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Issues-In Brief
TABOR
The Pennsylvania General Assembly has been deciding, without public hearings or debate, on Tax and Expenditure Limits for the Commonwealth that threaten cultural funding. Click here to view our alerts and visit the Budget Watch section to learn more.
Care Act
The U.S. Senate has passed the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (S.2020) which included the favorable arts provisions that Senator Rick Santorum has maintained in his proposal of the Charity Aid Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Act.
Barnes
The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Lenfest Foundation, and the Annenberg Foundation will each give $1 million of the next two years to Barnes for activities related to the institution’s relocation.
Artdaily.com | 11/30/2005 | Barnes Foundation Secures $3 Million in Funding
Merion residents, its civic association, and a township commissioner-elect have proposed zoning changes that make it possible for the Barnes to turn down their permitted move.
Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/27/2005 | Letters | Saving the Barnes
Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/15/2005 | Barnes’ neighbors fighting on
Calder
Plans for a Philadelphia-based museum dedicated to the work of mobile artist Alexander “Sandy” Calder have been abandoned.
Associated Press | 9/13/2005 | Plans nixed for Calder museum in Philadelphia
Ethics Reform
City Council unanimously passed 5 of the 6 ethics bills offered by Councilman Michael Nutter.
Philadelphia Daily News | 12/2/2005 | 5 Bills breeze through City Council
Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/1/2005 | City Council passes ethics bills
Councilwoman and Democratic Majority Leader Jannie Blackwell accepts some parts of ethics reform. She will support Councilman Nutter’s proposal to create an independent Ethics Board, but she is still concerned about restrictions on campaign contributions and lobbyists identification requirements.
Philadelphia Daily News | 11/30/2005 | Blackwell boards ethics bandwagon
George Burrell, senior aide to Mayor Street, scrutinizes Councilman Nutter’s adherence to the no-bid ethics rules as the author of those rules.
Philadelphia Daily News | 11/25/2005 | Burrell rips no-bid bond deals
More Information on Ethics Reform
Repatriation
Italy and Greece seek allegedly stolen antiquities from the Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bloomberg News | 11/29/2005 | Italy lacks Proof Met’s Antique Pots Were Looted, Papers Show
Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/27/2005 | Editorial | Finders shouldn’t be keepers
Bloomberg News | 11/24/2005 | Met set to return antiquities
Bloomberg News | 11/15/2005 | Italy Aims to Empty U.S. Museums of Loot, Puts Curator on Trial
ARTS & CULTURE ISSUE AWARENESS – FUN ACTIVITY
Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/27/2005 | Pop Quiz
Something borrowed, something kept
Sunday’s pop quiz was focused on the arts and culture issue of repatriation. We thought you might enjoy the following excerpted questions and answers as you stay informed about the issue. Click here to view the entire quiz and its accompanying answers.
Several countries are now calling on American museums to give back antiquities those countries claim were stolen. History is full of thefts in which the thief got to keep the goods. How many can you name?
- When he found them in Greece in 1806, he had them packed up and carted off to his home country - where they still are, named after him. Who was he? What are they?
- In August 2004, this artwork was swiped from a museum in Oslo, Norway, and has not been found. Name the artist and work.
- This December 1985 theft is widely considered the largest single swiping of precious objects in history. The robbery, still unsolved, took place at Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology and involved 140 pieces. These included a vase in the shape of a monkey. What was the estimated value of this vase?
- Zero - it was too hot for any buyer
- About $5 million
- About $20 million
- About $50 million
- The melody from this famous song was stolen from a tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven,” thought to have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. No one can sing it very well - but can you name it?
- “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were, and ask, ‘Why not?’” Who is famous for saying it, and from whom did he get it?
Associated Press | 11/22/2005 | Italy Says Met May Return Disputed Art
Associated Press | 11/15/2005 | Italy Trial Giving Museums Wakeup Call
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