Good morning. The son of a murdered nanny claims to have tracked down Lord Lucan, who disappeared 45 years ago: “In November 1974, 29-year-old Sandra Rivett was viciously bludgeoned to death in the basement of the Belgravia home shared by British peer Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, and his wife Veronica. Rivett’s son, Neil Berriman, 52, claims to have tracked the now 85-year-old missing Earl to Australia, where he lives with three companions and often listens to distant trains on the veranda of his home.”

The “forgotten masters” of the East India Company: “The term ‘Company painting’ has been widely used to describe works commissioned from Indian artists by members of the East India Company from the 1770s until 1857. There are all kinds of problems with this label, most notably that it gives priority to the patrons rather than the artists. Not only is this self-evidently unjust, but it has also, in the era of postcolonial studies, caused such unease that, according to William Dalrymple, the paintings in question have not received the attention they deserve. One of the aims of Forgotten Masters, a superb exhibition at the Wallace Collection, is to redress the balance and draw attention to those who actually painted these beautiful works of art.”

Bria Sandford talks to the University Bookman about her work at Sentinel and Portfolio: “These days I’m looking for books on two tracks: (1) big platform-driven books that address conservative ‘moods,’ books for middle America, not about middle America, and (2) books creatively addressing the pain points centrists may have missed.”

Mary Higgins Clark has died. She was 92.

Why we love Leonardo: “Only 15 paintings are attributed to Leonardo. He lived off and on in Florence but for long periods was cosseted by potentates such as the Duke of Milan and the French King Francis I who considered him their pet genius. He took forever to finish paintings, if he finished them at all. He was born out of wedlock, his father a small-town lawyer and his mother a peasant. He had little formal education. When he tried to steal papal work from the young Raphael and Michelangelo, he failed. By 1510 in Rome, however esteemed Leonardo was, they were more fashionable, and reliable. Why, then, is Leonardo the genius for all seasons, the original Renaissance man?”

Essay of the Day:

In The Washington Examiner, Anthony Paletta writes about the art the United Nations has acquired over more than sixty years:

“There’s a New York collection featuring works by Henry Moore, Fernand Leger, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Barbara Hepworth, Rufino Tamayo, Candido Portinari, and numerous others. It doesn’t appear on museum listings because it isn’t housed in one — it’s in the United Nations complex in Manhattan. Somehow, in the midst of performing all of its other functions, the U.N. has acquired a striking amount of great art.

“This art is not curated in any traditional sense. In fact, there’s no curator. The U.N. has no budget for buying art nor any mechanism for shedding it. Politics and donor interests naturally play a role in the functions of essentially all museums, but seldom so overtly as here, where suggestions about moving a piece can earn you the opprobrium of not just a grandee but a nation-state.

“The U.N. began receiving art donations soon after its building opened in 1952. Like most new homeowners, the U.N. initially wasn’t very choosy about what filled up its blank walls. But space soon grew constricted, and there’s been more than one moratorium on art acquisitions. Currently, the complex features 300 gifts from 193 countries. These range from tapestries to mosaics to coins to busts to even a movable type model.

“The U.N. eventually established a theoretical limit of one donation per country. Werner Schmidt, a U.N. public information officer, explained that the limit is ‘really about equal representation’ and that ‘we want all member states’ voices.’ Like most international protocols, this one has been broken repeatedly. A number of states have made multiple donations, and others are constantly offering to.”

Read the rest.

Photo: Trim

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