NB! · Art · Pop Culture · Society Pages

Highlights from Art Basel, and Not Without Picasso

A huge green inflatable figure stands on Place Vendôme in front of a mansard-roofed façade, beside black cars and a police motorcycle.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations · Paris

Giant green inflatable figure on Place Vendôme in Paris during Art Basel

The Place Vendôme, one of the most beautiful squares in Paris, looks like this during Art Basel. Does anyone find this an outstanding work of art, or shall we settle for the phrase "such times, such talents"?

Colour caricature: men in long shirts raise their hands skyward, one in red; below, a grinning soldier in a cap with a red star and a sack marked 30.

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Detail of a satirical poster: figures in prayer and a soldier with a red star

NB! · Observations · Pop Culture

And she bears you away, and she bears you away Into the ringing snowy distance, The great owl, oh, the great owl: Giraffe, remember me

Dark metal plaque set in granite paving by a black stone wall. French and Russian text says François Fillon and Vladimir Putin inaugurated the monument. Autumn leaves lie on the stone.

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Bilingual plaque marking a monument's inauguration on 21 June 2011

NB! · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Gendarmes Guard the Galerie d'Apollon, but It Is Rather Late for Borjomi

NB! · Museums · Observations · Paris · Humour

Doing the one thing forbidden on the premises of the Louvre

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Or, as the critics put it, the work turns to the theme of the authenticity of the gesture and the contingency of form, the artist calls into question the boundaries between creator and observer, a subversion of the academic tradition

NB! · Art · Museums · Paris

The Gioconda Is Finished

NB! · Museums · Heritage · Paris

Louvre security footage published:

Colour lithograph of Visigothic votive crowns and crosses from Guarrazar, with a large suspended crown with lettered pendants at the centre.

NB! · Archaeology · Madrid · Museums · Heritage

Theft of the Guarrazar treasure from the Royal Armoury in Madrid on 4 April 1921

On 4 April 1921 the legendary Guarrazar treasures of the Visigothic hoard, including the crown of Suintila presented to Queen Isabella II, were stolen from the Royal Armoury of the Royal Palace in Madrid. The jewels were never found

Collage of newspaper clippings about the theft of the Irish jewels from Dublin Castle, with drawings of the insignia of the Order of St Patrick.

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Heritage

Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels from Dublin Castle discovered on 6 July 1907

On 6 July 1907 it was discovered that the Irish Crown Jewels, kept in a safe at Dublin Castle, had been stolen. Among the items taken were the insignia of the Order of Saint Patrick, an elite British chivalric order based in Ireland. The jewels were never found