tall dark hat with a straight crown and a narrow brim, showing wear and holes on the crown, photographed against a white background.

Art · London · Museums

Tall dark hat with a brim from the Victoria and Albert Museum

An English Hat of the Seventeenth Century. Victoria and Albert Museum

Art · Museums · Paris · Ethnography

Taino and Kalinago chair on show at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris

A chair by craftsmen of the Antilles. A work of art by the Taíno and Kalinago peoples, who inhabited the Caribbean basin before the arrival of Columbus. Together with other examples of this culture, the chair is on show at the exhibition “Taínos and Kalinagos of the Antilles” in one

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

Whenever I see sedan chairs in museums, that European variety of the palanquin, a status symbol of urban transport in the form of an elegant little cabin with a seat, carried on two poles, I always recall the cartoon of the crash test for a sedan

Whenever I see sedan chairs in museums, that European variety of the palanquin, a status symbol of urban transport in the form of an elegant little cabin with a seat, carried on two poles, I always recall the cartoon of the crash test for a sedan. Such is my dusty

NB! · Art · Museums · Paris