Category Archives: International

Monuments Men: Is Art Worth Dying For?
Art / Cultural Heritage / International

Monuments Men: Is Art Worth Dying For?

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Art exposes the best and most fragile qualities of man in the very moment of war. The nexus to choose between humanity and visceral destruction beyond death, ruination. Leaders and individuals have the choice to save art, steal art or simply shatter art beyond identity.

Robert Edsel, author of Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasurers from the Nazis and Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (George Cluny film of the same name) is the clarion in the dark recognizing and honoring the men and women who served in the Allied forces during World War II to preserve and protect European cultural treasurers.
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Exquisite Naive Art for the Heart and Soul at GINA Gallery
Art / International / Leaders & People

Exquisite Naive Art for the Heart and Soul at GINA Gallery

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GINA Gallery in the heart of Tel Aviv radiates the warmth, joy of enchanting naive art from around the world. Rich verdant landscapes, brilliant ruby red accents and gentle earth tones entice the viewer in to experience a world of dreams, magic and universal treasures of the soul.

Dan Chill, founder of GINA, represents more than 200 artists from more than 33 countries. He expertly weaves together into one portfolio the best of modern naive art known today, art with brilliant jeweled colors, exquisite skill and the core essence of the best of humanity. Chill is discovering each artist, each story, with an intrepidness only a bold visionary would ever dare consider. Continue reading →

Santo Spada: Maestro of Couture, Beauty, Elegance and Sensuality
Art / Innovation / International / Leaders & People / Paris

Santo Spada: Maestro of Couture, Beauty, Elegance and Sensuality

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Santo Spada, a maestro of couture, magically transforms women into their own presence of beauty, elegance and sensuality. With the senses engaged, Spada illuminates the delicate relationship between the contours of a woman and the energy of her movements highlighted by silks and cashmere. His masterpieces are now in two collections with cascading sheers hiding or revealing the curve of the small of the back, a thigh as though gently allowing the beautiful spirit to emerge on her own terms, her own way, her own style.

Spada engages the ethereal and the physical through his haute couture in an enticing dance for the eyes, a metamorphosis of the sensual language of the feminine spirit.
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Campaign for the Return of the Parthenon Sculptures in the Age of Social Media
Antiquity / Art / Cultural Heritage / Greece / International / Leaders & People

Campaign for the Return of the Parthenon Sculptures in the Age of Social Media

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During the occupation of Athens by the Ottoman Empire, over 50% of the Parthenon sculptures were taken by questionable or unscrupulous means by then Ambassador and Lord Elgin for his home in Scotland that were later purchased by the British Parliament for the British Museum.

The International Organizing Committee – Australia – for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (IOC-A-RPM) will host a two day second International Colloquy Parthenon: An Icon of Global Citizenship beginning on November 15, 2013 at the University of Sydney Nicholson Museum that will concentrate the dialogue in four areas: education, economy, activism and litigation. A call for papers and expert speakers is open until July 31, 2013.

Why now? What are the key points to ensure the return of the Parthenon sculptures?
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Ingenuity: Cards to Protect Cultural Heritage in War, Conflict & Galleries
Antiquity / Art / Innovation / International / Leaders & People

Ingenuity: Cards to Protect Cultural Heritage in War, Conflict & Galleries

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One of the many paradoxes of war is destruction with simultaneous protection of civilians and cultural heritage. We know the political figures and weapons of war and see photographs in the press of anonymous bloody lifeless corpses twisted in the wreckage of urban settings. How can one possibly think of cultural heritage with so much human suffering. Yet, cultural monuments are targeted, pillaged, looted, destroyed all too often.

Cultural heritage is for the survivors, the future, world knowledge and ultimately, a record of human accomplishments.

World Heritage Day is April 18th. What will you do to help protect cultural heritage? Continue reading →

Paris Notes: Hopi Katsinam Masks and Their Destiny
Art / Indigenous & Aboriginal / Paris

Paris Notes: Hopi Katsinam Masks and Their Destiny

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Paris, the city of art, fashion and architecture and it’s relatively modest auction house Neret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou are on the global stage of cultural heritage and who has the right to own another culture’s patrimony and sacred artifacts or relics. Christopher Mazeika, scholar in ritual performance and art director at Paris based Santo Spada fashion house reflects on his visit to view the collection of Hopi masks up for auction. Continue reading →