In the Press · Art · Observations · Society · Humour
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
Books · Science · Society · People
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
Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Society
To the cautiously floated question "what is so important about the Electrozavod?", one might reply, so as to avoid explaining oneself to the valued fools, with a question of one's own: "is the city really in such need of new square metres of offices and
NB! · Cinema · Society · Pop Culture
NB! · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society
Vandalism in Venice. The damage done to a sacred aedicule with an image of the Virgin Mary, not far from the Papadopoli Hotel, is the thanks of Christian Europe from the hordes of Afro-Arab "doctors and engineers". The Reconquista is inevitable
Museums · Heritage · Society
Szwarcwald ran the museum from 2020 to 2022 and left soon after his public statement. Insurance and other major expenditure are the responsibility of the museum's board, so this is in effect a story of a confrontation between a salaried director, who had embarked on modernisation, and his
Archive · London · Monarchies · Society
I cannot find a good-quality photograph of this act, but the document is very famous. And it begins with the following words: Le Roy le Veult soit baillé aux Seigneurs. A cette Bille avecque des amendemens les Seigneurs sont assentuz. A ces Amendemens les Communes sont assentuz. And no,
London · Observations · Society
I noticed that the website of Royal Mail, the state post of the United Kingdom, works in two languages, English and Cymraeg, that is, Welsh. One wonders why only two, and why precisely these two? The United Kingdom has, in fact, no constitutionally enshrined state language. The status of English
Observations · Heritage · Society
Yet another absurd piece of news. The restoration of monuments is being removed from independent expert review. On 12 June a law was signed that, from 1 March 2027, changes the procedure for work on cultural heritage sites. Amendments to Federal Law No. 73-FZ and to the Town Planning
Architecture · Faith · Society
On 10 June, the centenary of Gaudí's death, Pope Leo XIV consecrated the Tower of Jesus Christ, the central and tallest of the eighteen towers of the Sagrada Família. The basilica has risen to 172.5 metres and has officially become the tallest church in the world. Yet
Archaeology · The East · Observations · Science · Society · Humour
By right of the first. When political regimes justify their claims to some territory by length of tenure, one can always object that somebody other than them was there first. And somebody other than those first ones. And than them, too. If one is so inclined, one may go all
Art · Cinema · Heritage · New York · Society
Gustav Klimt painted "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser" in 1917 and had not finished it when he died in 1918. The commission came from the wealthy Viennese Jewish Lieser family. For nearly a century the picture was known only from a black-and-white photograph of 1925: it vanished