‘We have lost a limb’: Azu Nwagbogu, the visionary curator bringing African art home

From helping photographers capture the Nigerian protests to exhibiting during a pandemic, the director of LagosPhoto festival has had his work cut out. Now he wants to fight ‘afro-pessimism’ and the posturing around Black Lives Matter

When I first spoke to Azu Nwagbogu, the recent protests against police brutality in his native Nigeria had just entered their second week. The curator was upbeat, describing them as “an incredible awakening”. A week later, when we made contact again, he sounded more sombre, but no less defiant, following the fatal police shootings of at least 12 protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, the main gathering point for the daily demonstrations.

“This protest is not about ‘the poor masses’,” he tells me. “My sister, who is a medical doctor and a consultant anaesthetist, was active in the protests. Everyone who isn’t in government has had enough. The genie has been let out of the bottle and it won’t go back in without the wishes of the people being fulfilled.”

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Salud! Barcelona’s tiny local bodegas saved for posterity

Protection move widely welcomed, but many traditional bars are struggling to pay their rents, especially under lockdown

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Barcelona council has come to the rescue of some of the city’s most emblematic and best-loved bars by adding them to the list of protected sites and buildings. However, thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, you won’t be able to get a drink in any of them for at least the next few weeks.

The city has added 11 bodegas to the list of 220 shops that are considered part of the city’s cultural heritage. The move has been widely welcomed, though it comes too late to save many small businesses, from toy and book shops to grocery and furniture stores, that were part of the fabric and essence of the city but were forced out by soaring rents. In most cases they have been replaced by chain stores.

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A selfie set in stone: hidden portrait by cheeky mason found in Spain 900 years on

A British art historian’s painstaking study of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela uncovered a medieval prank

He is a medieval in-joke, a male figure carved in the early 12th century for one of the world’s greatest cathedrals, but no one has known of his existence until now. The figure has gone unnoticed by millions of worshippers who have made the long pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, north-western Spain over the centuries. He has looked down on them from the top of one of the many pillars that soar upwards, each decorated with carved foliage, among which he is concealed.

Now he has been discovered by a British art scholar who believes that he was actually never meant to be seen because he is a self-portrait of a stonemason who worked on the cathedral in the 12th century.

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Historic Book of Lismore returning to Ireland after centuries in British hands

Manuscript including lives of the Irish saints and a translation of Marco Polo was captured during a siege of Kilbrittain Castle in the 1640s

A 15th-century medieval manuscript, one of the “great books of Ireland”, is returning home almost 400 years after it was captured in a siege.

The Book of Lismore, which has been donated to University College Cork by the trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement, was compiled for Fínghin Mac Carthaigh, the Lord of Carbery from 1478 to 1505. It consists of 198 large vellum folios containing some of medieval Irish literature’s greatest masterpieces, including the lives of Irish saints, the only surviving Irish translation of the travels of Marco Polo, and the adventures of the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, or Finn MacCool.

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Auction for Jerusalem museum’s treasures postponed at last minute

Sotheby’s in London had been due to sell more than 200 items from cash-strapped museum

Among the hundreds of precious items at Jerusalem’s Museum for Islamic Art is an ostentatious helmet that may have belonged to an Ottoman sultan, a page from a nearly millennium-old Qur’an, and a 13th-century Mamluk glass bowl.

While no doubt treasured, these artefacts can no longer be considered priceless. In a controversial Sotheby’s auction previously set to take place in London on Tuesday, the bowl was estimated at £60,000-£80,000 and the helmet and Qur’an leaf at £200,000-£300,000 each.

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National Trust to cut 1,300 jobs as a result of Covid-19 crisis

More than 500 compulsory redundancies as charity aims for annual savings of £100m

Almost 1,300 jobs are to be lost at the National Trust as a result of the coronavirus crisis, but the charity said it had more than halved the number of compulsory redundancies it expected to make.

A union has described the job losses as “devastating” for people affected but also called the plan “a reasonable way to move forward”.

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Malta may demand return of fossil given to Prince George by David Attenborough

Attenborough gave seven-year-old a giant shark tooth found on a family holiday

From the world-famous Koh-i-noor diamond to the Rosetta Stone, British royals have long been gifted rare objects that campaigners want repatriated to their rightful lands.

Prince George, it seems, is the latest in the line of fire, after being given a giant prehistoric shark tooth by the environmentalist and national treasure Sir David Attenborough, found on a family holiday to Malta more than 50 years ago.

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From the archive: Stonehenge, it’s place in British prehistory – 16 September 1924

16 September 1924 People wrongly believe that this majestic group of ruins was the Westminster Abbey of the Druids in Britain

The belief that Stonehenge, in common with other megalithic remains in the British Isles — menhirs, dolmens, and circles, — is druidical, and that the majestic group of ruins on Salisbury Plain was the Westminster Abbey of the Druids in Britain, is widely held, and especially by the non-scientific public. It has found expression in many of the older Ordnance maps, in which the term druidical is applied to groups of prehistoric remains which are now known to belong to the Neolithic or Bronze Age. This error will doubtless be erased in future editions.

It has also led within recent years to the formation of a sect at Clapham who assume that they are the heirs of the Druids, and as such claim the right to bury the ashes of their dead at Stonehenge, which they view as the Mecca of their faith. From their own account it appears that they have already buried the ashes of some of their members and the bodies of some of their children within the precincts. Whatever they do in the future, we look to the Board of Works to prevent further desecration of the noblest pre-historic monument in Europe, or any interference with the exploration now being carried on by the Society of Antiquaries and the Wiltshire Archeological Society.

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Bronze age Britons made keepsakes from parts of dead relatives, archaeologists say

Pieces of bone were turned into ornaments, and may have been placed on display

Bronze age Britons remembered the dead by keeping and curating bits of their bodies, and even turning them into instruments and ornaments, according to new research on the remains.

Archaeologists found that pieces of bone buried with the dead were often from people who had died decades earlier, suggesting their remains had been kept for future generations, as keepsakes or perhaps for home display.

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Looted landmarks: how Notre-Dame, Big Ben and St Mark’s were stolen from the east

They are beacons of western civilisation. But, says an explosive new book, the designs of Europe’s greatest buildings were plundered from the Islamic worldtwin towers, rose windows, vaulted ceilings and all

As Notre-Dame cathedral was engulfed by flames last year, thousands bewailed the loss of this great beacon of western civilisation. The ultimate symbol of French cultural identity, the very heart of the nation, was going up in smoke. But Middle East expert Diana Darke was having different thoughts. She knew that the origins of this majestic gothic pile lay not in the pure annals of European Christian history, as many have always assumed, but in the mountainous deserts of Syria, in a village just west of Aleppo to be precise.

“Notre-Dame’s architectural design, like all gothic cathedrals in Europe, comes directly from Syria’s Qalb Lozeh fifth-century church,” Darke tweeted on the morning of 16 April, as the dust was still settling in Paris. “Crusaders brought the ‘twin tower flanking the rose window’ concept back to Europe in the 12th century.”

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Rage against the dimming light: Irish rebel over lighthouse LED makeover

Proposals to install low-energy devices in seven coastal beacons in the north and the republic have angered campaigners, who say the enchanting ‘loom’ of the beams will be lost

The “loom of the light” is a phenomenon that lets you see the glow of a lighthouse from over the horizon. Particles of water vapour in the atmosphere scatter the light upwards so it can be glimpsed further than the line of sight. It is an optical wonder that has delighted – and guided – mariners for centuries.

But now some fear an environmental push towards low energy will extinguish a loom that stretches across the Irish Sea, draining beauty from the nocturnal landscape.

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Nantes cathedral fire: volunteer arrested and charged with arson

The 39-year-old who closed the cathedral for the night had previously been questioned and released by police

A volunteer assistant suspected of setting a French cathedral on fire has been rearrested, then indicted and detained in pre-trial custody by prosecutors.

The man, already held and released by police last week, was indicted on Saturday night “on charges of destruction and damage by fire” of the gothic cathedral of Nantes, the public prosecutor for the western city said.

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Erdoğan leads first prayers at Hagia Sophia museum reverted to mosque

Turkish president recites Qur’an at monument as Greece declares day of mourning

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has led worshippers in the first prayers in Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia since his controversial declaration that the monument, which over the centuries has served as a cathedral, mosque and museum, would be turned back into a Muslim house of worship.

The Turkish leader and an entourage of senior ministers arrived for the service in the heart of Istanbul’s historic district on Friday afternoon, kneeling on new turquoise carpets while sail-like curtains covered the original Byzantine mosaics of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

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Scottish politicians call for urgent action to stop Gaelic dying out

Justice secretary, Kate Forbes, among those asking for language to be prioritised

Senior politicians in Scotland’s Gaelic-speaking areas have called for the language to be given much greater priority in civil and public life to stop it dying out.

Kate Forbes, the Scottish justice secretary, and Alasdair Allan, a former minister, said Gaelic had to be given precedence or parity in all areas of public life and the economy across Gaelic areas of the Highlands and islands.

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It’s a botch-up! Monkey Christ and the worst art repairs of all time

As another religious painting restoration goes horribly wrong, we take a look at some of the finest examples of butchered statues, art installations and frescoes

In the latest instalment of the greatest genre of art news – and I write that as a lover of art – another restoration has gone awry. The word “awry” is being generous.

This is the revelation that a private collector, based in Valencia, paid 1,200 (£1,070) for a restoration job on baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables. It is no longer immaculate. It now looks like an e-fit issued by a local police force, with those thin eyebrows popular in the 90s. What’s more, the restorer (who it turns out was a furniture restorer by trade) made two attempts – the second significantly worse than the first. That one, the e-fit one, has the Virgin Mary staring straight ahead, which isn’t even the same position as the original, which has Mary looking to the heavens.

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Scrap Stonehenge road tunnel plans say archaeologists after neolithic discovery

Exclusive: Discovery of prehistoric structure is another reason to give up ‘disastrous, white elephant’ scheme

Leading archaeologists say a £1.6bn scheme to build a road tunnel through the historic Stonehenge landscape should be scrapped altogether after the sensational nearby discovery of the largest prehistoric structure ever found in Britain.

Mike Parker Pearson, professor of British later prehistory at University College London, said: “This is just another reason to give up this disastrous, white elephant of a scheme.”

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National Trust buys romantic landscape of Lorna Doone novel

Nine acres in Exmoor includes buildings, rivers and moorland linked to 19th-century tale

It is a place of wooded valleys, tumbling rivers and rugged moorland that was immortalised in the 19th-century novel Lorna Doone, a twisty tale of romance, murder and outlaws by RD Blackmore.

The National Trust announced on Tuesday it had bought nine acres of land in Doone country, including farmhouses and cottages, and is hoping to encourage more visitors to explore this tucked-away area of Exmoor.

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Christie’s withdraws ‘looted’ Greek and Roman treasures

Four antiquities pulled from auction after claims they came from illicit excavations

Christie’s has quietly withdrawn four Greek and Roman antiquities from auction this month amid allegations that they had been looted from illicit excavations.

The items were in the original brochure catalogue but later removed from the online site with no explanation.

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Remains of earliest purpose-built playhouse found in east London

Location of the Red Lion, which predated the Globe, has been subject of debate for years

Archaeologists believe they have found remains of one of the most elusive of all known Elizabethan structures – the earliest purpose-built playhouse in Britain and a prototype for a theatre that staged plays by a young William Shakespeare.

The Red Lion is thought to have been built around 1567 and probably played host to travelling groups of players. Its precise location has been the subject of conjecture and debate for a number of years, but archaeologists are as certain as they can be that they have found its remains at a site in the East End of London where a self-storage facility once stood.

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Britain’s urban fabric comes under spotlight shone by BLM protests

Force of history demands re-evaluation of colonial statues and street names

Cities have always been about apportioning and memorialising power; about writing force into space. Britain’s colonial and imperial past is inscribed into the bricks and mortar of every city and town in the country. Mostly this hidden text of power relations and wealth acquisition lies dormant in the half-forgotten significance of street names, in the knotty iconography of grand facades, in the barely read inscriptions on memorials and sculptures, in the nomenclature of grand public buildings. Forming the backdrop of lived lives, these omnipresent clues are rarely fully decoded. The most monumental of sculptures has a habit of fading away to near invisibility if it is sufficiently familiar.

At times, though, such associations are activated and become urgent. So it has been in the case of the long-running affair of Edward Colston, who made his fortune in the 17th century from the enslavement of thousands of Africans.

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