Caravaggio (1573–1610), “Amor Vincet Omnia” (Love Conquers All)
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

Berlin’s collection is of almost unimaginable scope and contains what are unarguably some of the world’s greatest works of western art by such artists as Dürer, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Raphael, Rembrandt, Brueghel, Vermeer, and van Eyck. Over 10,500 (up from 7,200 last week) have signed a petition asking the Berlin State Museum authorities to reconsider storing the collection.  Written by Harvard professor of German culture Jeffrey Hamburger, the petition has attracted support in the German media. Two of the nation’s leading newspapers, Die Zeit and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published different pieces entitled “Rettet die [Save the] Gemäldegalerie.” A signatory to the petition called the move analogous to emptying out Madrid’s Prado or Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.

Critics fear that the Gemäldegalerie’s treasures are playing second fiddle to the 20th-century collection and will be put in storage indefinitely to be shown only in piecemeal fashion for the foreseeable future until they have their own dedicated space, which could take years.

Rembrandt van Rijn, “The Angel Appears to Joseph in a Dream”, 1645
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

A new building for the Old Masters’ collection has yet to be proposed, let alone financed and built.

Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), “Portrait of Cardinal Trevisan”
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, accused critics of failing to appreciate the huge task of reorganising Berlin’s museums after decades of war and division, which led to a large part of Berlin’s art collections being broken up and dispersed.

Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), “Ugolino Martelli” (1536-37)
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

“Historically speaking, the Gemäldegalerie works belong on Museum Island, which with its collection from antiquity to the 19th century, has the potential to rival the Louvre, and until they’re back there this vision is incomplete,” he told the Guardian. “But it’s a process which needs to happen step by step.”

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), “Lady Sutherland” (1786)
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

He said part of the process involved creating a dedicated space for 20th-century art in the building currently now housing the Gemäldegalerie, which is conveniently located next to the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin’s leading space dedicated to modern art.

Parzinger said: “Twentieth-century art currently has no proper space in Berlin and it’s long overdue that we have something to rival Paris’ Centre Pompidou, London’s Tate Modern, or New York’s Moma.

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), “The Glass of Wine” (1658-1660)
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

“The wonderful Pietzsch collection fits perfectly into this concept and will help reinstate Berlin as a superior art capital as it was before 1933 and the rise of the Nazis – who labelled much of its art degenerate – when it was itself a role model for museums like Moma.

“In short, we’re rectifying the wrongs of history and re-establishing our cultural landscape, which is our calling card to the world.”

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), “Wife of Dr Johann Stephan Reuss” (1503)
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

In what was interpreted as an indirect threat to withdraw his donation, the 82-year-old Heiner Pietzsch said: “If the whole thing collapses, my heirs at least will be happy. They’ll make a lot of money from my paintings.”

Please sign the petition asking the Berlin authorities to reconsider the current plan to empty the Gemäldegalerie to make room for a display of twentieth-century art from the Pietzsch collection.

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• Fury as masterpieces make way for modern art (thelocal.de)
• Berlin’s Botticellis, Rembrandts entangled in protest over move (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Buried beneath the floor of a convent in Florence, Italy they’ve found a skeleton they believe belonged to Lisa Gherardini, the model who posed for Leonardo’s da Vinci’s mysterious masterpiece.

Ancient find: Archeologists have found a skeleton they believe belonged to the model who inspired Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

An archaeologist digs away at the floor of the medieval Convent of Saint Ursula in Florence, where the skeleton was discovered.

The convent was the burial site of Lisa Gherardini, wife of the wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, who modelled for Leonardo Da Vinci.

Lisa Gheradini, was the wife of a rich silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. In Italy the Mona Lisa is known as La Gioconda.

Most modern historians agree that the lady depicted in the Mona Lisa was Lisa del Giocondo, who became a nun after her husband’s death. She died in the convent on July 15, 1542, aged 63.

An archeological team began digging at the abandoned Convent of Saint Ursula last year.

They first had to dig through thick concrete, laid down ahead of plans to turn the convent into an army barracks.

But they quickly struck gold, finding a crypt they believe to have been Lisa’s final resting place and soon after they unearthed a female-sized human skull.

The skull was found five feet under the convent’s original floor along with other fragments of human ribs and vertebrae.

Plans to continue the dig were suspended when the team ran out of funds, but they were able to resume last month.

And this week, they found a human skeleton.

The team unearthed a skull and other bones last year that they believe belonged to Lisa Gherardini.

The skull was found five feet under the convent’s original floor along with other fragments of human ribs and vertebrae.

The bones will undergo tests to establish if they match the skull found last year.

Scientists will then compare the DNA in the bones with the remains of the model’s two children who were buried nearby in an attempt to authenticate the remains.

Once they have verified the skeleton and skull belong to the modelf orensic artists will attempt to reconstruct her face to see how it compares to the 500-year-old version painted by da Vinci – and perhaps solve the riddle of the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile in the process.

Archeologist Silvano Vinceti, who is in charge of the dig, explained: ‘We don’t know yet if the bones belong to one single skeleton or more than one.

‘But this confirms our hypothesis that in St.Ursula convent there are still human bones and we cannot exclude that among them there are bones belonging to Lisa Gherardini.’

The initial discovery – made using ground penetrating radar and ancient maps and documents – came after a foot of modern concrete was removed and unearthed a layer of ancient, 90-centimeter wide bricks.

Professor Vinceti said of the first discovery: ‘This is a very exciting development and the find is consistent with our records and our preliminary research.

‘The crypt we have found is the one that was mentioned in church records from 1495 and was reached via a grate and then a staircase.

‘We also know from those records that in 1625 there was a second crypt and these are the ones we have found.’

Resting place: The courtyard of the Saint Ursula convent in Florence, where archaeologists have been digging.

Present on the dig is Natalia Gucciardini Strozzi, who is related to Lisa Gherardini and who is also a close friend of Prince Charles and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Speaking after the skull was discovered, she said: ‘It was so emotional being here – I didn’t think I would get so emotional. I am certain that this is the final resting place of Lisa Gherardini.

It is not the first time that Professor Vinceti has used such techniques in his work – last year similar methods were used to locate and identify the remains of Caravaggio, another Renaissance master.

Last year in a Dan Brown-style mystery professor Vincenti also claimed that a hidden message could be seen in the eyes of the Mona Lisa after examining them with a high powered magnifying glass.

The Mona Lisa is an oil on panel painting owned by the French government and the image is so widely recognised and caricatured that it is considered the most famous painting in the world.

Da Vinci started to paint it in 1503 or 1504 and finished it in 1519, shortly before his death, and after he had moved to France.

Related articles

• ­Mona Lisa’s remains found in Florence? (rt.com)
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• Is this the Mona Lisa’s skeleton? Achaeologists excited after discovery of bones in Florence convent (dailymail.co.uk)
• Search for Mona Lisa inspiration resumes (telegraph.co.uk)
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[The New York Times, http://www.frick.org  Most intoxicating vices involve some kind of paraphernalia, designed for convenience, traveling light and, often, showing off. These run the gamut from engraved silver liquor flasks, Art Deco cigarette cases and Moroccan leather hashish pouches to the so-called beer hats of today.

A box inlaid with semiprecious stones by Johann Christian Neuber, from around 1765-70, is in “Gold, Jasper and Carnelian,” a new show at the Frick Collection.
Credit: Thomas Hennocque, Private Collection, Editions Monelle Hayot

A piece from around 1780.
Credit: Michael Bodycomb/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung

A box of gold and semiprecious stones from around 1770-75.
Credit: Hugues Dubois, Private Collection

A view of the bottom of the box.
Credit: Hugues Dubois, Private Collection

While few such objects distill thought, skill and materials into that thing called art, there are exceptions. Outstanding among these are the gemstone snuffboxes created by the German goldsmith Johann Christian Neuber (1736-1808), working in Dresden, the cosmopolitan capital of Saxony. Nearly 30 of these boxes, generally no larger than the palm of a hand, dominate “Gold, Jasper and Carnelian: Johann Christian Neuber at the Saxon Court,” on view at the Frick Collection.

The show’s centerpiece, writes Ms. Smith, is the Breteuil table, “whose top is something of a pitched battle among sizable Meissen porcelain plaques of mythological scenes, circles of imitation pearls (made of rock crystal and silver dust), and rather bulky swags and wreaths of bas-relief gemstones.”
Credit: Michael Bodycomb/The Frick Collection

“The winner is the field of battle itself, a radiating surface tiled with 128 postage-stamp-size squares: Each is a sample of a different gemstone or petrified wood, numbered according to an identification list in a small booklet that came with the table (and can be perused on a nearby touch screen).”
Credit: Georges Fessy/The Frick Collection

Ensconced in the museum’s Oval Room, the show’s 43 small, impeccably wrought wonders also include gemstone buttons, a cane handle, several bonbonnières (candy boxes) and one astounding piece of furniture, a modest-size but luxuriously decorated oval table. It was commissioned from Neuber by his chief patron, Friedrich Augustus III (1750-1827), Elector of Saxony, in 1779, as a gift to the French diplomat Baron de Breteuil. Still owned by the baron’s family, it has never before crossed the Atlantic.  Read More.

A box decorated with a geometric pattern and an enamel miniature, by Christian Friedrich Zinke, of an unknown woman, from around 1775-80.
Credit: Thomas Hennocque, Private Collection, Editions Monelle Hayot

The Frick Collection presents the first comprehensive introduction to Neuber’s oeuvre, including important diplomatic gifts and approximately thirty-five snuffboxes, bonbonnières (candy boxes), and fashionable accessories. These objects were appreciated not only at the Saxon court but also throughout Europe. Offered as refined gifts, they were also acquired to attest to the wealth and good taste of their owners. Snuffboxes were especially fashionable: more than containers for tobacco powder, they were elegant accessories of a highly sophisticated society. Carried in hand or taken from a pocket, the delicate box would immediately arouse admiration.

A Steinkabinettabatiere, or stone cabinet snuffbox, from around 1765-70.
Credit: Thomas Hennocque, Private Collection, Editions Monelle Hayot

The exhibition is co-organized by the Grünes Gewölbe of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Galerie J. Kugel, Paris, and The Frick Collection. Support for the presentation in New York is generously provided by Walter and Vera Eberstadt, Aso O. Tavitian, Margot and Jerry Bogert, and an anonymous donor.

If there is anyone reading this post who has not visited New York City, or who is not familiar with the Frick Collection, run – don’t walk – to the museum the minute you arrive in the City.  The museum is the former residence of Henry Clay Frick, a steel magnate of an earlier day, who bequeathed his mansion and his collection to the City of New York upon his death in 1919.  The museum is just south of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue.

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“Timbuktu is no ordinary town. The fabled ‘City of 333 Saints’ is an ancient desert crossroads and a historic seat of Islamic learning and faith,” said Irina Bokova, who heads the U.N. cultural body, UNESCO.

“Attacks on such landmarks translate to the loss of history and the values associated with such sites,”  according to Bokova.

“It is an attack against the physical evidence that peace and dialogue are possible. This is condemned uniformly by religious leaders across the world,” she said.

Last week, the United Nations called for sanctions against the Islamist fighters and warned it is considering a proposal by West Africa states to deploy troops in the troubled country.

Ansar Dine’s Salafist beliefs condemn the veneration of saints.  The group seized control of Timbuktu in April, after a coup left Mali’s army in disarray.  Initially, it was working with secular ethnic Tuareg rebels demanding independence for northern Mali’s desert territories but the groups have recently clashed and Islamist forces are in control of northern Mali’s three main centres – Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal.

[elliottingotham's original post of June 29, 2012]

As Emily Sharpe has reported in The Art Newspaper, concern for the cultural heritage of Mali is growing after militant Islamic fundamentalists desecrated a 15th-century tomb of a Muslim saint in Timbuktu in May, and threatened to destroy other tombs as well as anything else they perceive as being idolatrous or contrary to their version of Islam. The northern Malian city, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is home to several other such tombs and three historic mosques as well as many small museums. Timbuktu also has between 600,000 and one million ancient manuscripts housed in public and private collections that are vulnerable to acts of destruction from the occupying rebel forces as well as from those looking to profit from the political unrest.

Timbuktu is in the hands of religious extremists who have set fire to a 15-century mausoleum.

Mali has been in a state of crisis since a military coup seized power in March. Two rebel factions—Ansar Dine and the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Azawad—took control of the north in April. Members of the extremist Islamist group Ansar Dine, which is trying to impose Sharia law in the region, attacked and set fire to the mausoleum of the Muslim scholar Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar on 4 May. His grave is venerated by many local Muslims who visit to receive blessings. According to local reports, the doors, windows and gates to the tomb were broken before the rebels set fire to the tomb itself.

The director-general of Unesco, Irina Bokova, condemned the attack on the tomb, calling the desecration “a sign of change for the worse”. She also stressed that Mali’s cultural heritage “is our common property, and nothing can justify damaging it”. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the chief of the Africa unit of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, warns of future risks. “We know that the [rebels] have threatened to destroy other mausoleums if the community continues to visit these tombs to receive benedictions.” He adds: “The community is taking action to protect its cultural heritage because it’s too dangerous for anyone else to enter the region right now.” This appears to be the case as reports have since emerged that armed Islamists attempted to reach the pyramidal tomb of Askia—another World Heritage Site in nearby Gao—but were denied access by locals.

As we went to press, Unesco was sending a mission to the capital city of Bamako (in the south) to meet the transitional government to discuss how to prevent future attacks.

Located at the crossroads of several Trans-Saharan trade routes, Timbuktu, founded in the late fifth century, grew to become a celebrated centre of Koranic culture by the late 15th century. Academic institutions such as the University of Sankore, brought scholars from all over Africa to the city to exchange ideas. As a result, the city became a major centre of manuscript production, with texts on a variety of subjects including astronomy, agriculture and religion as well as biographies and diplomatic correspondence.

It is the safety of these manuscripts in both private hands as well as public collections, including the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, which has more than 25,000 texts, that scholars are particularly concerned about. “Islamists do not like some views articulated in these manuscripts by some old African thinkers who believed in moderate Islam and called for co-operation with the rest of the world, particularly the West,” says Habib Sy, a west African scholar who is working with the Ford Foundation to document Timbuktu’s manuscripts.

The extremists have also threatened to destroy the city’s collection of ancient texts.

According to Sy, within the first week of the city’s occupation, rebels went to the Ahmed Baba Institute with the intention of making it their headquarters, but staff prevented the takeover. He also says that the curator of the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library in Timbuktu had to flee the city for Bamako in April. “He had to leave the manuscripts behind, hiding the few that he could,” he says.

“People are nervous and are either burying the manuscripts or taking them to Bamako,” he says, adding that many of these texts are fragile and moving them puts them at risk of damage. Transferring the texts to the capital is also risky because there are many checkpoints along the way and, if discovered, the manuscripts would probably be destroyed. Efforts to co-ordinate plans to safeguard the texts are also proving difficult. “People can’t even speak on the phone as their lines are monitored. And using the internet is not possible because there is only one small internet centre, which is also being monitored by the Islamists,” Sy says.

According to Sy, drug dealers from neighbouring areas including Libya have moved in and are offering money for manuscripts. “This crisis presents a perfect opportunity for them to launder drug money,” he says. “We need to act. If [these manuscripts] are lost, they are lost to all human kind. They are invaluable,” Sy says.

“We need to put pressure on the Malian authorities who should be providing security. They’ve abandoned the people of Timbuktu.”

An online petition has been launched to save the manuscripts. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/TIMBUKTU

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