S.L. Beaumont's Blog, page 2

Illegal trafficking of cultural artefacts

In what is being described as a 'hard blow against the illegal trafficking of cultural goods' Europol, the European Law Enforcement Agency, announced in a press release that on July 4th, that more than 250 police officers detained 23 suspects and seized EUR 40 million worth of looted archaeological items.

The joint operation was initiated four years ago by a special unit of the Italian Carabinieri and was supported by officers from the Spanish Guarda, British Metropolitan Police and German Police. Members of the criminal gang are alleged to have illegally excavated and trafficked cultural relics to be sold at auction houses in Germany.

The scale of the looting and destruction of ancient historic sites in Europe and the Middle East is astonishing, as criminal networks turn to this lucrative source of income to finance their terrorist and criminal activities. Perhaps most shocking are the before and after images showing the scale of the looting in parts of Iraq and Syria, where the after aerial photos show historic sites, such as Apamea, pockmarked by holes where looters have roughly excavated whatever ancient relics they can find to sell.

In a case of life imitating art, my soon to be released novel, The Carlswick Mythology, finds Stephanie and James caught up in the trafficking of artefacts from the conflict zone of Syria to willing buyers in Europe...

Winter / Summer 2018 Reading Challenge

If, like me, you often find yourself reading just one or two genres, then a Reading Challenge is just what you need. Join me over the Antipodean winter or Northern Hemisphere summer to do the following reading challenge! 

Hitler vs Picasso and Others

First, The Monuments Men book by Robert Edsel and the subsequent movie starring George Clooney, Matt Damon et. al.,  and Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren, reminded the world of the destruction and theft of many, many cultural treasures by Nazi Germany before and during World War II.  Now, a new movie exploring this subject is due to hit our screens in March 2018.  Hitler vs Picasso and Others is a documentary style film which follows the stories behind several recovered looted art treasures. 

Check out the trailer!

The first three books in The Carlswick Mysteries series were inspired by the many modern day art lovers who continue the search for the many pieces of art from this period that are still missing.

Auckland's Pop Up Globe Theatre

The Pop Up Globe, the world’s first full scale temporary working replica of the Globe theatre is in Auckland again this summer. It’s a fantastic opportunity for those in the southern hemisphere to experience Shakespeare’s plays performed in the space for which they were originally written.

Of the five plays that are being performed, at least one, may have been lost to time had it not been for the efforts of a group of Jacobean publishers, who in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death put together the first collected edition of his plays into what became known as The First Folio. There are only 233 authenticated copies in existence today.

As Stephanie discovered in The Carlswick Deception, perhaps one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Macbeth, (being performed at the Pop Up Globe during February and March) may have not survived without the existence of the First Folio.

Street Performers

I've always admired people who can pick up an instrument and play or grab a microphone and sing, so I had to include someone playing on the public piano donated by Sir Elton John to London's St Pancras Station, into one of my books! Check out this BBC video interviewing some of the many people who have tinkled the ivories.

Nazi looted art horde to go on display

The astonishing discovery of a horde of works of art that had been forcibly taken and sold by the Nazis before and during World War II, happened while I was researching for The Carlswick Affair in 2013. The discovery at the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi art dealer and collector, once again highlighted how many items still remain unaccounted for today.  Around 1,500 works, including pieces by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Otto Dix were discovered by tax inspectors in Gurlitt's two houses.

Now, two exhibitions of these works are opening, one in Germany and one in Switzerland. It will be the first time that many of these items have been seen in public for more than 70 years. The exhibition in Bern will look at the Nazi 'degenerate art' purge in the late 1930s which saw the confiscation of many art treasures from public galleries in Germany, some which were sold overseas to raise funds for the Nazi war machine, but many were destroyed. The exhibition in Germany will focus on looted art, that which was forcibly taken from many Jewish families and the galleries of the countries which the Nazis invaded.

Stephanie (and I) would love to visit both of these exhibitions!