Stop Press

A compilation of media articles on heritage topics. Obviously, these all reflect the viewpoints of the authors.

29 June

• Birthplace of Jesus placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger List
  UN News Centre
  The Church of the Nativity, which sits on a site in Bethlehem that is identified by Christian tradition as the birthplace of Jesus, was inscribed today on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Scientific, Cultural, and Educational Organization (UNESCO), as well as on the list of sites in danger.

• Lebanese heritage campaigners protest over destruction of Phoenician port site
  The National, United Arab Emirates
  Lebanese cultural heritage activists protested in Beirut yesterday against the destruction by a development company of what they believe was an ancient Phoenician port.

• UNESCO lists Mali's Timbuktu, tomb as endangered
  SF Gate, United States
  The United Nations' cultural organization put the besieged city of Timbuktu and the nearby Tomb of Askia on its endangered list Thursday, citing threats to the designated world treasures from ethnic and religious fighting in northern Mali.

28 June

• Ghana needs Cultural Heritage Policy - Archeology Lecturer
  Ghana News Agency
  Dr Wazi Apoh, a Lecturer at the Department of Archeology, University of Ghana, Legon, on Thursday said it was very important for the country to have a Cultural Heritage Policy.

27 June

• Rice terraces in the Philippines preserved
  Telegraph, United Kingdom
  Rice terraces that have been farmed for 2000 years in the Philippines have been taken off the UN list of endangered heritage sites.

26 June

• Why are more of us visiting art galleries?
  BBC, United Kingdom
  Art galleries across England have seen visitor numbers grow steadily in recent years.

• Jackson Pollock's 'Mural' heads to Getty for preservation work
  Los Angeles Times, United States
  The painting, an important work in the artist's development that some state legislators have urged the University of Iowa to sell off, will be at the Getty for 18 months starting in July.

• Famous Leonardo self portrait in critical condition
  Chicago Tribune, United States
  Leonardo da Vinci is sick and no one really knows if he ever will be able to receive visitors again.

• Archaeologists in Greece uncover Roman road
  The Independent, United Kingdom
  Archaeologists in Greece's second-largest city have uncovered a 70-metre section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was city's main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago.

23 June

• What Does An Obscure Japanese Ghost Town Have In Common With Machu Picchu? They’re Both Considered ‘World Heritage’
  International Business Times
  In 1991, the cheery town of Dubrovnik, Croatia, nearly lost a piece of its heritage. Artillery fire from invading Serbian and Montenegrin forces peppered the magnificent Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque buildings for seven months, when 563 of the 824 buildings in Old Town were hit by projectiles, and nearly a dozen others were destroyed by fire.

22 June

• Une nouvelle technique d’imagerie scientifique au service de la restauration des œuvres d’art
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  Une nouvelle méthode de réflectographie infrarouge a été mise au point par une équipe de chercheurs des Universités de l'Aquila, de Vérone et de l'Institut national d'optique de Florence. Le procédé permettrait de détecter des caractéristiques non décelables par les techniques d'imagerie employées jusqu’à présent sur les œuvres en cours de restauration.

• La France renonce à l’inscription « en urgence » de la grotte Chauvet au Patrimoine mondial pour 2012
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  Alors qu’en avril 2012, la France avait demandé l’inscription « en urgence » de la grotte Chauvet, le Comité de l’Unesco, sur les conseils de l’Icomos, « décide de ne pas inscrire [le site] sur la liste du Patrimoine mondial sur la base d’un traitement en urgence ». La France présentera un autre dossier en procédure normale en 2013.

• L'enfant du ghetto, icône mondiale
  Le Figaro, France
  La photo, prise par un SS à Varsovie en 1943, a fait le tour du monde. Le petit garçon est devenu le symbole de la victime.

21 June

• Archaeologists discover mammoth field
  The Australian, Australia
  Archaeologists in Serbia said they have discovered a rare mammoth field containing the remains of at least five of the giant beasts that lived here tens of thousands of years ago.

20 June

• Museum: Fast action may help save Picasso painting
  CBS, United States
  Within minutes of a vandal spray painting a Pablo Picasso painting, Houston museum officials had rushed the valuable artwork into their onsite conservation lab as if it was an injured patient in need of emergency surgery.

19 June

• Prehistoric human skeleton found in Sri Lanka for first time
  Daily News, Sri Lanka
  Excavations at the Pahiyangala cave in Bulathsinhala, Kalutara confirmed that homo sapiens had settled in Sri Lanka 40,000 years ago, Deputy Director of Archaeology Dr Nimal Perera said.

• Archaeologist finds oldest rock art in Australia
  3 News, New Zealand
  An archaeologist says he found the oldest piece of rock art in Australia and one of the oldest in the world: an Aboriginal work created 28,000 years ago in an Outback cave.

17 June

• The Stage On Which Juliet First Called Out For Romeo
  NPR, United States
  Archaeologists have discovered the remains of the Bard's old stomping grounds — ruins of a famous 16th-century theater, buried below the streets of modern London.

15 June

• Brutish? You have to hand it to the Neanderthals after all
  The Independent, United Kingdom
  Cave paintings dated as 15 milliennia older than originally thought, making them Europe's earliest known paintings

13 June

• 'Birthplace of Christ' to be first Palestinian World Heritage site?
  CNN, United States
  Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, venerated by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, could become the first World Heritage site in the Palestinian Territories, following a UNESCO meeting later this month.

• Harappan treasure trove unlocked
  The Times of India
  Not knowing about Lothal or Dholavira can be blasphemous. But you could be pardoned if you haven't heard of Dayabhai no dhoro, Dhrosan timba, Vadhi Vala Khetar, Gorivatano timbo. These are just a few of the 750 Indus Valley civilization sites spread across Gujarat.

• Mekong, Ganges in same boat
  VietNamNet Bridge, Viet Nam
  Climate change threats to the cultural heritage of the Mekong and Ganges basins were discussed at a two-day international conference that ended on Monday in the central city of Hue.

12 June

• China unearths over 100 new terracotta warriors
  The Nation, Pakistan
  Chinese archaeologists have unearthed 110 new terracotta warriors that laid buried for centuries, an official said Monday, part of the famed army built to guard the tomb of China’s first emperor.

• Stone tools that revolutionised study of India's pre-history
  The Hindu, India
  On display at the Government Museum, Chennai, for a few days from June 11 are two stone tools discovered by geologist Robert Bruce Foote in May and September 1863 at the Brigade Ground at Pallavaram, Chennai, and Attirampakkam village in Tiruvallur district.

11 June

• Le bassin minier du Nord-Pas-de-Calais divise les experts de l’Unesco
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  L’Icomos et l’UICN, les deux organes consultatifs pour l’Unesco, ont rendu leurs rapports au sujet du classement du bassin minier du Nord-Pas-de-Calais sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l’humanité au titre de « paysage culture évolutif ». Si l’Icomos y est favorable, l’UICN émet un avis plus critique.

• Trevi Fountain loses pieces from facade
  ANSA, Italy
  Water infiltration from last February's snowfall and spring rains have caused damage to Rome's famous Trevi Fountain that lost several small pieces off its facade over the weekend, Rome councillor Dino Gasperini said.

• In pictures: China's new terracotta warriors
  BBC, United Kingdom
  After three years of excavation, China has unveiled to the media more terracotta warriors and other artefacts at the tombs of Emperor Qin Shihuang.

10 June

• Africa’s museums attract only tourists and elite
  The East African, Kenya
  East Africa is rich in cultural diversity thanks to the huge number of ethnic communities living side by side in its 1.82 million sq km area.

7 June

• Should Cambodian 'blood antiquities' be returned?
  CNN, United States
  The last time most New Yorkers focused on pillaged antiquities from Cambodia was likely after the release of the Angelina Jolie film "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," which featured the heroine's adventures through the country's famous archaeological wonder, Angkor Wat.

• Angola: Official Defends Promotion, Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage
  allAfrica
  The director-general of the National Cultural Heritage Institute (INPC), Ziva Domingos, Thursday, in Luanda, considered necessary for the Ministry of Culture to promote the awareness of the citizen in the safeguarding of cultural heritage.

6 June

• Priceless heritage at risk from extremists
  The Art Newspaper
  Rebel group in control of Timbuktu desecrates venerated tomb and seeks to obliterate thousands of ancient manuscripts

• WikiLoot aims to use crowdsourcing to track down stolen ancient artefacts
  Guardian, United Kingdom
  Man behind WikiLoot hopes crowdsourcing experiment will help to find some of the world's oldest and most valuable treasures.

5 June

• China’s Great Wall Found to Measure More Than 20,000 Kilometers
  Bloomberg, United States
  The first-ever formal measurement of China’s Great Wall has determined that the structure is 21,196 kilometers (13,173 miles) long, the Xinhua News Agency reported today, citing the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

• Conservation Strategy Drafted for Historic Rangoon
  Irrawaddy
  A conference on protecting the iconic colonial-era buildings that hark back to Rangoon’s illustrious past has warned that urgent action is needed to save the city’s century-old heritage.

• 'Vampire' skeletons found in Bulgaria near Black Sea
  BBC, United Kingdom
  Archaeologists in Bulgaria have found two medieval skeletons pierced through the chest with iron rods to supposedly stop them from turning into vampires.

4 June

• Balkan Nations Pledge to Use Cultural Heritage to Boost Ties
  Naharnet, Lebanon
  Eleven southeastern European countries pledged on Sunday at an UNESCO-organized summit in Bosnia to use their religious, cultural and historic heritage to boost ties, the FENA news agency reported.

• Should We Rebuild the Buddhas of Bamiyan?
  Huffington Post, United States
  When you've spent 18 months writing a book called The Buddhas of Bamiyan, and - let's be honest - when you'd quite like to flog a copy or two, all the recent talk about reconstructing one of the colossal statues demolished by the Taliban can seem heaven-sent.

3 June

• Can you love a fake piece of art?
  BBC, United Kingdom
  A court battle is fought over whether a painting is fake, a drawing said to be Warhol is disputed, but is there ever a case for cherishing the fake and the forged?

• Gucci helps in film restoration
  Business World Online, Philippines
  Gucci has extended its commitment to preserving the artistic and cultural heritage of landmark cinema through a 2012 contribution to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation for the restoration of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America (1984).

2 June

• Quakes Deal Irreparable Blow to an Italian Region’s Cultural Heritage
  International Herald Tribune
  With every new quiver here, something crumbles or new cracks appear.

updated on: 2 July, 2012