A new agreement with Greece and billionaire businessman Leonard N. Stern should have been an easy win for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, already under increased scrutiny for the several cases of looted antiquities identified by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office this year alone. But the agreement is already under major criticism from numerous experts and Greek politicians.

This week, the museum announced the signing of the agreement, known as a memorandum of understanding, between the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport, the private Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens (MCA) and the Met that would bring 161 Cycladic artifacts from Stern’s personal collection to the New York museum for a 25-year display period starting in January 2024.

The three institutions will “exchange expertise in the study and conservation of Cycladic works and share findings with the scholarly community through both an international symposium and an online database, among other initiatives,” according to the press release.

The agreement means any display of the Stern collection will acknowledge that “the Greek State is the sole owner of the Collection.” However, Athens has admitted that it cannot prove that the works—which date from 5300 to 2200 BCE—had been illegally excavated and exported, according to the Associated Press. After becoming highly prized by private collectors and museums, Cycladic artworks prompted a wave of illegal excavations and many forgeries.

The deal, ratified by the Greek parliament in September, means the Mediterranean country is eventually getting back the Stern collection without a messy fight in court. But some Greek lawmakers, and many archaeologists, have argued the government should have pursued a legal effort for the collection’s immediate return. They also expressed concern the agreement with the Met would help conceal the ongoing issue of antiquities with murky origins.

Arts benefactors rank among the top conservative donors pouring funding into the political circuit ahead of the U.S. mid-term elections.

Ken Griffin, Larry Ellison and Stephen A. Schwarzman are each among the top 10 political donors backing Republican fundraising ahead of Tuesday’s election, according to recently released data by OpenSecrets, which tracks political funding. Together, the three have contributed $135 million to conservative-leaning groups.

Campaign spending for the 2022 midterm is expected to be the most expensive on record surpassing an estimate $9.3 billion, up around 30% from its 2018 high watermark, according to Bloomberg. Abortion rights, economic strain and immigration are among the topics shaping the political debate around next week’s elections.

In addition to their influence in the political realm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the latter two who have each appeared on ARTnews list of Top 200 collectors, each have major footprints as public figures in the arts.

Last year, Griffin made headlines when he outbid a 17,000-person DAO group of crypto enthusiasts to win a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution for $43 million at auction. The acquisition, which Griffin lent to the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Arkansas this year, added to his already formidable collection, which includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paul Cézanne, Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns. Since 2015, he’s donated more than $260 million to museums and art spaces in the U.S., including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where a gallery is named for him.

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Protestors from Spanish environmental activist group Futuro Vegetal apparently glued themselves on Saturday to Francisco Goya’s painting The Clothed Maja (circa 1800), which hangs in Madrid’s Prado Museum, and wrote “1.5 C” on the wall next to the painting.

“Last week, the UN recognized the impossibility of staying below the Paris Agreement’s goal of staying below a 1.5 celsius degree change,” an account for Futuro Vegetal wrote on a Twitter post attached to a video of their action at the Prado.

The UN report referenced by the activist group found that the Earth is on its way to temperature increase between 2.4 celsius and 2.6 celsius by the end of this century.

“We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, wrote in an article on the report’s findings. “Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.”

Meanwhile, the Prado put out their own statement on Twitter.

4 min read

Tracing Oxford’s history in its buildings

During my time in Oxford, I have seen many shops come and go. Nowadays they often leave with little or no sign they ever existed, but back in the day when advertising was hand painted on walls, the new owners often just covered it up. Taking a walk in Oxford and keeping your eyes open, you can still find the fading remains of some of these so-called ghost signs today as they get uncovered. In a broader definition they can also include metal signs or stone engravings. Have you noticed some of the ones below?

1) Curry’s, Cowley Road

Curry’s signage on Stockmore Street / Cowley Road. Photo by Paul Freestone 2020.

On the popular Cowley Road in East Oxford, you can find the traces of a shop that some of you may be very familiar with. Although now selling primarily electronics, then Curry’s were advertising above what is now Atomic Burger with the words “Accessories Curry’s Cycles”. On the side of the building on Stockmore Road the faded writing reads “Toys & Baby Carriages Curry’s Cycles and Radio”. The advertisement was likely put up sometime between 1934 and 1948.

2) Lumley’s Grocery, Walton Street

Lumley’s corner shop. Photo by Isisbridge 2013, album “ghost signs etc”.

In Jericho two special signs are displayed above the Oxford Wine Café at 127 Walton Street: they are ghost signs covered up by ghost signs. The sign at the top reads “The finest Turkey coffee ¼ [meaning: one shilling and fourpence] in one pound canisters”. However, if you look very closely, you can make out another advertisement beneath the visible one. It says “G. Lumleys Grocery Provision Warehouse”. The previous corner shop also encouraged passers-by to “try Geo Lumleys 2/6 [meaning: two shillings and sixpence] tea” on the lower of the two signs. Again, a previous advertisement can be made out beneath this sign proclaiming “[illegible] Bacon, Crosse & Blackwell’s Pickles”. George Lumley was a grocer there until 1888.

7 min read

Inclusivity, culture and power

The nightlife of Oxford occupies an important place in the story of the city, and in its historic contribution to the wider world.

Nightlife can embrace or ostracise. Some spaces are widely accessible – open to non-students and actively welcoming to those who identify as LGBTIQA+. Other spaces bar entry in accordance with university tradition.

This accessibility is important, because the international importance of the university gives Oxford’s night-time scene real power. Over time, it has been shown to dictate national politics, shape culture, and embody the systemic social divide in this country. In many ways, traditional systems of power are perpetuated by Oxford’s nightlife.

There is also an important relationship with film and literature. Oxford’s nightlife has been widely portrayed in fictional media, and at the same time venues in the city have played a role in the discussion and production of literary creations.

Cultural contributions

The public houses of Oxford have long contributed to the cultural fabric of the city and the wider world. The most prominent example is the Eagle and Child pub, founded in 1650. In the early to mid-twentieth century this was the place in which J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis first shared the manuscripts of The Lord of The Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia, reading them aloud to a group of writers known as ‘The Inklings’. This group, which included poets Owen Barfield and Charles Williams, was a forum in which the writers discussed their work. They met in the ‘Rabbit Room’ of the Eagle and Child, and in Lewis’s own rooms at Magdalen College.

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