Sistine Chapel Threatened by Too Much Love
VATICAN CITY – It appears that the millions of sweat-stained tourists who invade Rome's landmarks every year are a nuisance to more than just the locals — they're even starting to disturb God. At least, that is, the depictions of God on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, which showed signs of damage during a routine cleaning this summer. According to Vatican Museums director Antonio Paolucci, the harm has been caused by the 4.5 million people who visit the site each year.
"Humans breathe and perspire and the dust and humidity endanger the frescoes," Paolucci matter of factly told the Agence France-Presse.
The director is concerned for the safety of the works by Michelangelo, Bernini, Boticelli, and other Renaissance masters, and believes that the filter system used to protect the frescoes from grime and dampness has been overloaded and should be replaced. Between 15,000 and 20,000 guests stomp through the holy compound daily to admire the painted walls and ceilings (on which, certain scientists posited earlier this summer, one can make out a depiction of God’s brain).
Restorations to the chapel are often controversial, especially after the spruce-ups of the 1980s and 1990s left the iconic images startlingly bright and colorful in an act of widely decried overcleaning. Paolucci, however, has pledged to do whatever it takes to protect the frescoes, short of reducing access to visitors — by "deploying for the conservation no less creativity and intelligence than that used by artists that created it."
"The money, we will find it," Paolucci said. "No one shirks for the Sistine Chapel.... The means offered today by science and technology are potentially endless." Recently scholars and experts in Italy have successfully used high-tech means to right the lean in the Tower of Pisa, and to solve the mystery of Caravaggios death.
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NEW YORK – Here’s a story, sad but true, about a man who took a coy-looking female to a hotel, then got drunk and lost her. Unfortunately for this man, an art courier named James Carl Haggarty, his lady friend was highly two-dimensional. In fact, she was contained within a painting — none other than "Portrait of a Girl," a 19th-century work by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot with an estimated value of $1.4 million, which Haggarty was taking to show to a potential buyer. In a lawsuit filed against Haggarty by Kristyn Trudgeon, the majority owner of the portrait, she states that Haggarty woke up to find that he "did not have the painting and could not recall its whereabouts, citing that he had too much to drink the previous evening." Whoops.
02 September '10
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AMSTERDAM – Vincent van Gogh must have been horrified when he returned from the hospital to his studio in Arles early in 1889 to find one of his favorite paintings damaged by moisture.
02 September '10
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AMMAN -— Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed a 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple with a trove of figurines of ancient deities and circular clay vessels used for religious rituals, officials said Wednesday.
02 September '10
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Two Important Australian Paintings Discovered And Consigned To Auction Through Christie’s iPhone App
London – The auction of Modern and Contemporary Australian Art at Christie’s on 23 September 2010 will offer a pair of rediscovered paintings of historical importance that was found in an attic and which was identified and consigned to auction through Christie’s iPhone application. The rare oil paintings by William Blamire Young celebrate the birth of the Australian army and were formerly in the ownership of its founder, Major General Edward ‘Curly’ Hutton. They are offered as a pair and are expected to realise £20,000 to £30,000 illustrated right.
01 September '10
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SAN FRANCISCO – Though entrepreneur Rick Norsigian continues to argue that photographic negatives he purchased at a California garage sale are the work of famed American photographer Ansel Adams, the evidence supporting that stance is quickly unraveling. One of the experts that had authenticated the works, former Museum of Fine Arts, Boston curator Robert C. Moeller III, has recanted his previous assessment, telling the New York Times that at least some of the photographs were taken by another man, Earl Brooks. Norsigian has been working with a team of lawyers to sell prints of the negatives, which he says are worth $200 million.
01 September '10
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MEXICO CITY - Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, will soon open a new museum in one of the poshest areas of his native Mexico to house his collection of artwork by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, considered the biggest outside France.
01 September '10
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VENICE - A painting by Renaissance master Titian in one of Venice's most picturesque basilicas has suffered water damage after firefighters doused the basilica while battling a nearby blaze.
30 August '10
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The pair who sold fake prints claiming they were by the graffiti artist have also been banned from selling anything on the internet for five years.
26 August '10
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When Lehman Brothers' collection of "artwork and ephemera" goes under the hammer at Christie's in South Kensington next month, the general public will be given an intriguing insight into the world of corporate art collecting.
27 August '10
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LONDON – Corporations worried about the bottom line are taking a look at their office walls.
26 August '10
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CAIRO – Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered a 1-million Egyptian pound ($175,300) reward for information leading to the recovery of a stolen Van Gogh painting, television reported on Wednesday.
27 August '10
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CAIRO – On Saturday, Vincent van Goghs 1887 still life "Poppy Flowers," valued at more than $50 million, was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. The past three days have seen news of arrests, a false report that the painting had been recovered, and general chaos within Egypt's cultural ranks. Here are the latest updates.
24 August '10
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SAN FRANCISCO – The controversy over Rick Norsigian's trove of alleged Ansel Adams negatives has reached a fever pitch, with the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust filing a lawsuit to stop the sale of merchandise made from the glass plates — and asserting in the process that the Fresno artist is, in fact, a scam artist.
25 August '10
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Can the art fair experience be replicated online? VIP Art Fair aims to try when in launches a special week-long art event January 22 through 30. They've got some big names in on the deal, founding galleries include Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth and White Cube.
23 August '10
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CAIRO — Egypt's top prosecutor says security lapses are to blame for the theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum.
23 August '10
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A painting by Vincent van Gogh valued at £32 million has been stolen from a museum in Egypt.
21 August '10
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MIAMI .- Thieves stole a $550,000 gold bar from a treasure museum where it went on display after a Florida salvager recovered it from the wreck of a Spanish galleon that lay on the ocean floor for centuries, the museum's executive director said.
21 August '10
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BRUGES.- The sculpture "Woman with Drawers" by Salvador Dali, valued at 100,000 euros, was stolen from an exhibition hall in Bruges (NW Belgium), the Belgian press said today.
21 August '10
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