The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent

I was over at "Art Daily" when I noticed an article on the opening of the new Art of the America's wing at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and found myself enchanted by this painting.

Zeus Goes Home

Two statues stolen in the 1980's from Italian museums are back home after being spotted in the window of a New York art dealer. The statues one of a bronze of Zeus and the other a marble torso are from the first century and were discovered when a member of Italian Carabinieri art squad walked past the gallery and recognized Zeus.

Thank You to Our Heroes

Degenerate Art in Berlin

Here is an article complete with more than a dozen pictures of art deemed by the Nazi's as "Degenerate". The eleven sculptures recently turned up in a dig in front of Berlin's city hall for a new subway station and are now on display. Incredible survival!

Collapse of the House of the Gladiators

Recent rains are blamed for the collapse at Pompeii of the two thousand year old house of the gladiators which was buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a.d.. The stone house who's walls were decorated with scenes of military action and was on the main street of Pompeii was found collapsed by custodians.

Peru asks Obama to get Yale to Return Macchu Picchu Artifacts.

I have to say right from the start that this ongoing issue infuriates me, the theft of the Macchu Picchu artifacts is proven by the signed documents which their discoverer Hiram Bingham III signed with the government of Peru which Yale and its Peabody museum have chosen to ignore.

Now Yale wants the case closed because of the length of time that has gone by since the original theft took place by Yale university. Over the last century Yale has been allowed to operate free and without penalties in retaining objects from Peru that were supposed to have been returned.

This is the premier bad institutional behavior example and a reason why museums and institutions need to be accountable for their acquisitions. Makes one wonder what the point of UNESCO is if a century later a rich and important university can get away with acts that would get the average person in the United states some serious jail time with the objects returned quickly to Peru.

Perhaps Yale is hiding behind the issue of repatriation of artifacts to countries of origin with the fear of museums of the "flood gates" opening emptying their collections, as should happen in the case of Yale's Peabody museum many of its best displays of Incan artifacts taken from Peru by Hiram Bingham III should be returned to Peru.

The attitude prevails among some that if an artifact made it into a museum it's " home free" regardless of how it got into the museum.