Category: Modern
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The power of publicity. Gurlitt will get back his paintings
For more than a week the whole art-world marveled as the German authorities claimed they had recovered 1500 masterpieces. A unworldy man, Cornelius Gurlitt, had inherited them from his father, a suspected culprit of the nazis. It was claimed that many paintings were in fact nazi-loot, and either belonged to private collectors or to museums.…
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Who owns the Munich masterpieces?
As DisputedPast reported, a huge amount of priceless masterpieces was found in Munich, Germany, last week. Since then, authorities give few to no information regarding the art. Yesterday, finally some pictures were made public (link to website Kunstfund München). Next week, 500 paintings will be posted on the same website. Why are the authorities withholding this…
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A grim message on Armistice Day
Today exactly 95 years ago, the first Armistice Day was celebrated. This day marked the end of the Great War, or the First World War. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918, a peace treaty was signed in Compiegne, France. The guns on all fronts halted…
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‘Romantic kristallnacht’ and ‘Stolpersteine’. The Kristallnacht remembered
Exactly 75 years ago, on the 9th and 10th of November 1938, the Nazis conducted a furious attacks on Jews. They set fire to their shops and synagogues, destroyed their homes. Also known as the ‘night of broken glass’, the Kristallnacht marked a new phase in the anti-Semitic policy of the Nazis. During the early…
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Dressed to kill. Fashion in the nazi-era
It is a well-known fact that Hugo Boss designed the SS-uniform, but how people dressed in Third Reich is not a much debated topic. What did clothing of the 1930s and 40s look like? What was worn in everyday life, at home , at work or on travel? Did the nazis influence fashion? With the…
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Sensational discovery: 1500 long-lost masterpieces (e.g. Picasso, Matisse) found
An 80-year old resident of the German city of Munich had 1500 masterpieces secretly stockpiled in his apartment. The paintings were created by masters of classical modernity, like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Emil Nolde, Franz Marc, Max Beckmann and Max Liebermann. A Berlin art historian estimates the value on one billion euros. Art…
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NSA’s long history of illegal eavesdropping
As Edward Snowden showed the world to what extent the American National Security Agency has been tracking emails and phone-calls, a worldwide public outcry for more privacy protection followed. It is likely that most political leaders (friend or foe) were surveyed by the NSA’s Prism Program, as were all major companies. Moreover, public websites, like mail-services and social…