Stop Press

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

27 October

• Celtic sacrifices confirmed at famed ancient site
  USA Today, United States
  Ancient Celts practiced startling ritual murder practices, decorating sacrifice sites with ghoulish entanglements of human bones, most likely as a warning to foes and the folks they ruled.

26 October

• Sisma nel Pollino, Ministero dei Beni culturali: attivata l’unità di crisi
  Reggio TV, Italy
  A seguito del sisma che ha colpito il territorio compreso tra le province di Potenza e Cosenza, nella zona del massiccio del Pollino, il segretario generale del ministero per i Beni e le attività culturali, Antonia Pasqua Recchia, ha immediatamente chiesto l’attivazione delle unità di crisi - coordinamento regionale (Uccr), presso le competenti direzioni regionali della Calabria e della Basilicata, per la necessaria cooperazione con le strutture di protezione civile, dei vigili del fuoco e dei carabinieri per la tutela patrimonio culturale.

• Looters Strip Bulgaria of Ancient Treasures
  Time, United States
  On the banks of the Danube, in the northwest corner of Bulgaria, lie the remnants of an ancient Roman settlement called Ratiaria, host to a priceless cultural heritage.

• Rescued From Saudi Sands
  Wall Street Journal, United States
  In archaeology, Saudi Arabia has been something of a slow starter, but a Washington exhibition of more than 200 statues, funerary objects and other relics shows that the study of the region's past has come of age.

• Iconic Gone With The Wind dresses restored
  The Telegraph, United Kingdom
  Two of the iconic gowns worn by Vivien Leigh in 'Gone With The Wind' have been restored to their former glory thanks to a $30,000 conservation effort by the Harry Ransom Centre at the University of Texas.

25 October

• U.S. returns more than 4,000 stolen antiquities to Mexico
  Los Angeles Times, United States
  U.S. officials Thursday returned more than 4,000 pieces of stolen and looted pre-Columbian art and artifacts to the Mexican government, the result of 11 investigations. 

24 October

• China building first vessel for underwater archaeology
  Xinhuanet, China
  China plans to build its first vessel capable of retrieving archaeological findings from the sea by the end of 2013, a major step to strengthening the underwater search abilities of Chinese archaeologists who currently rely on rented shipping boats.

23 October

• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology unwraps mystery of mummy conservation
  Art Daily
  The Penn Museum is unwrapping the mystery of mummy conservation, giving the public an unusual close-up of researchers' efforts to preserve relics from ancient Egypt.

• From Samba to carnival: Brazil's thriving African culture
  CNN, United States
  From samba and carnival to food, music and religion, African culture is everywhere in Brazil.

• Cambodia Vs. Sotheby's In A Battle Over Antiquities
  WNYC Radio, United States
  The governments of Cambodia and the United States are locked in a legal battle with the auction house Sotheby's over a thousand-year-old statue.

20 October

• Mummies featured on altar of the dead in Mexico City museum
  Fox News Latino, United States
  Large-format photos of 12 bodies mummified 300 years ago and preserved today in the Mexican capital's El Carmen Museum are being featured on an altar commemorating this year's Day of the Dead celebration on Nov. 1, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said Saturday.

19 October

• Underwater Cultural Heritage; need to ensure effective protection
  Daily News, Sri Lanka
  Over the last century, archaeological sites on land all over the world have received much attention as source of information on history of human civilizations.

• Museum Defends Its Security After Theft
  New York Times, United States
  In the aftermath of the theft of seven valuable artworks, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam on Friday denied accusations of sloppy security instead of celebrating its 20th anniversary as a museum designed with open and flexible architecture.

• Heritage site in Tripoli under threat
  Daily Star, Lebanon
  The architecture in Tripoli’s dense old city tells of its past: Mamluk and Ottoman structures sit next to each other, some on top of Roman ruins.

• LED lights help museum save energy, preserve items
  San Francisco Chronicle, United States
  A spectacular collection of original oil paintings by emeritus Indiana University art professor Barry Gealt is on display in the IU Art Museum's Special Exhibitions Gallery, along with exhibits of baby carriers from China's minority groups and German expressionism.

18 October

• Petra’s heritage status on the line as conservation requirements not met
  Jordan Times
  Petra faces the risk of being placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger if Jordan does not meet the World Heritage Centre requisites to preserve the site, officials have warned.

17 October

• Invest in national heritage sites to promote tourism
  Daily Mail, Zambia
  Zambia is among African countries which have some remarkable heritage sites such as waterfalls, sacred forests, lakes, mountains, caves, rock shelters, islands and other earth structures of amazing nature.

16 October

• Big art heist at Dutch museum
  USA Today, United States
  Thieves broke into a Rotterdam museum on Tuesday and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions.

15 October

• Umayyad Mosque, UNESCO World Heritage Site In Aleppo, Burned In Syrian War
  Huffington Post, United States
  A landmark mosque in Aleppo was burned, scarred by bullets and trashed – the latest casualty of Syria's civil war – and President Bashar Assad on Monday ordered immediate repairs to try to stem Muslim outrage at the desecration of the 12th century site.

• Do-it-yourself? Just don't...
  The Art Newspaper
  A Spanish grandmother's handiwork hit the headlines, but Ajax and rainstorms have contributed to other amateur disasters.

12 October

• Valuing culture key to sustainability
  Viet Nam News
  To achieve self-sustaining community development, Viet Nam must renew local residents' understanding of the value of its culture, according to Ando Katsuhiro, a tourism expert from Japan's International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

• Scientists find spot where Caesar died
  Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
  Archaeologists said on Oct 10 they believe they have found the exact spot in Rome where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on March 15, 44 BC.

11 October

• UNESCO chief says U.S. funding cuts "crippling" organization
  Reuters
  UNESCO is in its "worst ever financial situation" after its biggest contributor the United States froze funding last year, the director general of the United Nations' cultural agency said on Thursday.

10 October

• Who Wants to Be a Curator?
  New York Times, United States
  In the competitive world of blockbuster exhibitions and with a global art market that is showing few signs of slowing, curators like Hans Ulrich Obrist of the Serpentine in London, Okwui Enwezor of Haus der Kunst in Munich and Massimiliano Gioni of the New Museum in New York have become star names, whose curatorial choices can ensure a museum’s critical and financial success.

8 October

• 'Two years needed' to fix botched Leonardo restoration
  ANSA, Italy
  Restorers say they will need two years to undo botched efforts of the past on Leonardo da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi at Florence's Uffizi Gallery.

• Mark Rothko painting at Tate Modern defaced
  BBC, United Kingdom
  A painting by artist Mark Rothko at the Tate Modern has been defaced by a small amount of black paint.

• Rothko vandalism: why are the greatest works attacked?
  Guardian, United Kingdom
  From Rothko to Michelangelo and Rembrandt, it seems to be the most powerful works of art that draw the vandals

• Fermeture définitive du Musée national de Bosnie
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  Le mot a été scandé à maintes reprises lors de la manifestation de plus d’un millier de personnes qui s’étaient réunis pour protester contre la fermeture définitive du Musée national de Bosnie.

• Star Wars palace facing ruin
  The Telegraph, United Kingdom
  Italian heritage officials have raised the alarm over the deteriorating state of a palace which has featured in a number of Hollywood films, including Star Wars, after pieces of falling masonry nearly struck a group of tourists.

• Des Français découvrent la plus ancienne barque d'Égypte
  Le Figaro, France
  L'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire signe une découverte majeure pour la connaissance des débuts de la civilisation pharaonique.

6 October

• Archaeologists say that Mayas built watchtower-style structures atop ball court to observe sky
  Art Daily
  After almost two years’ restoration and integral conservation work, the Great Ball Game of Chichen Itza, the biggest in Mesoamerica, gradually recovered its original form with the reestablishment of a small staircase in the rear part of the ball court and the five passages the Mayan had built over the principal structures, these were also used to observe the path of the sun during the equinoxes and the solstices.

• Archaeologists find queen tomb in Guatemala; could redefine the understanding of women's roles
  Art Daily
  The discovery of a tomb that experts believe might be that of a great Maya queen could redefine the understanding of women's political roles during the Classic Maya period, experts said Thursday.

• Scrolls under threat
  The Economist, United Kingdom
  It may seem odd that Timbuktu, the Malian city on the south-west fringe of the Sahara desert, is twinned with Hay-on-Wye, a placid little town on the Welsh side of the border with England. The reason for this partnership is books.

5 October

• Le squelette de Mona Lisa finalement exhumé par des archéologues italiens?
  Le Huffington Post, France
  Et si le crâne de Mona Lisa avait été exhumé? C'est la théorie de plusieurs spécialistes à la recherche de l'hypothétique modèle de Léonard de Vinci pour la Joconde.

• Mammoth carcass found in Siberia
  BBC, United Kingdom
  A well-preserved mammoth carcass has been found by an 11-year-old boy in the permafrost of northern Siberia.

• Syria: Cultural vandalism leaves us all a little poorer
  The Telegraph, United Kingdom
  You don’t need to have been to Aleppo to know that the razing of its souk is a calamity.

4 October

• Bosnia’s National Museum closes after 124 years ; the victim of ethnic funding disputes
  Washington Post, United States
  It survived the breakup of the Austrian empire, two world wars, the longest city siege in modern history and a bloody war in the 1990s that killed 100,000 people. Yet after 124 years, Bosnia’s National Museum closed its doors Thursday due to dwindling state funding and disputes among rival ethnic groups.

• Pakistan struggles with smuggled Buddhist relics
  CBS News, United States
  Lacking the necessary cash and manpower, Pakistan is struggling to stem the flow of millions of dollars in ancient Buddhist artifacts that looters dig up in the country's northwest and smuggle to collectors around the world.

3 October

• Aleppo, and Arab history, is burning
  The National, United Arab Emirates
  With the high toll in lives paid to Syria's civil war, the burning of Aleppo's ancient souq was treated as a side issue. But destruction of the old city is a crippling blow to living history. And as one expert says, if you fire a gun at history, you fire a cannon at the future.

2 October

• 35,000-Year-Old Ivory Workshop Unearthed in Germany
  Sci-News, United States
  Archaeologists excavating the mammoth hunting site of Breitenbach in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, have discovered what they say is the oldest ivory workshop ever found.

1 October

• Fire devours Aleppo ancient souk
  Middle East Online
  A huge plume of black smoke billowed over Aleppo's ancient market quarter on Sunday as fire devoured the wares and wooden fittings of the historic souk of Syria's commercial capital.

• Italy opens world's first gelato culture museum
  Reuters
  ForbesWho knows what Cosimo Ruggieri would have thought about ending up in a gelato museum? Alchemist at the court of the Medici, Ruggieri, the story goes, created the ice-cream that Catherine De Medici took to Paris in the 1530s to wow the French.

• Experts meet to discuss Maya calendar, debunk end-of-world stories
  Fox News, United States
  As the clock winds down to Dec. 21, experts on the Mayan calendar have been racing to convince people that the Mayas didn't predict an apocalypse for the end of this year.

• Vietnam dives into underwater heritage
  Radio Australia
  A joint project by Australian and Vietnamese researchers is aiming to uncover and preserve the underwater heritage of Vietnam.

updated on: 31 October, 2012