Pope Benedict Stops Frog Threat

Pope Benedict took the time this week to focus on one of the worlds largest menaces to civilized culture and faith, Martin Kippenberger’s Zuerst die Füsse.

The Green Frog measuring 4 ft. in height who is holding a mug of beer in one hand and a egg in the other while being crucified has been a thorn in the side of of the Church for over a decade. John Paul may have turned a blind eye to it’s existence at the Museion museum in the city of Bolzano but Benedict has had enough.

It is such an agregious work that Franz Pahl, the president of the regional government, being so enraged by the sculpture he went on hunger strike to demand its removal and consequently ended up in hospital during the summer.

“Surely this is not a work of art but a blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash that upsets many people,” he told Reuters before the start of the board meeting.

In a letter of support for Pahl, the Vatican said the sculpture “wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God’s love”.

Pope Benedict has set his sights on eliminating kitsch filled religiously sarcastic art, sexual abuse scandals and world genocide……… In that order and I applaud his steadfast dedication to this struggle and thank him from protecting me and others from religious work such as this and the “Where’s Waldo/Jesus” series, that really gets my mind a questioning.

Getty Acquires Loan of Bernini’s After Handing Over Looted Art.

Elisabetta Povoledo has a article on The New York Times website regarding the Getty’s new massive loan of Bernini sculptures, painting and drawings slated to show this summer.

” ROME — A major loan exhibition of Bernini’s sculptures, paintings and drawings that is also described as the first full viewing of this artist’s portrait busts is headed for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles this summer.

Including major loans from Italian museums, the exhibition underlines the benefits gained by the Getty from its recent handover of several dozen Greek antiquities that Italy asserted had been looted from its ancient archaeological sites.

When talks for the return of the artifacts stalled last year, Italy threatened to impose a cultural embargo against the museum. “There was a moment last summer when we really were on standby,” said Catherine Hess, an associate curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Getty who helped organize the exhibition. ‘No one knew what would happen if the cultural embargo went through.’ Finally, an accord for the restitution of 40 artifacts was brokered in August.

Among the exceptional loans for the Bernini show is a sensual bust of Costanza Bonarelli, the wife of one of Bernini’s assistants. (She became romantically involved with Bernini as well as with his younger brother — a love triangle that became so divisive, archival evidence suggests, that Bernini slashed her face, and Pope Urban VIII was asked to intervene).”

Read the full article here.

Stunning temples 100 feet below the surface of the Italian Alps

30 miles from the ancient city of Turin, lies the valley of Valchiusella. This is the place that Oberto Airaudi startted his excavations and painting in 1977. The temple complexes which were inspired by a childhood dream he had of human civilization at age 10 are so large that they could hold the volume of Big Ben twenty times over.

With the help of over 16 people and twenty years they built it to what it is today. Funding the construction with Oberto Airaudi’s (or Falco as he prefers to be called) income as an insurance broker and multiple local businesses that were set up.

After being investigated for tax evasion by the local police and them finally hearing about the temples they saw them, seized them and have finally opened them for public viewing.

Read more and see aditional pictures here.