Denmark’s past is rotting away in its museums

Inside a European museum store

In the last three years, mold has been discovered in 118 storage facilities around Denmark. Roskilde Museum is a typical example, where up to 70,000 items are in danger of being permanently lost, Poor storage facilities mean that mold is destroying cultural heritage.(Howard Jarvis, "Denmark’s past is rotting away in its museums" Tourism 21 March 2018)

Mold and decay are getting the better of artefacts from the past that are hidden away in Denmark’s increasingly musty museums [...] Danish museums are fighting a losing battle when it comes to preserving the country’s cultural heritage. Many of the storage areas used by museums are not fit for the purpose. Often they are in old buildings such as redundant schools, cellars, attics and even barns, which lack the air conditioning systems necessary to control the temperature and keep away the damp.   As with the parallel issue of declining visitor numbers, this is not a new problem. In 2007 and again in 2014, the national auditors Rigsrevisionen sounded the alarm to the Culture Ministry, according to the media reports. Politicians and state funders are not taking the matter seriously enough [...] But museums cannot expect financial relief from the culture ministry any time soon, the minister Mette Bock responded, saying, “I must make it clear that there is no extra money for museums this year.”

It is a no-brainer that underfunded museums need to sell off some of these stored items to collectors to look after, and get the  funds to look after the rest.

New York Art Dealer Attacked in Foreign Jail

A New York art dealer imprisoned in India without a trial for two years has now been attacked in prison by a murder suspect in Trichy Central Prison according to the Times of India .

Kapoor has been lodged in Trichy Central Prison after his arrest in Germany in 2016. Yuvaraj, who was lodged in the Vellore Central Prison, was shifted to Trichy Central Prison on March 1 over security reasons. According to prison sources, the duo engaged in a scuffle when Yuvraj questioned Kapoor of wasting water. Kapoor was washing his cloths using water from a common tap. Yuvraj asked him to close the tap and not to waste water. But Kapoor refused to do so and asked Yuvraj to mind his own business. After a brief altercation, Yuvraj started slapping Kapoor. Prison guards came to Kapoor’s rescue hearing his cries. 

Beaten up for washing his clothes? The US authorities should be doing everything they can to end the captivity of this reputable dealer in inhumane conditions and bring Mr Kapoor home.

Famed Archaeologist 'Discovered' His Own Fakes at 9,000-Year-Old Settlement

Owen Jarus, Famed Archaeologist 'Discovered' His Own Fakes at 9,000-Year-Old Settlement Live Science March 12, 2018

A famed archaeologist well-known for discovering the sprawling 9,000-year-old settlement in Turkey called Çatalhöyük seems to have faked several of his ancient findings and may have run a "forger's workshop" of sorts, one researcher says. James Mellaart, who died in 2012, created some of the "ancient" murals at Çatalhöyük that he supposedly discovered; he also forged documents recording inscriptions that were found at Beyköy, a village in Turkey, said geoarchaeologist Eberhard Zangger, president of the Luwian Studies Foundation. Zangger examined Mellaart's apartment in London between Feb. 24 and 27, finding "prototypes," as Zangger calls them, of murals and inscriptions that Mellaart had claimed were real.  [...] Mellaart first published descriptions of the Çatalhöyük murals in 1962 in the magazine Archaeology, and published more examples over the following decades. Some of the murals that Mellaart described in publications showed only drawings and no actual photographs. These include a mural from Çatalhöyük that supposedly shows a volcano exploding. How many of the Çatalhöyük murals are fake is not yet clear. Mellaart "produced a mélange of published facts, unpublished data and imagination. It is virtually impossible to disentangle," Zangger said. Mellaart's career was not without controversy. In 1964, he was accused of inadvertently aiding smugglers trying to sell stolen artifacts and was barred from excavating in Turkey. "He still had half a century to live. During this time, he appears to have increasingly entered an imaginary world. Maybe he wanted to somehow retaliate by misleading his colleagues in the field," Zangger said. [...] Mellaart was evidently a genius in some ways. But he misused his talents, thereby causing tremendous damage to the field," Zangger said. Ian Hodder, who currently leads excavations at Çatalhöyük, declined to comment on the situation.