Art Of The Day Weekly

The return of the Lord of Sipán

LIMA - We can all recall the great discovery in 1988 in North-Western Peru: the tomb of a nobleman of the precolombian, Mochica civilization. It held various pieces of anthropomorphic ceramics and exceptional jewels. These treasures were one of the major attractions, in Paris, at the bicentennial of the Revolution. Peruvian president Alan García announced on 20 November the discovery of another mausoleum in the region, still intact, near Ferreñafe. The archeologists succeeded in getting there before the huaqueños, the tomb robbers, to unveil the metal objects and in particular the tumis or bronze sacrifice knives, of which one is a metre and a half long. For the exhibition in 1989, certain pieces from a private collection and from a dubious origin had been legalised so that Peru could put up a good show in Paris. Countries that are at the origin of archeological wonders are "protesting" against illegal purchases made on the market by major museums. The good surprise of Ferreñafe underlines the fact the problem is now located earlier on. Though the practices of the market are becoming more moral, it is practically impossible to control the archeological sites themselves and the flux that runs towards private collectors with few scrupules. From Afghanistan to Iran, from Peru to Nigeria, the defense of ancient patrimony is a colossal task...

Hirst, the collector

LONDON - Though barely 41 years old, Damien Hirst is one of the wealthiest artists in the world. His fortune helps him pay his numerous assistants, to offer himself a manor in the English countryside (Toddington Manor, near Oxford), to buy back his own works from Charles Saatchi... but also to buy creations by his contemporaries. The exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery proves just that. Aside from a remarkable ensemble by Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin, his colleagues in the group of the Young British Artists (YBAs), we can also admire works by Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, Angela Bulloch, Richard Prince or very figurative artist John Currin. As well as offers as provoking as could be the YBAs in their time: Banksy's political graffitis or Steven Gregory's work on skulls. This is close to the fascination Hurst has for Thanatos, whose cut up sharks and lambs in formol remain emblematic works.

From Kaboul, with love

PARIS – France has always had strong links with Afghan archeology. That is what the exhibition at the Guimet Museum proves, presented under a tempting title, «the rediscovered treasures», from the National Museum of Kaboul. Among the treasures from four sites, deep under the earth for 2000 or 4000 years, two were dug out by researchers from the well-known DAFA (Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan) - the French Archeologic delegation in Afghanistan-: those of Begram, dug out at the end of the 1930s, and those of Aï-Khanoum, dug out between 1964 and 1978. Ivories, bronzes, Hellenistic gold lingots… The contents of the princes' tombs in Tillia-Tepe were unearthed in 1978, right before the country was engulfed in decades of war. While tanks rolled and roared over the plains, these pendants, mirrors or belts of different origins underlined the brilliant crossroad Afghanistan was at the time of Christ. Some of these exceptional objects were restored during their stay in France.

The website of the Guimet museum

Nitsch, great preacher of actionnism

BERLIN – Together with Muhl, Brus and Schwarzkogler he is one of the historical representatives of Viennese actionism which so disturbed observers in the 1960s and 1970s. A combination of extreme performances(selfmutilations), painting, blood and other bodily fluids, this current saw its actors disappear, sometimes violently (Schwarzkogler committed suicide in 1969). Only Hermann Nitsch (68 years old) has continued to this date his search for a truth that ressembles, through its mystical load and its religious dimension, ancient mysteries (in October, he held the 122th performance of his Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries). Some of his most famous works are presented, such as Existenzaltar from 1960, the Geiselwand or the huge paintings from Stations of the Cross. Certain ephemeral installations have been recreated such as Asolo-Raum.

Philadelphia strikes back

PHILADELPHIA - The decision by the Jefferson University to sell a famous painting by Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic (1879), continues to make waves. It represents a famous doctor from the city, a pionneer in surgery, and has been for over a century in the university's collections. To the point of being considered untouchable by numerous students and by the mayor himself, who announced he would do everything to prevent its departure. The Gross Clinic has been sold to an heiress of the Walton family (which controls Wal-Mart, need we explain more?) for 68 million dollars. The good position of the art market probably explains the decision to make this deal in order to invest the money in development projects. The public's unexpected reaction proves that in its mind, patrimony is not limited to old stones.

See the painting on the website of the University of Ithaca