Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

UK: Coastal castles could be moved inland

Castles on the coast could be moved brick by brick and rebuilt inland as part of plans to save Britain's coastal heritage from climate change. As sea levels threaten a number of historic properties, the government is considering ways to protect them. Historic monuments that are threatened with destruction could be moved in exceptional circumstances to a "more sustainable location", according to a consultation paper released by the Department for the Environmen

Titlenomics, or Creating Best Sellers

The release of “womenomics” (by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay) this month is just the latest example of publishers trying to knock off the title of “Freakonomics,” the best-selling 2005 book by Steven D. Levitt, an economist, and Stephen J. Dubner, a journalist. Although some critics initially complained about that book’s “annoying title,” “Freakonomics” was an instant success, generating, among other things, a column in The New York Times Magazine, a blog on the Times Web site (frea

Robert Burns relics discovered in attic

A cache of Robert Burns family heirlooms has been unearthed in the attic of the Burns Cottage Museum in Alloway, Ayrshire. The National Trust for Scotland, which runs the museum, said the artefacts were sold to the museum in the 1930s by the bard's great-granddaughter. The 19th Century items were retrieved from two boxes during renovation work.

Greek fury at Elgin marbles 'loan deal'

Queen turns down invitation to opening of major new museum in Athens built to house Acropolis treasures. A bitter new row over ownership of the Elgin marbles has erupted, threatening to eclipse the inauguration this week of a major new museum in Athens designed to house the contested masterpieces. Just days before the opening of the €130m (£110m) New Acropolis Museum, officials in Athens and London were this weekend engaging in barbed exchanges over the classical treas

Egypt to 'prove' Germany stole Nefertiti bust

Egypt will soon provide evidence that the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti was taken illegally out of the country by Germany, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Sunday. The fabled bust of Nefertiti, renowned as one of history's great beauties, was brought to Berlin in 1913, a year after German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt unearthed it on the banks of the Nile. Cairo began demanding the statue in the 1930s, but successive German governments, beginning

Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art in Northern Ireland

A drizzly evening on the Falls Road. From the side of the red-brick Sinn Féin office, the face of Bobby Sands – boyish and wavy-haired, like a 1980s soccer star – beams down at the traffic crashing through the puddles. It's a messianic portrait from April 1981, showing the newly elected Irish republican MP in idealised good health – a far cry from the cadaverous protester who would die three weeks later, after 66 days on hunger strike in the Maze. I turn off the main drag on the sho

"Mincemeat": a play which names the man who fooled the Nazis opens in London

Some war heroes have films made about them. Others languish in obscurity. Then there’s a third class of heroes who have films made about them even as they remain hidden from history. Which is where the homeless people’s theatre company Cardboard Citizens come in. “It seems a pity,” their director, Adrian Jackson, says, “that a man who helped us to win the Second World War hasn’t been acknowledged at all.” That man is now the hero of Mincemeat, which Jackson’s cast of professional an

Naked Mona Lisa goes on show in Italy

The mysterious portrait of a semi-nude woman, looking straight at the viewer with an enigmatic smile and with her hands crossed, bears a remarkable resemblance to Leonardo's world famous painting. Hidden for almost a century within the panelled walls of a library, the portrait appears to have been inspired by the Mona Lisa, which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris and was painted by the Italian master in the early 1500s. It will form one of the centrepieces of a new

"Forward to Freedom" celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Anti-Apartheid Movement at the Museum of London

‘Forward to Freedom’ opened last Friday, June 12th, at the Museum of London to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). Showcasing posters, stickers, badges, leaflets, photographs and footage of anti-apartheid demonstrations, the display reveals the diversity of the campaigns across Britain against apartheid and minority white rule, which ranged from cultural, to sport, to consumer boycotts. The display is organised in partnership with the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archi

French Official: Stolen Picasso Notebook Will Be Hard to Sell

A red notebook of 33 pencil drawings by Pablo Picasso stolen from the Paris museum bearing his name will be hard for thieves to sell, France's culture minister said Wednesday. The theft was discovered Tuesday morning by an employee of the Picasso Museum. The notebook had been kept in a second-floor glass display case that can only be opened with a special instrument. Museum head Anne Baldassari said she didn't think it was a commissioned theft — one specifically ordered

"Cinema and the Spanish Civil War" film season opens in London

The BFI Southbank's Cinema and the Spanish Civil War film season begins today with screenings of The Spanish Earth, a film written and narrated by Ernest Hemingway showing people's daily lives in their struggle to survive, and Espana 1936, a propaganda film depicting the resistance of the Republic and the involvment of the International Brigades, which the Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs entrusted to Luis Bunuel. Seventy years after the events, the film season explores the Spanish Civil W

Previously Unseen Photographs of Hitler Online

Last week, to coincide with the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Life published a series of previously unseen photographs of Hitler on its website. The series, which document, for the most part, the Fuhrer’s private life, include over 50 colour pictures from the collection of Hugo Jaeger, Hitler’s personal photographer. Jaeger was granted unprecedented access to Hitler and photographed him from 1936 until his final days in 1945. The photographs include shots of the interiors of Berghof, H

Review: Matthew Boulton exhibition at Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, UK

“This man started a global revolution,” so says the flyer for Matthew Boulton: Selling What All the World Desires. The exhibition is the centerpiece of the Bicentenary celebrations. Its title is taken from a letter Boulton wrote to James Boswell in 1776 in which he declared: “I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have - POWER!” Details of the year-long festival celebrating the life, work and legacy of the pioneering industrialist are listed below. Matthew Boulton (1728-180

New photos from Tiananmen Square published by NYT

Terril Jones had only shown the photograph to friends. While working as a reporter in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he shot many photographs and recorded several hours of video. It wasn’t until weeks afterwards, when he had returned to Japan, that he discovered the magnitude of what he had captured — an iconic moment in history from an entirely unique angle. His version of the tank man has never been published until now. For 20 years

BBC tried to take George Orwell off air because of 'unattractive' voice

The BBC tried to take the author George Orwell off air because his voice was "unattractive", according to archive documents released by the corporation. Orwell, whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair, was employed by the BBC to work in its Eastern Service during the Second World War to supervise cultural broadcasts to India countering Nazi German propaganda. However during one transmission, a senior executive was struck by the "unsuitability" and &quo

When a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Debates, Give or Take (Paris/Exhibit)

PARIS ... “Controversies: A Legal and Ethical History of Photography” was organized by Christian Pirker and Daniel Girardin, a lawyer and a curator from Switzerland, where the exhibition originated. Louvre-length, two-hour lines daily snaked out the door of the Bibliothèque Nationale here until the end of last month. (The show moves on to South America.) Inside, scrums of visitors clustered before 80 or so pictures, more or less famous troublemakers, spanning the era of the daguerreotype through

20 years on, Beijing painter creates works based on photos of crackdown

Soaked in sweat, his heart racing, Chen Guang descended the steps of China’s Great Hall of the People and aimed his automatic rifle at the sea of student protesters occupying Tiananmen Square. A 17-year-old soldier from the countryside, Mr. Chen and his comrades had just been given chilling orders: to clear the symbolic heart of the nation, even if it meant spilling blood. “We were assured there would be no legal consequences if we opened fire,” Mr. Chen recalled in an interview on

7/7 memorial in Hyde Park, London

If you wanted to trace the formal history of the British public memorial from Victorian times to the present day, London's Kensington Gardens would be a good place to start. Opposite the Royal Albert Hall stands the Albert Memorial in all its unapologetic imperial grandeur. Down by the Serpentine is the much more low-key Diana Memorial Fountain, with its water cascades and reflecting pool. Both have their detractors. Both show how difficult it is to design a memorial that strikes a

Top 10 Movies About Academic Life

Academic life is a topic well worth exploring in novels and film, as it lends itself to a never-ending analysis of social dynamics, obsession, talent, infrastructure, educational trends, and even satire. These 10 movies address all of those themes by celebrating academic life as its own genre and indulging all types of students and teachers.#1 School Ties: School Ties is a classic coming-of-age and academic film from 1992 starring Brendan Fraser, Chris O’Donnell, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, all before they were A-list celebrities. In the movie, a Jewish football star named David Greene gets a scholarship to a preppy boarding school in Massachusetts, where he confronts bigotry at many different levels. Other themes from the film include cheating and loyalty, the notion of honor and legacy, acceptance and integrity, and scenes of the beautiful prep school, school dances and football games will make even proud public school graduates wonder what it’s like to experience life on the inside.....

ICE Seizes a Cultural Artifact Reported Stolen in Italy Almost 12 Years Ago

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today seized a Pompeii wall panel fresco from a Manhattan auction house that was reported stolen in Italy 12 years ago. The fresco panel, which was the subject of an international search by INTERPOL, was located by the Art Loss Register of New York and brought to the attention of ICE and Italian Authorities. Italian authorities provided ICE agents via the ICE attaché in Rome with information and documents identifying the fresco panel as