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The Lampedusa cross is made from pieces of a boat that was wrecked on 11 October 2013 near the Italian island of Lampedusa, close to the coast of Tunisia. The overcrowded boat carrying 466 migrants from Somalia and Eritrea caught fire, capsized and sank at a time when there was no official maritime rescue service. Three hundred eleven refugees fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in Europe were drowned. Inhabitants of Lampedusa helped to save the lives of 155 others.
The island’s carpenter, Francesco Tuccio, met some of the survivors at his church and, moved by their plight, made individual crosses for each person. Unable to make a difference to their situation, the best he felt he could do was to use his skills as a carpenter to fashion each a cross from the boat’s wreckage as a reflection on their salvation from the sea and hope for the future. These crosses also reflected the fate of many migrants.
Published:
2:54 PM May 4, 2021
An ostrich sculpture from a private Suffolk collection has sold for £1,824,540 at auction
- Credit: Cheffins
A sculpture from a private collection in Suffolk has fetched more than £1.8m making it the auctioneers’ biggest sale.
The sale of the 30cm high 18th century Renaissance piece set a new house record for Cambridge-based auctioneers Cheffins when it sold to a UK-based private buyer in the room.
It had been held in a private collection for more than 180 years, and was previously part of the Horace Walpole collection in Strawberry Hill after the Gothic novelist and collector bought it between 1765 and 1766.
A production of Ordinary Days at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge.
- Credit: Emily Brailsford
Cambridge’s largest student venue is due to reopen later this month.
The ADC Theatre is set to welcome audiences again from May 24 in line with the government’s roadmap for reopening performing arts venues.
Its sister venue, the Corpus Playroom, will also be reopening at the same time.
A previous production of Guys and Dolls at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge.
- Credit: Lucia Revel-Chion
Both venues will be performing to a socially-distanced auditorium for as long as restrictions persist, with COVID rules hopefully lifted in late June.
2005 Top 100 honoree and author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, smashed a set of 300-year-old Chinese vases after falling down a flight of stairs. The three vases were prize possessions of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, for over 40 years and were valued at $175,000. The 42-year-old writer, a frequent visitor to the museum, claimed the incident was the result of a faulty shoelace. Flynn was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and crash, bang, wallop there were a million pieces of high-quality Qing ceramics lying around underneath me.” Maybe Nick should invest in a pair of loafers! ♦
Long Read: Returning heritage Filed on April 30, 2021 | Last updated on April 30, 2021 at 10.12 am
Gifted, looted or stolen Britain has a large number of priceless artefacts from India, other former colonies and elsewhere. but now, some are on their way back home as demands grow
Stepping into India House in central London is like stepping back in time. Designed by the legendary architect Herbert Baker and inaugurated by King George V in 1930, the home of India’s high commission is a blend of change and continuity, with paintings, portraits, busts, artefacts and symbols of modernity set in the high-domed, colonial-style structure. There have been 27 Indian high commissioners since independence in 1947, but rarely have they been as busy as recent envoys, who, since 2016, have overseen the return of several priceless objects that were stolen from India and ended up in the antiques art market in London. The returns happened in the context of intense debates about the wid