One of so many tragedies occuring in Egypt and surrounding countries...
Have a read of Judith Dobrzynski's superb blog Real Clear Arts for a little insight:
Details on Bombing At Cairo Museum
January 26, 2014 by Judith H. Dobrzynski
Renewed
bombing in Cairo has destroyed the highly decorated facade of the
Museum of Islamic Art there, and severely affected much of the art and
artifacts inside. The damage occurred on Friday, when a powerful car
bomb exploded in front of the adjacent headquarters of the security
police, according to Ahramonline.
The bomb, which killed four people and injured dozens more, also
damaged the nearby Egyptian National Library and Archives building.
It’s
unclear what can be salvaged inside the building, which dates to the
19th century. The collection includes wood, metal, ceramic, glass,
crystal, and textiles objects “of all Islamic periods from all over the
world.” Ahramonline said:
“The museum building is in a real mess,” said [Minister
of State for Antiquities Mohamed] Ibrahim, describing the interior of
the museum as “topsy-turvy.” According to Ibrahim, a number of ceilings
inside the building collapsed, and some artefacts were damaged.
“Until now I cannot move freely inside the museum to continue my
inspection tour due to safety reasons, as the ceilings are still on the
verge of collapsing,” he said.
The Associated Press article dated Jan. 24 has a full report, including:
Centuries-old glass and porcelain pieces were smashed to
powder, a priceless wooden prayer niche was destroyed and manuscripts
were soaked by water spewing from broken pipes…
…Ceramic and Gypsum pieces dating to the Fatimid and Mamluk periods
suffered the most damage, along with ancient lanterns once used in
mosques during the holy month of Ramadan. Of the world’s 300 rare
lanterns, the museum houses 60, and five of those were ruined, said
Rafaat el-Nabarawy, an Islamic antiquities professor….
…Among other destroyed treasures, he said, were glass pieces dating
back to 750, including an ornate pot of a rare type of glass believed to
be pioneered by the early Egyptians.
Other priceless pieces that were damaged or destroyed included a
century-old wooden niche or “mihrab” used in mosques to point to the
direction of Mecca during the five daily calls to prayer. Arabic
inscriptions and verses from the Quran were carved on the piece, which
belonged to Ruqaya, a daughter of Ali, a successor of Prophet Muhammed…
Today, the Associated Press reported that a UNESCO team was on its way to Cairo to assess the damage. UNESCO promised $100,000 to help the museum recover.
UNESCO’s statement condemning the bombing is here.
The AP also reported that the
museum “recently completed $14.4 million renovation [that] included 25
exhibition halls, as well as state-of-the-art security and lighting
systems, a fully-equipped restoration laboratory, a children’s museum
and a library, much of which was gutted by the blast.”
The pictures I’ve posted are before and after shots.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of UNESCO (top), of Ahramonline (bottom)
For the original article click here
A rather belated Happy New Year
to everyone! January seems to have whizzed by and Spring is
certainly just around the corner, unless you live in the many parts
of the world experiencing strange weather these days. We, in the UK,
have had a wet & windy time of late and there’s a good deal of
flooding still around. I also feel for my many friends in the USA &
Canada who have experienced some of the coldest weather in memory.
It hasn’t really had much impact on me as I’ve been pretty well
tied to my desk or edit suites since before Christmas.
The good news
is that yesterday we ‘Picture-Locked’ IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN. It’s
been more or less a 4 year journey so to finally say ‘That’s it!
No more picture editing’ is a great moment. There is still a lot to
do with grading, audio mixing, subtitling and credits but I do feel a
mountain has been climbed. Am I happy with it? Yes, definitely. I
guess I wouldn’t have stopped editing were I not. But more than
that, I admit there were times when I struggled with Chopin – it
seems strange to say (after life stories like Mozart & Beethoven)
but there seemed to be endless hard choices about what not to
include. As ever, summarising (in an entertaining, accessible way)
someone’s full and significant life in only 110 minutes is always
going to be a challenge. The first good news for me is that one
eminent historian of the period and a key Polish Chopin Institute have all given a full thumbs up. The Chopin Museum in Warsaw want to
be able to show it regularly in their (wonderful) gallery – and
actually that’s the best recommendation I could have got. The film
is not yet finished but that’s a good sign. A lot of time is also
being spent on sorting out the film’s distribution….and that goes
well too. We will be announcing officail release dates soon. So
posters, press stills, social media and all that kind of thing are
being worked on. What’s nice is those countries want to take the
opportunity to reshow MOZART, HAYDN & BEETHOVEN. Well, we’ll
see….let’s hope financially we can at least break even!
In a
musical vein, I’ve been working on the other music film too which
is the film about Beethoven’s 5 piano concertos – with Leif OveAndsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Having filmed (a 5-camera
shoot) two more of the concertos in Brussels recently, we had a chunk
more material to start playing with ideas in the edit suite. That’s
always such an exciting, important and creative moment in any film’s
life… This is a film that just has to avoid me messing up. I have
the best music, performed by ‘the world’s best pianist’ `(The Irish Times) and a great orchestra. I’ve been hamstrung as always
by the horrors of funding but I don’t think it’s impacted on the
filming or the film…So I’m getting excited about that one too
(which will be released in 2015). As for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN…we’re
getting lots of requests for repeat screenings (To book a screening visit seventh-art.com).
More on all that another time…. One last thing, if you’re in
the UK, do try to see Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies at Stratford
– brilliant.
