from New York Times -
To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It
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"Demolition is deemed an urgent necessity because an earthquake could strike at any time, collapsing centuries-old buildings and killing thousands."

Sounds like managerial-speak gone mad ... or an excuse to carry out political purging under the cover of "preservation".
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from The New York Times -
Polaroid Lovers Try to Revive Its Instant Film
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go to slide and audio show

Reviving the production of Polaroid films would be a certain hit with photographers and artists. However, it could also offer valuable lessons in a specific aspect of understanding how industrial production balances science with pragmatic concerns - something which heritage preservation could benefit from.
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from The Guardian -
Mies van der Rohe: demolish or not?
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"Only in architecture do we contemplate, and frequently carry out, the destruction of works by the discipline's most esteemed proponents. [...] That's the trouble with architecture. You can store a tape or a picture – even a kidney stone – pretty easily. But buildings take up valuable space. They often prevent the existence of other newer, better buildings."

Perhaps this dilemma points to the danger of an "either-or" approach in thinking about heritage preservation - either we preserve (all?) or we risk going down the path of loosing all. Such an attitude hides the fact that some things are better left to go away quietly over time - in a dignified manner, if there is one.
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from The New York Times -
Scorsese Will Distribute Restored Films via Internet
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from hangingtogether.org -
An open Smithsonian, all around
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Two different projects - one arising from the public realm while the other is an off-shoot of prior commercial work - that strongly challenge the relevance of today's (or was that yesterday's) copyright laws which aim to restrict access in the name of commercial rights.

Commercial gains and unfettered access need not (and should not) be mutually exclusive:

"The more audiences see these films, the more they want to see other films like them," Mr. Scorsese said. "Then what happens is the audience changes, which means the movies that are being made change."

And again:

"[O]pen access actually drove sales upward through awareness of the collection which, in turn, generated knowledge about other museum resources."

Is there a lesson in all these for the museum, heritage and preservation "industries"?
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from Time -
Copied Paintings Plague Vietnam's Museum
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"During the Vietnam War, the museum's own restoration department was a virtual copy factory — a fact that museum officials past and present freely admit. ... Ironically, Vietnam's practice of reproducing noteworthy works was originally carried out to rescue the country's artistic heritage during wartime."

This is blatant mismanagement, through and through!
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from Agence France-Press -
Famed Nefertiti bust 'a fake': expert
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from A+E Interactive -
Is famed Nefertiti bust a fake?
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from Art Info -
No, No, Nefertiti
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Not exactly a scientific proof of a fake - but rather, using various scientific tools to support the hypothesis of a fake. This needs further verification and tests to proof otherwise, to see if the hypothesis of a fake holds.
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from The Independent -
Is Unesco damaging the world's treasures?
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When too much of a good (but irrelevant) "thing" becomes a danger ...

"The World Heritage seal is a guarantee of preservation. At least that's the perception. But now many within the conservation community are convinced Unesco is failing. They say the moribund organisation is teetering on its once sound foundations as its principles and priorities crumble under the weight of bureaucracy and outside influence. The World Heritage emblem has come to represent a grandiose marketing tool – fodder for "things to see before you die" coffee-table books."

from The Sydney Morning Herald -
Picture this: a holiday at home, where entertainment is free
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Perhaps, the tide is turning for museums in that there is a greater appreciation of museums - not just as an alternative "lifestyle" but an integrated way of living and knowing the world. Or, perhaps, it is just circumstances that are driving up "awareness" and "visitorship numbers" which will evaporate when good times roll back round?
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from The Independent -
Please look after our Turners, Mr Wen
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This could well end up as a classic case-study of how in the rush to please/fawn (a trait, or character flaw, that politicians primarily exhibit) coupled with a total disregard of sensible concerns and pragmatic measures points to a cultural disaster in the making.
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from CeROArt -
Taking the wrong path: learning from oversights, misconceptions, failures and mistakes in conservation
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Using examples from wall painting conservation in Denmark, Isabella Brajer takes a courageous dive into a topic that seldom gets its deserved discussion in conservation work - mistakes and failures.

"Undoubtedly, mistakes have been made in the conservation profession, as in many others. Controversies, such as those involving the cleaning of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, or his marble sculpture David, show that a wide range of positions exists, critical of both the technical and theoretical aspects of conservation. It would be a shame if such controversies would discourage conservators from sharing their difficulties and erroneous decisions with colleagues."

It must surely take a strong woman or man to admit as much.