By the end of the war, 26,984 freight cars of artworks from French collections had left Paris, their contents destined for temporary storage in mines in Germany and Austria. - The Wall Street Journal
"Taking a stand in the national debate on banning sexually explicit books from school libraries, Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed a law that will dictate how school boards in New Jersey will evaluate sensitive and controversial materials and protect librarians from legal challenges." - NJ.com
"Archeologists have discovered what they believe to be the tomb of Saint Nicholas, the (third-century) philanthropic Greek bishop and inspiration behind Santa Claus. The six-foot-long limestone sarcophagus was found within the two-story annex of St. Nicholas Church in Demre, Antalya, Turkey, long considered the final resting place of the Saint. - Euronews
Just a day before the catastrophic 2017 blaze that nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, a smaller fire broke out in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Neither organ suffered major damage, but both had toxic dust fill their thousands of pipes — and both are now resounding once more. - The New York...
As usual, the annual index lists the top 20 large cities, top 10 medium-sized and top 10 small communities. Because the numbers crunched are per-capita figures and are adjusted for cost of living, some individual rankings might be surprising (e.g., Minneapolis-St. Paul and Nashville ahead of Chicago and Los Angeles). - SMU DataArts
Just seven years after two major donations doubled the size of the museum's Old Dutch/Flemish holdings, a group of works is headed to Christie's. Said the chief curator of paintings, "Our (review) revealed that some pictures were similar to, even duplicative of, other works by the same artists at the MFA." - Artnet
That's the annual gala opening the season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, which (by long tradition) happens on December 7. And there are always major celebrities and politicians, fabulous clothes, demonstrators for a variety of causes, and a big media circus. Oh, and superstitions. - The New York Times
Next month, LAMDA (London Academy of Musical and Dramatic Art) will open a location in midtown Manhattan with both office and flexible studio space. While there won't be full courses there, LAMDA will offer a set of short courses and masterclasses as well as New York auditions for its London program. - BroadwayWorld
Luis May Ku, a native Mayan artist and teacher in the Yucatán Peninsula, spent years researching Spanish colonial documents, interviewing village elders about their traditional methods, and experimenting with recipes in order to recreate Maya blue, an ancient synthetic pigment which is unusually durable. - Al Jazeera
Stardust is the latest in a niche genre of films about architects made by their children. The punishing profession is clearly something that inspires both a kind of filial awe and morbid curiosity, if you’re forced to grow up immersed in it. Each film seems to ask: ‘Why did my parents do this to themselves?’ - The Guardian
The version we see today is about half the length of Ailey's 1960 original; nine songs were removed for an overseas tour in 1962, and the cuts have stuck. But interim artistic director Matthew Rushing and composer Du’Bois A’Keen have reimagined those missing scenes for a piece titled Sacred Songs. - Dance Magazine
This year, the biggest categories for YouTube were sports and children’s entertainment. Watch time for sports content grew 30% year-over-year, according to the company, which did not give the exact watch times for either 2023 or 2024. - The Wrap
The broadcaster has undergone a series of radical transformations, often referred to using the shorthand TeleMeloni. A monologue in which the writer Antonio Scurati was set to criticize Italy’s “post-fascist” leaders for failing to repudiate their neofascist origins was canceled. - Columbia Journalism Review
Data found that during the 29 dates the initial €5 access fee was in force in 2024, Venice received on average 7,000 more visitors compared to the same days of the previous year. With a population of fewer than 50,000 residents, the city receives around 40,000 tourists a day. - The Art Newspaper
The artistic director of the Montreal-based troupe Le Patin Libre ("free skate") stresses that audiences shouldn't expect anything like Merce Cunningham or Pina Bausch or Alvin Ailey but in an ice rink. Yet their work is to conventional figure skating something like what contemporary dance is to ballet. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
