At the heart of The Secret Garden, the much-loved children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, in which a disagreeable orphan is transformed into a flourishing young girl, lies the protective power of secrecy.
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My secret life: on the benefits of secrecy
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Art show too male? At times, this cry makes no sense
The first major survey of abstract expressionism since 1959, which has just opened at the Royal Academy, has been accused of displaying too much testosterone.
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Are we entering a new age of artistic censorship in Europe?
There is an uncomfortable moment in Ganesh Versus the Third Reich when the actors pause. The play, ostensibly about the Hindu deity travelling to Germany to reclaim the swastika, an ancient Sanskrit symbol, from the Nazis, comes to a halt as they remove their costumes—an elephant head and a SS armband—turn to face the audience, and ask: “Do we have the right to perform this?” None of the actors are Hindu or Jewish. Many have physical and mental disabilities but act the roles of Hitler and Josef Mengele, who tried to exterminate those similarly handicapped. Later, an actor drops out of character again, to accuse the crowd: “You’ve come to see some freak porn.
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Does one ethnic group own its cultural artefacts?
Objects that once adorned display cases in museums around the world are disappearing from view. In recent decades, dramatic wooden Iroquois face masks, crafted by the nations and tribes of indigenous people of North America, have been taken off the shelves. Article on Aeon.
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Historical apologists should beware bloody history of Benin Bronzes
‘Benin is a city of blood, its pits full of dead and dying; human sacrifices were strewn about on every hand, hardly a thing was without a red stain.’ That was how the Illustrated London News recorded the destruction of Benin City – in what is modern-day southern Nigeria – when, in 1897, a British naval expedition was raised to avenge the deaths of nine officers killed during a trade dispute between the king of Benin and Britain. That dispute was, in turn, part of the wider 19th-century struggle between the European powers as they competed to carve up the riches of the African continent. Britain sent a force of 500 men to destroy the city, with one eye-witness describing how the British troops turned their newly manufactured Maxim machine guns on the local defenders, who fell from the trees ‘like nuts’. After ten days of fierce fighting, the British burnt down the palace and looted the royal treasures: delicate ivory carvings and magnificent copper alloy sculptures and plaques – now known as the Benin Bronzes.
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Mourning in America
Article in the Spectator New York is in the grip of memorial mania In early 1991, the construction of a federal office building in lower Manhattan was halted after an unexpected discovery. Underneath the ground, …
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Why censorship in place of free thinking at our universities?
Article in the Scotsman UNIVERSITY is supposed to be a time when you experiment, with boys, girls, strange substances, and of course ideas. If you don’t rant and rave about something radical between the ages …
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Ban on scientific display of bodies would go against Enlightened past
Article in the Scotsman Despite the mantra of access and education, displays in Scottish museums and galleries could soon be removed from shelves, as the Executive deems ‘the public’ too sensitive to see them. The …
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The rise of reverence in museums
Article in the Summer copy of Art Quarterly Magazine Museums professionals across the UK are increasingly treating certain artefacts in their collections as sacred. Over the last decade objects deemed to hold special significance or …
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Revolving-doors at the British Museum
Article in The Spectator The British Museum on-the-road scheme is part of a politically calculated argument for the museum today — it draws the heat off the repatriation debate. It is a case that needs …
