Friday, September 7, 2018

Rec. #644: Lost, Stolen, Blown Up, and Fed to Pigs




What: With the recent devastation of the fire at the Brazil National Museum, it seems appropriate for a brief meditation on loss and what happens when we build a culture on whatever's left. (Not even getting into the many issues about what any given society has selected to keep.)

As the title suggests, this piece from The Guardian looks at several specific artworks that we no longer have access to --- for various reasons.

Representative quote: "Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece holds the dubious distinction of being the most-stolen artwork in history. The object of 13 crimes over six centuries, it has been burgled, all or in part, six times."

How to get it: "Lost, Stolen, Blown Up, and Fed to Pigs" was published in The Guardian this past May. Its author, Noah Charney, also has a book on the topic titled The Museum of Lost Art.

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