ArtCurious News This Week: February 10, 2023
Hello and how are you, ArtCurious listeners! Jennifer here with your short-form news roundup meant to bring you up to date on some of the latest goings-on in the realm of art history. This is ArtCurious News this Week and I’m ready to roll. Today is Friday, February 10, 2023.
This week’s stories:
The Art Newspaper: Huge earthquakes in Turkey and Syria devastate heritage sites including 2,000-year-old castle
The Art Newspaper: Artefacts in Swiss museums were looted from the Kingdom of Benin, new report says
The New York Times: Is Nazi Loot Amid His 6,000 Oils, Some Grenades and Napoleon’s Toothbrush?
ArtNews: Hobbyist Finds Renaissance-Era Pendant Connected to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
AP News: Visitors can see famed Florence baptistry’s mosaics up close
AP News: Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum hosts blockbuster Vermeer exhibition
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Episode Transcript
Hello and how are you, ArtCurious listeners! Jennifer here with your short-form news roundup meant to bring you up to date on some of the latest goings-on in the realm of art history. This is ArtCurious News This Week and I’m ready to roll. Today is Friday, February 10, 2023.
For today’s first story, we’re heading back to Monday morning. Like many of you, I awoke that day to learn about the devastating earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria that has killed at least 17,000 people as of this recording, and thousands more are injured. Those numbers are estimated to increase drastically over the coming days. The quake, too, and the aftershocks and secondary quakes that followed, not only damaged other humans, but also many buildings and works of cultural importance. As the days pass, we will most likely learn of the extent of the historical and cultural devastation, but for now, we know that a couple of major structures have been reduced to rubble. First is Gaziantep Castle, a site in Southeastern Turkey that has a long history spanning back to the Roman era, around the 2nd or 3rd century CE, and was expanded into the huge battlements during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 5th century C.E. Part of a historic mosque from the 17th century, right next door to the Castle, was also destroyed. And the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the city of Iskenderun, built originally in the mid-19th century and reconstructed around 1900, has almost completely collapsed. The loss of human life is the most awful and terrible part of this story, but it’s always helpful to remember that when disasters—or war—strike, we not only can lose the ones we love in the process, but sometimes we can lose integral parts of our history and our artistic creations.
Next up. It’s the latest report in the ongoing fights for artwork repatriation. A report was released earlier in the past week from an organization called the Swiss Benin Initiative that noted that at least 21 works have been identified in Swiss collections as ones that were part of that huge British army plunder from Benin City in 1897. These 21 objects are out of a total of 96 Benin items scattered throughout 8 different museums in Switzerland, and as such, make up 22% of the Benin collection therein. An additional 34% of the collection is noted as “probably looted,” though reps from the Swiss Benin Initiative say that they do not have specific documentation linking them to the original raid, though their certainty is rather high. This is all good news, because again, the more that this is announced to the world and to the public, the more pressure it extends in both public and private collections to return works to their rightful locations and owners. Coincidentally, I learned this week of another Swiss organization funded by the daughter of the late collector Bruno Stefanini will be working independently to review thousands upon thousands of items to verify whether or not any of the items in his collection were specifically stolen from Jewish collections during World War II. Stefanini died in 2018, and his daughter Bettina is setting an excellent example of someone being so very proactive in putting together an independent panel of provenance researchers, art historians, lawyers, and more to confirm the histories of over 100,000 objects—at least 6,000 of which are paintings—that made up her father’s collection. The initiative began last year and any works with iffy ownership histories or gaps in background and documentation will be closely reviewed by the committee, who will then report their conclusions and move forward to make the necessary changes and repatriations. As Stefanini said in an article published this week by the New York Times, quote, “You have a bigger moral obligation to do things right if you can afford it.” Unquote. She then said even more pointedly, quote, “We want to be courageous and talk about things that are not talked about,” she said. “If we push the themes of provenance and ownership, then we strengthen that discourse around museums.” Unquote. I love that. She doesn’t mince words, this Bettina.
Let’s take a brief break before we get back to more ArtCurious News This Week. If you like this show, would you please consider buying me a cup of coffee as a way to say thanks? For the price of a latte, just $4 a month, you can listen to ArtCurious from here on out, ad-free. Learn more and join now at patreon.com/artcurious. A thank you and welcome aboard to my latest patrons, Ellen B. and Anne G. Thanks so much for the coffee, you two—I so appreciate it! Big ongoing thanks, as always, to my VIP patrons Flamestress, Gaston, Stephanie, John, JL, Rhonda, Lance, and Robin. You guys are like Michelangelo’s David-- perfection. Want your name read here every week? Become a VIP for just $25 a month—and know that you’re helping us so, so much. We’ll be right back. Thanks for listening!
Welcome back to ArtCurious, and our News this Week. For our last round of stories today, I’ve got a couple of finds, some updates for art-related travel opportunities, and more. First up: a man in England went on a stroll on his property with a metal detector and made an incredible discovery: a heart shaped golden pendant with symbols connected with Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. It has been authenticated by outside sources, including an expert quoted as being so stunned by the discovery that she was, quote, “shaking when she held it, her jaw was on the floor,” unquote. A curator at the British Museum noted that it might have been a prize for a jousting tournament, since it looks, quote, “hastily crafted,” unquote. But it’s still a really cool find, and a particularly rare one, as, according to ArtNews, items from this period—especially ones connected to Catherine of Aragon—are rare. Neat, right?
Next up: great news for travelers to Florence—not only now, but for at least part of the upcoming six years. Right now, the Baptistry of San Giovanni—right in the center of town and as famous as the Duomo, the cathedral in the same square—is undergoing restoration and cleaning, and rather than opting to close off the vault of the Baptistry during this time-consuming process, they are actually going to offer use of the scaffolding that will be used by art restorers so that small groups of people can see the ceiling’s famed mosaics up close and personal. The mosaic viewing will be available as a special “scaffolding tour” and start at the end of this month, February 2023, and they must be reserved in advance, so if you’re heading to Florence, be sure to look this up. And being that this is the first restoration project in the Baptistry in over a century, this is sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
And finally, speaking of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, the huge Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum—the biggest show of the master’s in history—opens to the public TODAY, and it will stay on view through June 4. I’ve urged you in recent episodes of ArtCurious News This Week to check out this show in Amsterdam if you are able, but if you haven’t already bought your tickets, you’re going to want to rectify that immediately. According to data the Rijksmuseum released to the Associated Press, they have already sold over 200,000 tickets to the show, making it one of the biggest in the museum’s history, and they are holding extended hours as an attempt to keep up with visitor demand. So go if you are able—but visit the museum’s website NOW to reserve your spot, lest you be sadly disappointed.
Alright folks, that’s all I have for you today. Thank you so much for listening to ArtCurious News This Week! There’s another bonus episode coming up for you next week, and then more ArtCurious news next Friday. In the meantime, as usual, I’d like to thank you all for your support and for listening today—and until next time, stay curious.
