An elderly parishioner from the Sanctuary of Mercy Church, Borja, Spain, took it upon herself to “restore” one of the church’s beloved 19th-century frescoes -– Ecce Homo by Elias Garcia Martinez. The unhappy results can be seen in the before-and-after images, and in the aftermath of the incident the work now has a new nickname:…
Herbert “Skip” Cole, UCSB Professor Emeritus of African Art, has announced a new publication Invention and Tradition: The Art of Southeastern Nigeria (Prestel Press). The book “celebrates and explores the sculpture and masks of the many diverse ethnic groups living in Southeastern Nigeria.” For other faculty publication posts, click here and here.
There was a sobering article in the New York Times this weekend about the destruction and looting of African artifacts and archeological sites, primarily in Mali. The author, Holland Cotter, notes that in addition to good old fashioned looting, Al Qaeda-related Islamist groups are destroying sites on fundamentalist religious grounds. He outlines the movement…
They almost got away with it. Matisse’s Odalisque in Red Pants was discovered stolen from the Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum in Caracas, Venezuela in 2002, but in fact it had been stolen at least two years earlier. The thieves had replaced the painting with a copy and no one had noticed, even though the fake…
Turkish student Murat Palta has done something very creative for his senior thesis project – he merged the language of Hollywood film posters with Ottoman miniature paintings. He has captured the compositional style, colours and patterns, and general authentic “look” of the miniatures. Capturing a moment of high tension and drama from the films (Goodfellas,…
The New York Times published an interesting article today about the ever-tightening restrictions on selling and donating antiquities that lack adequate provenance. On one side are the supporters of laws intended to prevent the looting of archeological sites and illegal selling or trading of antiquities. On the other side are collectors and dealers (and organizations…