Samedi 18 mai 2013
Last update on 17/05/2013
Last update on 17/05/2013
The latest news in the History of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the 1930's
Is the city of Gesté above the law and the authority of the courts which judged this case ? This is at least the impression given by the mayor and his municipal council who once again voted, Monday 6 May, their determination to partially demolish (...)
The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon which has been under renovation work since 2008 (but which had the excellent idea of not closing and proceeding in stages), will open a new itinerary for its Medieval and Renaissance collections on 7 September. (...)
While carrying out construction work on a cosmetics store at the corner of rue du Temple and rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie in the historic Marais district in Paris, well preserved architectural elements came to light. These consist of (...)
We did not receive any direct reaction from the management at the Musée de Picardie to our article concerning its restoration and addition, where we expressed our concern (also shared notably by the Société des Antiquaires de Picardie) about the (...)
The arguments in favor of the destruction of the church of Saint Jacques in Abbeville in no way exonerate the mayor's irresponsible lack of action over the years when he could have in fact avoided this tragic resolution. In our article of 18 May (...)
It was, alas, predictable. The mayor of Abbeville, Nicolas Dumont, got what he wanted. By not doing a thing to stop the deterioration of the church of Saint Jacques, he achieved his purpose : the church will be demolished as of next Monday, (...)
A terse press release from the Louvre has just confirmed the news which had spread on Twitter last night : a woman visiting the Louvre-Lens scribbled an inscription with a marker on the lower part of La Liberté Guidant le Peuple by Delacroix and (...)
A little over two years ago, we wrote that the staircase at the BnF, by the architect Jean-Louis Pascal, would "no doubt be saved". However, when speaking about anything concerning national heritage and involving the French Minister of Culture, (...)
The wave of vandalism affecting French churches in the 1960's up to the early 1970's was devastating. The pretext claiming to apply the directives of Council Vatican II was used as a practical excuse for as we know, Italy for example, did not (...)
We would, alas, need to create a regular column, perhaps appearing even daily, denouncing the prevailing vandalism throughout France despite the "heritage days" held each year amid general euphoria as if everything were absolutely shipshape in (...)
How far can Bertrand Delanoë go in his determination to destroy Parisian heritage ? After entirely demolishing the Molitor pool, the change in presidential political majority and Cultural minister has now driven him to demand the unlisting of the (...)
We had mentioned it in our recent webcast L'Art sur un plateau : the Molitor swimming pool, an Art Deco masterpiece still in use in 1989, has been entirely destroyed to favor real estate development by the City of Paris, which owns the site and (...)
"Mister Mayor, be careful what you do at the Palazzo Vecchio in the Salone dei Cinquecenti !..." These were the words pronounced last 28 May, during the social event organized for the presentation of the restored Saint Anne at the Louvre, by (...)
We have spoken extensively on this site of the Fédération Française de Tennis and the city of Paris' determination to extend the site of the Roland-Garros tournament to the Serres d'Auteuil with the tacit complicity of the State. Several local and (...)
Although the subject theoretically falls outside the chronological range for The Art Tribune, we had expressed our indignation here concerning the treatment of the Roman amphitheater in Fréjus. Strangely enough, the matter did not raise much of a (...)
We know that François de Mazières had supported the pernicious "urbanisme de projet" of Benoist Apparu, in his capacity of "Mayor of Versailles, President of the Agglomerated Community of Versailles Grand Parc, President of the Cité de (...)
The mission sent by the French Ministry of Culture to inspect Ancenis mistakenly led us to believe for a moment that work there had been stopped. On the contrary, it is continuing full speed ahead in order to make the changes at the site (...)
The danger to several churches which some mayors wish to see destroyed and which we have often mentioned here is still very real but circumstances have improved for some of them. We feel it is time to take stock by pointing out these victories (...)
Is Versailles starting a retreat, aware of its contradictions and that the debate concerning the PLU has now reached national proportions ? In any case, the press release issued last 27 January leads us to think (...)
True, the budget allotted to historical monuments and museums in France has managed to resist a bit better than that of our neighbors. In Europe, museums and historical monuments in countries such as Italy, the Netherlands or Spain, have seen (...)
A little over a year ago we had asked the following question in a series of articles : "what use are the laws on historical monuments ?". One of them discussed the château d'Ancenis, threatened by the Conseil Général de Loire-Atlantique, with the (...)
We have already explained here why the argument presented by the Mayor of Versailles claiming the Schéma directeur de la région d'Ile-de-France (SDRIF) as a truly restrictive document cannot be taken seriously. We can now definitely prove that it (...)
The massacre had been in the planning for some time : Paris City Hall has gutted the Dauphins fountains, Place de la République, with the passive complicity of the French Ministry of Culture which did not move a finger to protect them, totally (...)
The response from Versailles City Hall to our articles, published here, is interesting. First of all because it does not bring into question any of our conclusions concerning the PLU, that is notably its consequences in terms of density and (...)
The Versailles Municipal Council, on 24 November 2011, approved a revision of the Plan Local d'Urbanisme [Local Zoning Plan]. The city is therefore determined to implement its project consisting in replacing its current reversible zoning policy (...)
Although we have not brought up the subject of the Serres d'Auteuil in the last few months, and Paris City Hall's decision to install the Roland-Garros tournament there, two recent events occurring in December have convinced us to reopen a (...)
As reported extensively in the media, last 17 december a fire broke out at the Institut Egyptien during the clashes between demonstrators and police. We have not yet commented on this sad event as we had no precise information concerning the (...)
