Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collections
Publication
Profile Books (2013), Hardcover
User reviews
LibraryThing member adzebill
A ramble through the world of art forgery, theft, book collecting, and library destruction. All told in an avuncular voice, very approachable and obviously a collection of television/print stories. I appreciated the pretty spot-on account of the theft of the McCahon Urewera mural – no real
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inaccuracies in the coverage of some quite nuanced NZ issues that I could see, which gives one hope that the rest of the book is similarly-well researched. Show Less
LibraryThing member Figgles
In this collection on essays, each featuring a lost, stolen or shredded (destroyed) artwork, Gekoski muses on the impermanence or art, the significance (or otherwise) of culture, and the different meanings works take on over time as they become detached from their original cultural moorings.
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There's a strong thread of the reappraisal of colonial attitudes and collecting, and an acknowledgement of the tension between repatriation and preservation, as well as the value of life over objects. I was highly amused to discover (what is not taught in art school) that Picasso himself had been suspected of the the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre (he had actually pilfered several smaller objects), a theft which was mirrored by the 1986 theft (and return) of his own Weeping Woman from the NGV. A good and thought provoking read. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
284 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
1846684919 / 9781846684913