Thursday, 15th January 2009
Dealer Arrested Over Alleged Smuggling Of Egyptian Artifacts (Bulgaria)
A wanted Lebanese antiquities dealer has been arrested in Bulgaria over accusations he stole ancient Egyptian artifacts and slipped them out of the country in recent years, Egypt's Culture Ministry said on Thursday.
Reuters
Vladimir Putin, Art Prodigy (Russia)
Vladimir Putin, Russia's macho prime minister, has given his people a glimpse of his sensitive side by painting a delicate water colour. Keen to burnish his legend of virility, Russia's political mandarins have released images of Mr Putin pursuing a range of manly interests. He has been shown as a consummate horseman, a bare-chested hunter and fisherman (acquiring gay icon status in the process), a skillful skier and, when pictured at the helm of a fighter jet, a noble warrior leader.
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
An Art Critic Appraises Putin's Work (Russia)
Notice the confidence with which those curtains are drawn - how with each long stroke Putin never loses contact with the canvas until his loaded brush is dry. There isn't a wasted or unnecessary brushstroke and nothing childish or naïve about this picture.
Putin gives us all the information we need but nothing more.
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Architecture Revival in Coventry (Coventry, UK)
Nearly 70 years on, resurrection is still on the agenda here. This time it's called urban regeneration, in a metropolis where postwar experiments in city planning produced Britain's first shopping precinct, and the infamously hazardous switchback ride otherwise known as the inner ring road. The opening of the new £11.5m extension to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, designed by architects Pringle Richards Sharratt, is the latest chapter in the transformation of key sites in the city centre.
The Independent (UK)
London Auctions To Be A Shadow Of Their 2008 Selves (London, UK)
Works by Lucio Fontana, Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons will fail to lift the total estimate of London's contemporary-art sales next month above a quarter of 2008's level. The evening auctions by Sotheby's, Christie's International and Phillips de Pury carry a total low estimate of 38.4 million pounds ($55.9 million), according to Bloomberg calculations. This is 23 percent of the 164.3 million pounds in equivalent sales estimates in 2008.
Bloomberg
In Australia, New Legal Protection For Aboriginal Artists (Australia)
Australia has launched a draft code regulating the sale of Aboriginal art, worth as much as A$500 million ($330 million) per year. It aims to outlaw so-called carpetbagging, when dealers exploit artists and buy their work cheaply for alcohol or drugs. Australia has launched a draft code regulating the sale of Aboriginal art, worth as much as A$500 million ($330 million) per year. It aims to outlaw so-called carpetbagging, when dealers exploit artists and buy their work cheaply for alcohol or drugs.
Bloomberg
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