Death of the Virgin (ca. 1000)/ © Worcester Art Museum, all rights reserved.
Recent links of note:
British Museum’s ivory icons denied US entry for loan show
Victoria Stapley-Brown, The Art Newspaper
Not content to merely regulate the conservation of our nation’s streams and wetlands, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has gotten into the art game. The Service has blocked the importation of a set of Byzantine ivory pieces that were scheduled to appear as part of a show at the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts. No reason has been given for the denial of the importation, though the Museum’s director suspects that it has to do with the “whole issue with elephant poaching.” Works dating to the medieval period are entangled with contemporary elephant poachers. Score one for the bureaucrats.
The Tchaikovsky Competition
Medici.tv
After three weeks of spirited performances, we’ve reached the conclusion of the Tchaikovsky Competition. Stream all stages of the contest at any time or catch the second section of the winners’ concert today at noon.
Conservative, Moi? Jamais de la Vie!
Laetitia Strauch-Bonart, Standpoint
An examination of the lack of a conservative tradition in France. Strauch-Bonart asserts that Sarkozy’s UMP’s “rebranding” as Les Républicains is symptomatic of a country where “No leader on the Right will ever claim to be [conservative], either with a small or capital ‘c.’” Can you imagine the Tories changing their name for “no other reason than a tactical maneuver, and a childish one at that”? Strauch-Bonart can’t, and herein lies the fundamental difference in the UK’s natural conservatism and France’s aversion to it.
The Greek Endgame
Nicole Gelinas, City Journal
What to do with a delinquent who is habitually unable to repay his debts? Nicole Gelinas, writing in City Journal, proposes a radical solution: stop lending to the scofflaw. Gelinas suggests that, while the people of Greece should suffer for their government’s inadequacy, so should the lenders who were foolhardy enough to lend in the first place.
From our pages:
A “normal” Narva
Andrew Stuttaford
As Russia encroaches on former territories, Andrew Stuttaford examines life in Narva, Estonia.