Footnotes 4.16.07 VT

My research assistant, Jenny Higgins, who does a super job putting these links pages together would like to add this first note.  She’s a Virginia Tech Alum:

• The image at right is a photograph taken of the Drillfield at the heart of Virginia Tech’s campus. Today, April 16th, is the 3 year anniversary of the deadliest school shooting in history. This image was organized several months after the shooting as the university’s way to thank the world for their support after the shooting. Like any other tragedy, it is important for everyone to remember the lives lost, but more importantly, it is necessary to appreciate life. Click here for a video of Virginia Tech professor and poet Nikki Giovanni giving a speech at the convocation one day after the shooting.

On to other mundane art-related news:

• Steven Speilberg’s art dealer was exonerated from the lawsuit pertaining to the stolen Norman Rockwell. The highlight of the case was that the man who claimed title to it knew all along it had been stolen.  Don’t miss Tom Flynn’s excellent commentary on the implications for the art trade. 
• The Guardian might be going overboard, but could the looted Native American artifacts in the Four Corners region possibly have cursed everyone involved?
• A federal appeals court upheld the 7 year prison sentencing of a retired Massachusetts attorney for possessing looted artwork.
• Techniques and secrets of the forged artwork business will be revealed in the National Gallery’s upcoming exhibition.
• Fisk University seeks a trial date in an attempt to sell artwork from its Stieglitz collection.
• Keeping most of its Oceanic art, the De Young Museum will sell some pieces from the collection to help settles a legal dispute.
• Recovering Nazi stolen art is like playing resitution roulette for Jewish heirs.
• An Israeli known for his illegal sale of antiquities was extradited to the U.S. and appeared in a Manhattan federal court.
• Switzerland signed an agreement with Egypt to return artifacts.
• Have things really changed with the passage of time regarding blatant destruction of cultural heritage and property by tourists?
• Check out a report from the CUNY Center for the Humanities Symposium on April 7th, 2010.