All stories about "Museums"

We've already sent you to some of London's best design shops for the home. Here's a list of top design destinations and events for the design junkie in search of modern inspiration and historical perspective. After the jump: 400 years of English interiors at the Geffrye Museum in Shoreditch, the newest work of international design stars at the Design Museum along the Thames, and London's only antiques, vintage, and retro department store.

Most of what one needs to know about Finland is easily summed up in just a few lines:
Wintersun: From August to May, the Finnish night lasts twenty-five hours.
Vodka: It's kept on ice in the freezer, and the traditional Finnish breakfast is a half liter of it accompanied by a piece of smoked fish.
Reindeer: They're quick to bite, have a greasy coat, and the whole country is rotten with them.
Linus Torvalds: This king of Linuxland keeps a harem of "virtual" wives and commands a geek army.
Saunas: The Finns sweat out their vodka-and-fish breakfasts at lunchtime saunas with the boss.
Sexy: Finnish law requires all citizens to be lanky sexpots, with shimmering hair and perfect teeth.
Suicide: Finland has Europe's highest suicide rate -- but after death Finns transmigrate into even newer, sexier bodies.

Meet the Newseum, the latest Arlington resident to flee the 'burbs for D.C. The museum, which opens to the public today, is at Pennsylvania Ave. and 6th St., NW., giving it a stunning view of the Capitol and proximity to thousands of fanny-packing (and ticket-buying) tourists. Artifacts range from pieces of the Berlin Wall to a bullet-ridden truck Time reporters drove through the Balkans in the 1990s. (No word on whether Hillary accompanied them.) In a town of free museums, the $20 price tag for the Newseum seems steep, but it's worth it. Totally broke? Check it out on your lunch break. Admission is free today only. Inside, some of the exhibits and items that make it worth a stop.

The New York Times has a preview of the Takashi Murakami retrospective that opens this weekend at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit, titled "©Murakami," runs until July 5th and features over 90 works, along with a "fully operational Louis Vuitton shop selling some of Mr. Murakami's designs for that luxury brand." Gift-shop patrons will be able to purchase a variety of pricey art tchotchkes, including handbags, "other leather goods," and limited-edition $10,000 canvas wall-hangings. In related news, a massive herd of nesting couples escaped from their newly purchased luxury condos and was seen running down Eastern Parkway waving credit cards. [via]

Alice Walton, whose father founded Wal-Mart, has announced plans to open a $50 million art museum called Crystal Bridges in the retailer's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. Walton's collection of American art, amassed over the course of 20 years, will be on view at the museum, which is named for the natural spring and bridges that are at the center of its compound. The museum is projected to open in 2010 and is being designed by Moshe Safdie, of Habitat '67 fame. [USA Today]

If you are American, calling London cheap is a major stretch. But the truth is that a city this large and lively has plenty of relative bargains and free bonuses if you know where to look. Here's a roundup of where to eat, sleep, shop, and entertain yourself and stay chic on the cheap in one of the most expensive cities in Europe.

The Trento Museum of Natural History, in northern Italy, has a new exhibit up about all the things that la Cacca is good for. Yes, that's excrement. As the blogger Zoomata says, "Possibly the only thing more off-putting than an exhibit dedicated to shit is an interactive exhibit dedicated to shit." But we're not sure. Who doesn't enjoy a brisk game of matching the poo to the animal?

This year marks the 150th birthday of one of Berlin's most beloved artists. Heinrich Zille's photographs and comic drawings of the city's less glamorous neighborhoods, lumpenproletariat inhabitants, and their hard-won amusements helped the city see itself as never before. Like his friend and comrade Kathe Kollwitz, Zille had an eye for the injustices of the era and the sufferings of the poor and downtrodden working class warehoused in Berlin's tenements, saying famously "one can kill a man with an apartment as easily as with an axe." His books and prints found an audience not only among the leftists and working classes of the day but also with members of the city's cultured elite -- the National Gallery bought works in 1921, and three years later he was nominated for membership in the prestigious Prussian Academy of Art.

Science geeks and followers of the human condition will find plenty of intrigue at London's many medical and health-related museums. Including Britain's oldest surviving operating theater, vast collections of scary antique surgical instruments, centuries' worth of medically inspired artwork, and the latest cutting-edge research on modern epidemics and medical techniques, here are highlights from the city's historic health and medicine museums where you can get a glimpse of man's fascinating battle with disease and decay throughout the ages.

Lace-up your dancing shoes and brush up on your Fresh Prince of Bel Air trivia, because DJ Jazzy Jeff is headlining Flavorpill's upcoming One Step Beyond bash at The American Museum of Natural History (2/29). As usual, your entry fee ($20) gets you plenty of dancing as well as access into the Cosmic Collisions Space Show. [Flavorpill]

Police have located the four masterpieces by Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and Degas that were stolen from the Emil Buehrle Collection in a Zurich hospital parking lot. The recovered paintings have a combined value of $160 million. Police have said that they will not release any information until the evidence has been inspected carefully, but, according to a witness, the paintings were sitting inside an unlocked car that bore the name of the museum. So much for being inconspicuous. [BBC]

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art reveals its new Broad Contemporary Art Museum -- an addition intended to refine the cultural center's overall appearance. Unfortunately, the New York Times finds it too pragmatic, and goes so far as to call it "remarkably uninspired" and "architecture without conviction." Essentially, by the end of the article, architect Renzo Piano's designs have, save for his use of light, been more or less sent down the shitter (perhaps a result of Piano being forced to try and fill the very large shoes of LACMA's first choice for architects, Rem Koolhas). [NYT]

London's Royal Academy of Art sparked controversy after including "stolen" Russian art in its recent "From Russia" exhibition. The issue is one that's commonly plagued the international art community since the end of World War II. A total of 46,000 artworks have been catalogued and declared missing from Russian state museums since 1945. But considering Russian state museums have likewise kept stolen art, or art taken as reparations during the war, it seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. [Moscow Times]

Beginning February 20, over 40 of Frida Kahlo's best-known works will be on show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition also includes about 100 photos of the famously monobrowed Kahlo along with her friends and family. Local touristic authorities (and our proud sponsors) have created a Frida-themed touring plan to go along with the festivities. For something a little more lowbrow (nyuk), enjoy this invasion of Philly's Franklin Institute by a bunch of costumed Star Wars nerdlings.

You wouldn't think museums could masturbate, but they can. In a stunning display of self-love, New York's MoMA is playing host to an installation by Belgian artist Jan DeCock, featuring photos taken inside the museum itself. MoMA's walls are now covered with blown up photos of such fascinating subjects as the museum's wood-paneled floors. The museum posted footage of the exhibition; it's perhaps the most boring video ever. The Village Voice panned the show, calling it "over-thought and under-felt," and "hollow." Ouch. [MoMA]

Thieves made off with about $100 million in art from a Zurich museum on Sunday. The "spectacular" heist ganked works by Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, and others. Authorities have not yet named the specific museum nor the works taken; they're expected to release more details in a press conference today. The Guardian speculates that the museum in question might be the private Emil Bührle Foundation.

Yes, the hot trend of museum party nights in New York may be an interesting way to experience the hosting venues, or even to meet some arty young thing of your preferred persuasion. But in my experience, museum authorities are understandably super-paranoid about the mixture of alcohol and local ne'er-do-wells, such that the overt presence of scowling docents makes it feel like a supervised junior crush dance. And at the Guggenheim at least, the lights are veritably blinding, which runs counter-intuitive to the clubby vibe. And don't even think about firing up a joint. [NYT]

Nestled just north of LA's financial district and a mere three blocks from start to finish, Grand Avenue's row of theatres and museums constitute the epicenter of downtown's artistic world. The LA Phil and Opera are both housed here, as are a decent number of theater and dance groups. If you prefer your art a little more abstract -- or you prefer your company a little more hipsterrific -- there are a couple galleries unlikely to disappoint. And if all else fails, more than one of these places has more than one bar. Because while art is meant to be taken in through sober contemplation, it doesn't really lose all that much ethos after a drink or four.