Tag: News

LONDON.- The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 RIBA Awards. RIBA Awards for architectural excellence will be presented to 102 buildings in the UK and Europe (93 in the UK and nine in the rest of the EU). The award-winning buildings range from a small circular loo for bus drivers in London to the Neues Museum in Berlin, from a zero-carbon house to the energy substation for the 2012 Olympics. The high arts have done well with galleries, museums, theatres and auditoriums winning many awards (including the Ashmolean Musuem, Nottingham Contemporary and Aldeburgh Music Campus). Education buildings have also flourished with 17 of the 93 UK awards going to schools and universities. Another feature of the RIBA Awards this year are public spaces – pavilions, monuments, Liverpool Pierhead and the Infinity Bridge in Teesdale have all picked up an award. Amongst the architects th

PARIS (AP).- A broken alarm system made it as easy as 1-2-3: A masked intruder clipped a padlock, smashed a window and stole a Picasso, a Matisse and three other masterpieces from a Paris museum Thursday — a $123 million haul that is one of the world’s biggest art heists. Offloading the artwork may prove a tougher task, however, with Interpol and collectors worldwide now on high alert. In what seemed like an art thief’s fantasy, the alarm system had been broken since March in parts of the Paris Museum of Modern Art, according to the city’s mayor, Bertrand Delanoe. The museum, in a tony neighborhood across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, reopened in 2006 after spending $18 million (euro15 million) and two years upgrading its security system. Spare parts had been ordered to fix the alarm but had not yet arrived, the mayor said in a statement. So with no alarm to worry about, a lone masked intruder entered the museum about 3:50 a.m., said Christophe Girard, deputy cultu

PARIS (AP).- A lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said Thursday. The paintings disappeared early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital’s most tourist-frequented neighborhoods. The museum’s security system was disabled, and a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera, according to Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall. Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. He said three guards were on duty overnight but “they saw nothing.” The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor’s office initially estim

MADRID.- The Archaeological Team of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum in Xi’an, 2010 Prince of Asturias Award Laureate for Social Sciences. The Jury for the Award announced its decision today in Oviedo. Considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th Century, the site of the terracotta warriors, also known as the warriors of Xi´an, is a rich source of information about the Chinese civilization. The nomination was put forward by Carlos Blasco Villa, Ambassador of Spain in China. The Terracotta Army is part of the mausoleum of Qinshihuang (221-207 B.C.), the first emperor to unify China and found the Qin Dynasty. It was discovered in 1974 and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. Its discovery has had a major impact on research

PARIS (AP).- A lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said Thursday. The paintings disappeared early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital’s most tourist-frequented neighborhoods. The museum’s security system was disabled, and a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera, according to Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall. Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. He said three guards were on duty overnight but “they saw nothing.” The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor’s office initially estim

LONDON.- The auction of ‘Fine Paperweights from the collection of the late Baroness de Bellet’ held this afternoon (19 May 2010) at Bonhams, New Bond Street made an outstanding £574,080 with 95% sold by value. Bidders in the UK were competing against other interested parties in the USA, Europe and Israel. The top lot of the day was a fine and rare Clichy double paperweight c.1850 which sold for £67,200 against a pre-sale estimate £6,000-8,000. French paperweights were highly sought after in the saleroom with a rare Clichy convolvulus example selling for £28,800 (£3,500-4,500), and a Clichy stylised bouquet paperweight fetching £12,600 (£6,000-8,000). Collected in America, London and more recently held in Switzerland, the group spans three generations of a family of collectors and contained many beautiful floral and millefiori designs of outstanding beauty and exquisite detail. The Baroness’ grandfather, Frederick

NEW YORK, NY.- Priska C. Juschka presents Romain Bernini’s first solo exhibition in the United States. His beautifully haunting paintings reflect a state of entropy, Robert Smithson’s idea of the ruins — a dystopian sociological landscape born of the debris of post modern societies, disillusioned with the merits of industrialism and the idea of a utopian state. His paintings encompass a range of ambiguities, drawing their audience into a foreboding landscape, simultaneously hovering between the familiar and the unknown, the intentional and accidental, between action and paralysis. The viewer finds oneself at times alone in a post-apocalyptic environment or with other individuals, migrants and immigrants aimlessly or aggressively overcoming the artificial boundaries of contemporary civilizations. Bernini’s figureless landscapes become enigmatic reminders of what their inhabitants leave behind, tre

NEW YORK, NY.- The Gabarron Foundation in New York presents Spanish artist Javier Riaño (Bilbao, 1959), whose works will be shown from May 19 to July 15. This series reflects the interests that the artist has developed in recent years. Javier Riaño emerged from the artistic context of the Basque Country during the 1980s, into a stream of artists who were then developing realistic figurative work; this sometimes led to the hyper-touch, and made the ruins of industrial architecture and the dark alleys of Bilbao the main focus of his work. The emphasis on architecture, found in his first series, soon became a recurring theme. As a result, the artist’s creative streak has exploded in the last five years. Riaño’s most recent works, which will be shown at the Gabarrón Foundation, continue the themes he had developed in the eighties and early nineties. Unlike the city, no excessive images overload the retina. Thus, rega

VENICE, CA.- With public awareness of America’s health care crisis at an all-time high, the largest free clinic in the country, Venice Family Clinic, announces the line-up for its Venice Art Walk & Auctions event series, May 22 and 23, 2010. The centerpiece is the Venice Art Walk & Auctions itself – which the Los Angeles Times calls “the granddaddy of them all” – featuring more than 50 artists’ studios and special exhibits, as well as a 400-piece silent art auction. It is complemented by three brand-new, separately ticketed Art & Architecture Tours – one exploring Rustic Canyon, another focused on architects’ own homes in Venice and Santa Monica, and a third wending its way through Venice’s famous walk streets and canals. All proceeds benefit Venice Family Clinic’s free health care services for the low-income uninsured, making this the feel-good, and feel-better, event of