AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
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The Headlines
THE KEY TO THE CITY.If the lawyerFrank Gilberthadpicked a different line of work, New York City might look very different today. Many other parts of the United States might, too. Gilbert, who campaigned to prevent Manhattan’sGrand Central Terminalfrom being demolished in the 1960s,and who was involved in crafting many preservation laws, including the one that created theLandmarks Preservation Commissionin the city,died on May 14 at the age of 91,Sam Robertsreports in theNew York Times.Paul Edmondson, who heads theNational Trust for Historic Preservation, told theTimesthat Gilbert “was responsible for the protection of thousands of historic properties and neighborhoods across the country through his work in helping communities develop historic districts.” In New York, those include areas of SoHo and Chelsea.
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REPATRIATION DEVELOPMENTS.Agold coin from ancient Greece thatwas stolen from a museum in Rhodes during World War II,has been repatriated to the countryfrom amuseum in Stockholm, Sweden, theAssociated Pressreports. Dating back three millennia, it was at one point owned by the art-collectingbiophysicistGeorg von Békésy. Greek’s culture minister said that the return of the artifact shows the Swedish officials’ “respect for modern Greece.” Meanwhile, at aUNESCOmeeting on Friday, a Greek officialrejected a British claimthat many of theParthenonmarbles removed byLord Elginwere found amid rubble, theGuardianreports. Last week, the two countries said that they would holdtalks on the disputed marbles. A date has not been set.
The Digest
TheWorld Economic Forumis running in Davos, Switzerland, and Ukrainian artists have transformed a building that Russia usually uses during the event with signage and images that declare it the “Russian War Crimes House.” Russia has denied claims that it has committed war crimes in the war in Ukraine.[Reuters]
Miss.Tic, a prominent street artist who became active in the Montmartre section of Paris in the 1980s, died on Sunday of an unspecified illness at the age of 66. France’s culture minister,Rima Abdul Malak, paid tribute to her “iconic, resolutely feminist” art in a statement.[AFP/France 24]
Amanda Claridge, a revered archaeologist with a passion for Rome, died at the age of 72 of cancer earlier this month. “Three thousand years of continuous occupation have produced one of the most deeply stratified and complex urban sites in existence,” she once wrote of the Eternal City.[The New York Times]
One ofShepard Fairey’s famed portraits of formerPresident Barack Obamaaccompanied by the word “HOPE” sold for $735,000 atHeritage Auctions. A mixed-media collage, it is one of three large-scale pieces that Fairey made of the subject.[Chicago Tribune]
ARTIST UPDATES.Speaking of museums devoted to a single artist,a new museumdedicated to German artistGeorge Groszhas just opened in his native Berlin, theNew York Timesreports. Australian painterKen Doneis in theGuardian, declaring,“I’ll never be as good as a five-year-old.”And Irish artistEva Rothschildis also in theGuardian, sharing some of herfavorite cultural offerings of late, like the TV showThe Young Offenders.
The Kicker
IDENTIFYINGINSPIRATION.In theWall Street Journal, architectFrancis Kéré, who garnered thePritzker Prizeearlier this year, discussedthe important role that traditional African masks have in his practice, and highlighted as one off his favorites an early 20th-century hawk mask made by a Bwa sculptor that is in theMetropolitan Museum of Art. (He’s also a fan of the contemporary artistRomuald Hazoumè, of Benin, who makes unforgettable mask sculptures from plastic jugs and other materials.) For the Burkina Faso–born and Berlin-based Kéré, a traditional African mask is “a piece of wood that pushes you to think.” [WSJ]
