Fire Lays Waste Historic Japanese Castle
A fire broke out early Thursday and spread quickly through historic Shuri Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the UNESCO World Heritage site.
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culture
Spain Gets Last Word on London Sale of Botticelli Painting
A Botticelli portrait of a humanist poet that long hung in Madrid’s El Prado Museum is being offered this week for sale during London’s Frieze Masters art fair for $30 million. But a Spanish law on cultural treasures might create difficulties for a foreign buyer seeking to bring the treasure home.
Read moreLegal Fight Brewing Over Steve Bannon’s Academy in Italian Monastery
Steve Bannon plans to turn a 13th century Italian monastery outside of Rome into an “Academy for the Judeo-Christian West,” where he can mold cultural and political “gladiators” to carry out his fight against liberal elites, Islam and socialists. But Italy’s culture minister thanks that might not be such a good idea and is seeking to stop Bannon’s plans.
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Hawaii Protesters Press on to Stop Telescope, Face Arrest
Thousands of protesters joined a swelling effort Wednesday to stop construction of a telescope they have long tried to keep off a mountain considered sacred to some Native Hawaiians, blocking a road to Hawaii’s highest peak and prompting the arrest of a group of elderly demonstrators.
Read moreTribes Vie at DC Circuit for Input on Telecom Work
A lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission may have overplayed the agency’s hand Friday at the D.C. Circuit in denying that a 2018 rule change would endanger sites sacred to Native Americans.
Read moreChimps Varied ‘Culture’ Matters for Conservation, Study Says
In a new study, scientists argue that this diversity of behaviors should be protected as species themselves are safeguarded, and that they are now under threat from human disturbance.
Read moreUS, Israel Exit UNESCO, Claiming Bias
The United States and Israel officially quit UNESCO, the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight Tuesday, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid claims that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias.
Read moreOhio Historians Sue to Acquire Ancient Cultural Site
An Ohio historical group claims in court that a country club refuses to agree to an early end to its lease of a golf course covering an “enormous, geometric earthworks” built by Native Americans 2,000 years ago.
Read moreLA Neighborhood Looks to Preserve Cultural – and Culinary – Identity
In a hilly, northeast community of Los Angeles, a giant chicken statue towers over taquerias and elote vendors along Figueroa Avenue – the historically Latino commercial avenue in Highland Park that has evolved in recent years to satisfy the tastes and desires of new residents of a neighborhood in flux.
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Proposed Tunnel at Stonehenge Alarms World Heritage Groups
A plan to build a 1.8-mile-long tunnel next to Stonehenge has fired up archaeologists to protect one of the Earth’s most beloved World Heritage sites. “This would establish a sort of precedent for major construction inside a World Heritage site,” said Dan Hicks, a University of Oxford archaeologist who opposes the project. “If you can do it in Stonehenge, you can do it anywhere.”
Read moreParis Bistros and Terraces Feel Endangered, Seek UN Status
Owners of the bistros and terrace cafes that are integral to the Paris way of life want the “je ne sais quoi” of their establishments to be recognized as of broader value and endangered.
Read moreIn LA’s Koreatown, Little Bangladesh Stakes Its Claim
The aroma of spicy, hot stone soups and Korean barbecue fills the air along Third Street in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. As the scent drifts east across this food mecca it meets the unmistakable fragrance of spicy curries and fish biryanis emanating from markets in Little Bangladesh, a little-known community that staked its claim here eight years ago.
Read moreExtremist Must Pay $3.2M for Leveled Timbuktu Shrines
The International Criminal Court on Thursday ordered an extremist from Mali to pay $3.2 million in reparations for demolishing Sufi shrines that cemented Timbuktu’s reputation as the “City of 333 Saints.”
Read moreIsraelis Outraged by UNESCO Decision on Hebron Holy Site
The United Nations cultural agency on Friday declared the old city in the West Bank town of Hebron as a Palestinian world heritage site, a decision that outraged Israeli officials who say the move negated the deep Jewish ties to the biblical town and its ancient shrine.
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$75 Million Pledged to Protect Heritage Sites in War Zones
World donors have pledged more than $75 million dollars to protect endangered world heritage in conflict zones.
Read moreAarhus & Pafos Named EU’s 2017 Culture Capitals
The Danish city of Aarhus and Pafos on the island of Cyprus will ring in the new year as the 2017 European capitals of culture.
Read moreFrance Pledges $30 Million for Heritage Protection
France committed $30 million toward protecting cultural heritage sites during wartime, a first step in the creation of an international fund aimed at preventing destruction like that carried out by Islamic State militants.
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