5 yard penalty for punning
Oh come on, that was pretty punny. She's just trying to have a little pun, at no-one's expense.
So, where are we, third down?
"Going from art to politics It's impossible, it's Kafka, it's like changing sex. "
I say that going from politics to art is like changing species.
Although there are some famous amateur art thefts ("Mona Lisa," for one), generally such thieves are fairly well-educated--at least when it comes to their target. Either professional thieves are dumbing down (or further down!), or these Munch-stealers were lowly hired hands, who didn't know the difference between a real work and an inexpensive copy. I like to imagine their turning over these "Munchs" to a boss who didn't realize that the originals had been recently placed in safe keeping. Who's the dumber?
Does anyone know the local laws about theft and intent that might come into play with this case? As the thieves' intent (and belief) was the taking of works extremely valuable, will they be liable for a European version of grand theft? I hope so. If people keep stealing paintings, we may all end up having to try to view them through that very-pale-yellow bulletproof glass.
There is the football rule: when in doubt, pun.
or, as the case may be, punt..
Ghastly thought, Miklos. I should think that when thieves THINK they are commiting a felony but it is, in fact, a misdemeanor, they should, at the very least, be charged with an INTENDED/ATTEMPTED felony (something parallel to an intended/attempted homicide).
Of course not on third down..
On protective glass, seeing more of it would be annoying.
I remember seeing a polyptych at the museum in Arezzo.. as you approached it, at some invisible line like two meters away, a loud speaker told you to move back. Yikes.
That does seem to violate the entire spirit of art. I do not want art works to be stolen, but it does seem that such draconian protections reflect a spirit of art comidification. The art work's market value is more essential than is its power to provide the public with the experience of aesthetic rapture.
I'm trying to remember - the loudspeaker voice must have been speaking italian. The tone was ferocious enough that one got the idea....
There was a national museum in Perugia that had a big room with many fine works of art displayed... on what looked like chain link fencing. Well, the partitions were very reminiscent of fencing material. Among the items in the room was a Raphael painting and a Fra Angelico triptych... you could get right up close to them. Well, that was then, which was 1993, it might have changed by now. With the triptych it was good to be able to get near it, as well as to be able to stand back and see the whole.
I admit that at the Arezzo museum the piece was the major item in the room and it looked great from several feet away, and if there had been a crowd near it, it would have diminished the experience. The tripping of the warning, however obnoxious, was preferable to a glass barrier, for me.
I've not had the experience of big crowds looking at paintings in Italian museums because of sheer luck, something to do with timing of the trips I think. In San Francisco, I've been in the SFMuseum of Contemporary Art when it was like being in a sardine can trying to look at the tin sides...
I had that experience at a Diego Rivera show at the L.A. Art Museum on Whilshre Blvd, but it was my fault because I went on the "freebie" day. Never again!
That would have been tough. I think Rivera works read from a distance if noone is blocking the view.
When I was an undergraduate I had a summer internship in Britain which placed me in several museum that summer one of which was what is now part of the NAtional Museum of Scotland. The was in the late Iron Age in northern Europe a form of jewlerey called a Lunar Necklace. A sheet of beaten gold shaped like a quarter moon. It was probably worn by a Chief or other elite personage. There is a particularly famous one, that was pictured and described in a number of books I had read, and it was in that museum. One day a curator wanted to show me an artifact that was in the same case as that necklace. He unlocked the case and to get at the other artifact he had to move the necklace...so he handed it to me and said "hold this". The shock of holding that piece of art was almost electric. I have never forgotten that experience and that is why I'm still in this poorly paid profession.
