“Boxes of material deposited at the British Library and seen by The Times contain dozens of unused script ideas, including two sketches written for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” (The early scripts had far more material than could fit in a feature film.) “One is about a Wild West bookshop and another features an amorous Pink Knight.” (includes transcripts of sketches)
“A federal appeals court has confirmed a lower court’s ruling that two contested 16th-century oil-on-panel paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder will not be returned to the heir of the legendary Dutch Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker … The July 30th ruling seems to put an end to an 11-year court battle over the Nazi-looted artworks, and means that they will stay in California at the Norton Simon Museum, on view to the public.”
“After months of turmoil, including the firing of its chief curator and the announced departure of its current director, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has chosen its next director: Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and director of its experimental satellite space, MoMA PS1.” (Biesenbach’s career at MOMA has not been without controversy of its own.)
“Te reo is undergoing a revival in New Zealand, with jam-packed classes and waiting lists now common. Māori language teachers from Auckland in the North Island to Dunedin and Invercargill in the South say they are unable to meet demand for their services and free classes routinely draw hundreds of students.”
Two thieves entered the cathedral in Strängnäs, west of Stockholm, around midday on Monday, broke into a glass display case, grabbed two crowns, an orb, and a cross, ran to a waiting motorboat in a lake, and fled. The jewels were part of the funeral regalia of the early 17th-century monarch Karl IX (son of Gustav Vasa) and his wife, Kristina.
There are roughly 15,000 buildings in the old imperial capital that date from before the Russian Revolution, and many of them are in, frankly, terrible repair. But, one by one, the old landmarks are being renovated and repurposed by groups (formal and informal) of artists, who are turning them into galleries, performances spaces, reading rooms, and spaces for creative businesses.
When Egarr departs after the 2021-22 season, he will have been in the post – he succeeded founder Christopher Hogwood – for 15 years. The AAM, London’s oldest Baroque orchestra, has made more than 300 recordings: among its many landmarks were the first period-instrument discs of Handel’s Messiah and the complete Mozart symphonies.
The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “left intact Rule Two, the one that established that a film” — in...
