Category Literature & Leisure

Mona Lisa is known for her inscrutable smile, but there’s another Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece which is equally intriguing. The Salvator Mundi is the world’s most expensive artwork. In 2017, it was sold for a record $450m at auction by Christie’s in New York. After that, the location of the painting was kept secret. Many people speculated about its location, but were unable to find it. On June 2019, Artnet, an art industry news service disclosed the mysterious hideout of the painting. According to the news service, the 500-year-old painting was being kept on Prince Mohammed’s yacht, Serene!

The fact that Salvator Mundi was the last work by da Vinci in private hands therefore makes it an extremely enticing prospect for any private collector looking to own a serious piece of art history.

There’s been some debate in the art world as to whether the da Vinci painting is really by the master himself. Some think it’s a fake, whilst some think that extensive restoration work on the painting interferes with the ability to attribute it to da Vinci. Christie’s say that scholars agree that is authentic and its finding in 2005 is “the greatest artistic rediscovery of the 20th century.”

 

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A newly identified portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci, was displayed in London as the world marked the 500th anniversary of the death of the artist and inventor.

The sketch was made by an unidentified assistant shortly before the master’s death in 1519. Only one other portrait has survived from the artist’s lifetime, aside from self-portraits.

The film, like the book, was considered controversial. It was met with especially harsh criticism by the Catholic Church for the accusation that it is behind a two-thousand-year-old cover-up concerning what the Holy Grail really is and the concept that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and that the union produced a daughter, as well as its treatment of the organizations Priory of Sion and Opus Dei. Many members urged the laity to boycott the film. In the book, Dan Brown states that the Priory of Sion and “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

The film grossed $224 million in its worldwide opening weekend and a total of $758 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2006, as well as Howard’s highest-grossing film to date. However, the film received generally negative reviews from critics. It was followed by two sequels, Angels & Demons (2009) and Inferno (2016).

 

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If the 2000s were about Harry Potter, then the 2010s were all about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The MCU, which includes 22 films, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man, became the most successful film franchise of all time, making more than $18.2bn to date.

Avengers: Endgame, released on April 26, 2019, spelt the end of phase three of the MCU and the infinitely Saga. There was so much buzz around the film that multiplexes held special early-morning and post-midnight screenings, which ran to packed houses.

Endgame made an estimated $1.19 million at the domestic box office this weekend to push its total worldwide tally to $2.79 billion. Avatar’s haul stands at $2.789 billion. The record is the newest jewel in Marvel’s crown — or Infinity Stone in its gauntlet, if we want to stay on theme with the Marvel cinematic mythology. When the movie came out in April, it set the record ($1.2 billion) for the biggest worldwide opening weekend in history and the biggest domestic opening weekend in history; it also holds the fastest-to-$1 billion title (it only took five days).

 

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England paid tribute to the early-19th century novelist, Jane Austen by printing her image on the new 10-pound note, which replaced the image of naturalist Charles Darwin. It was issued on September 14, 2017.

The £10 note will be made of the same material as the £5 note, which means it also contains some traces of animal fat – an issue which caused concern for vegans and some religious groups when it was launched last September.

A petition to ban the note attracted more than 100,000 signatures but the new £10 will again contain some tallow, which is derived from meat products.

The Jane Austen quote on the note from Pride and Prejudice has also attracted some unfavourable comment.

The quotation: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” is uttered by a character called Caroline Bingley who in fact has no interest in books and is merely trying to impress Mr Darcy, a potential suitor.

But Mr Carney defended the choice.

“It captures much of her [Jane Austen’s] spirit, at least in my mind,” he said. “It draws out some of the essence of some of her social satire and her insight into people’s character. So it works on multiple levels.”

A new polymer £20 featuring artist JMW Turner is due to be issued by 2020, but there are no plans to replace the current £50 note, which was released in 2011.

The Bank of England says the new £10 notes contain sophisticated security features and are expected to last five years, which is two-and-a-half times longer than the current note.

 

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The first songwriter to receive the Nobel Prize, Bob Dylan courted controversy over his win. Firstly, he did not accept the award till 2017. Then, he was criticized for plagiarizing parts of his lecture from an online study guide. The lecture is the only requirement to claim the 8m kronor prize money.

The Academy praised him for “creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. Despite this, Dylan failed initially to acknowledge the honour, and was branded “impolite and arrogant” by one member of the Academy for failing to respond.

Dylan finally spoke about being awarded the Nobel Prize over two weeks after it was announced he was receiving the honour.

“It’s hard to believe,” he told the Daily Telegraph in an interview.

Asked why he chose to stay silent about it for so long, Dylan only replied: “Well, I’m right here.”

 

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Another incident in 2017 showed how the awards platform can be used for doing well. Actress Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award during the Golden Globes to call out the then President-elect Donald Trump for trampling on the freedom of the press and reminded those in Hollywood of the responsibility of empathy.

Streep voiced her heartbreak at Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter. “And this instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing,” she said. “Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence.” Indeed, Streep’s speech remains relevant even today.

 

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