Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

New book may solve mystery of Boston museum art heist

In the small hours of 18 March 1990 two men dressed as police officers walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston pretending to be investigating a disturbance. They handcuffed the museum guards, ransacked the museum, sliced old masters from their frames and left, carrying 13 works of art valued conservatively at more than $500 million. Nineteen years after the greatest unsolved art heist in history the pictures have never been found, despite a $5m rewar

'Good Nazi of Nanjing' sparks debate (film)

A film about a member of the Nazi party who saved thousands of Chinese during the massacre in Nanjing recently opened in Germany. The BBC's Zoe Murphy looks at the possible impact this unlikely hero's story may have on Sino-Japanese relations. On Christmas Eve in 1937, German businessman John Rabe visited the mortuary in China's then capital, Nanjing. Risking his life, Rabe remained in China and, along with a handful of Westerners, set up a "safety zone" in N

Dr. Seus on the couch

Philip Nel has made a career of showing that complexities abound within the pages of children’s books. A professor of English at Kansas State University and director of the graduate program in children’s literature, Nel used a NEH Summer Stipend to write Dr. Seuss: American Icon, one of the first scholarly explorations of Theodor Geisel’s work. He has also written about J. K. Rowling and coedited, with Julia Mickenberg, Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature. Nel

Singing Group: O'Bama is as Irish as JFK

Actor Richard Dreyfuss calls attention to neglected battlefields

Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss visited the nation's capital on Wednesday to call attention to the most endangered Civil War battlefields. The actor joined the Civil War Preservation Trust as the group released its annual report on 10 battlefields that it says are deteriorating due to neglect, land development and other threats. At a news conference, Dreyfuss said his interest in preserving Civil War battlefields grew out of his love for history and the significance of th

New York Museum Opens National Center for the History of Electronic Games

New York's Strong National Museum of Play will tomorrow open the National Center for the History of Electronic Games, dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of video games and video game-related materials. The Rochester-based museum, which bills itself as "the only museum anywhere devoted solely to the study and interpretation of play," has long kept collections of electronic games, but it had not previously maintained a self-contained organization dedicated to them

Theft claim halts sale of Zoffany portrait from Versace's Como villa

Celebrity visitors to the villa of Gianni Versace on Lake Como were often stunned by its opulent Neo-Classical interior and the artwork on display. What neither the fashion designer — who died 12 years ago — nor his guests knew was that one of his most prized paintings may have been stolen. Sotheby’s, which auctioned the contents of Versace’s villa in London yesterday, withdrew an 18th-century portrait by the German artist Johann Zoffany after its subject’s family cla

Horrible Histories: Frightful First World War at UK theatre

Just days after Henry Allingham, Britain’s oldest surviving First Word War veteran, was honoured by Fance as officer of the Legion d’Honneur, it’s pleasing to find a theatrical endeavour that raises awareness of that devastating conflict. The Birmingham Stage Company’s Horrible Histories series, based on Terry Deary’s books, has been delighting and enlightening families for three years. This new show and its touring companion, Woeful Second World War, tackle 20th-century events with a darker ton

A new film tells the electrifying story of Italy's notorious ex-prime minister

Over a lifetime in Italian politics, Giulio Andreotti has been called many names. Between 1972 and 1992, he served an unprecedented seven terms as prime minister, an achievement which led the Roman press to brand him "Mr Italy" and, with a nod to Caesar, "Divo Giulio". More recently, as Il Divo, an enthralling new drama reminds us, the monikers bestowed upon him have been less respectful. "Apart from the Punic Wars, I've been blamed for everything that's ha

'Mummies: The dream of everlasting life' exhibition in Italy

‘Mummies: The dream of everlasting life’ opened last week at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. The exhibition includes a display of over 60 mummies, both human and animal, from all over the world, providing an insight into mummification from prehistory to the present day. Mummification is a phenomenon which occurred, and still occurs today, in different periods in time and in places all over the world. The mummies on display range from bog bodies discovered in northern Eur

Academic 'discovers' six works by William Shakespeare

An academic claims to have discovered six previously unrecognised works by William Shakespeare. Dr John Casson claims to have unearthed Shakespeare's first published poem, the Phaeton sonnet, his first comedy, Mucedorus, and his first tragedies, Locrine and Arden of Faversham. He also explores the plays Thomas of Woodstock and A Yorkshire Tragedy, and claims to prove that a 'lost play' called Cardenio is a genuine work by Shakespeare and fellow playwright John Fletcher.

Rare project saves Hemingway papers

An important collection of papers belonging to the American writer Ernest Hemingway has been saved for posterity, thanks to a unique joint rescue mission involving communist Cuba and the United States. The letters, manuscripts and documents offer fresh insights into the man, his work and his colourful life. For decades they had been gathering mould and dust in the basement of the Nobel Prize winning author's former home on the outskirts of Havana. The Cu

A rebirth in Berlin: Neues Museum

The exhibits have yet to be installed, and there are no cafes, shops or souvenir stalls. But when Berlin's renovated Neues Museum was thrown open to the public for three magical days this month, some 35,000 people came to wander its seductive parade of echoing, empty rooms. Although the architecture is thrilling, it was probably sheer curiosity that drew the crowds. After all, the museum has been closed to the public since the second world war, when Allied bombs turned it into a cha

Van Gogh and the Colours of Night at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

In spite of all the torments of a life that ended in suicide at the age of 37, the painter Vincent Van Gogh enjoyed at least one source of solace. Call it, if you like, the comfort blanket of night. A new show at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Van Gogh and the Colours of Night, sets out to explore the extraordinary extent to which the artist poured his creative energies into scenes of night and twilight. There was something about the idea of the onset of darkness that nourished

Egypt Set to Open Pyramid for First Time to Tourists

Travelers to Egypt will soon be able to explore the inner chambers of the 4,500-year-old "bent" pyramid, known for its oddly shaped profile, and other nearby ancient tombs, Egypt's antiquities chief announced Monday. The increased access to the pyramids south of Cairo is part of a new sustainable development campaign that Egypt hopes will attract more visitors but also to avoid some of the problems of the urban sprawl that have plagued the famed pyramids of Giza.

China to bring Das Kapital to life on Beijing stage

You've read the book, attended the seminars and pondered the accumulation of surplus value – now see the musical. Chinese producers are attempting to transform Das Kapital from a hefty treatise on political economy into a popular stage show, complete with catchy tunes and nifty footwork. Whether Karl Marx would approve of his masterwork being served up as entertainment for China's new bourgeoisie is a matter of speculation. But the director He Nian – best known for his

Kung fu master Chow Yun-Fat to bring Confucius to the silver screen

Chow Yun-Fat is better known as a flying kung fu master in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as the king in the latest movie ofThe King and Ior as a Hong Kong gangster in any number of films. Now he faces a cinematic challenge of a very different order: to bring Confucius to the silver screen. China’s decision to make a film of the life of its greatest philosopher is the latest step in the rehabilitation of the thinker vilified during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. For that decade,

Shah Abbas, The Remaking of Iran at the British Museum: review

Tucked away towards the end of the British Museum's exhibition Shah Abbas: The Remaking of Iran, devoted to the mighty Muslim ruler who transformed Iran while Elizabeth I was on the throne in England, is an extraordinary example of Islamic art. Painted in 1627, using watercolour, ink and gold on paper, it is one of only two extant portraits of the great shah painted during his lifetime (the other, a tiny, glowing watercolour study by an artist from Mughal India, begins the show), and it presents

Interview with the director of "Z"

What are your emotions about the rerelease of "Z," 40 years after it was made?Well, it's an amazing thing. To learn that 40 years later they are showing my movie again. I was very moved to learn that the Rialto people decided to release it again, and I'm very curious to see how the audience will react.That's an interesting question. At least in some ways, "Z" is very specific to its time and place. You were reacting to a very specific situation in G

BBC rejects play on Israel's history for impartiality reasons

The BBC has declined to broadcast a radio version of Caryl Churchill's controversial new stage play about Israeli history, claiming it needed to remain impartial - the same reason given for declining to air the Gaza emergency appeal. In a move likely to resurrect the row over the BBC's refusal in January to broadcast the appeal to help the people of Gaza, Radio 4 rejected an unsolicited manuscript of the play, Seven Jewish Children, which recently finished a short run at the Royal C