Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for Hong Kong]

India: Australia to return centuries-old stolen Buddha statue to India

The growing India-Australia bonhomie under PM Narendra Modi and his counterpart Tony Abbott is set to bring an end to an international art scandal which saw the surfacing of a Kushan Buddha statue in Canberra's National Gallery of Art (NGA) seven years ago.
The Buddha statue of the Kushan period dating back to 2nd century BC
is made of red sandstone and is from Mathura
[Credit: Times of India]
Australia has informed Indian authorities that it will soon return the sculpture, dating back to second century BC, realizing that it had been stolen from an archaeological site in India. Abbott has on several occasions stated that improving relations with India was high on his priority list and one of the ways he has reached out to the Modi government is by returning stolen artifacts illegally taken out of India.
During his summit meet with Modi last year in September, Abbott returned statues of 11th century Shiva Nataraja and Ardhanariswara to India. According to a report in The Australian earlier this year, the artifact was purchased by billionaire philanthropist Ros Packer for NGA. After Indian authorities took up the issue with Australia, NGA launched a probe into how the statue was bought from a New York antiquities dealer and found that the dealer had tricked Australian authorities into believing that the red sandstone marvel had been purchased from a British collector in Hong Kong. The investigations revealed that the New York based dealer had travelled to India and acquired two Kushan Buddhas from a trafficker.
"The Department of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India are working with the National Museum in Delhi to affect the handover. The Buddha statue of the Kushan period dating back to 2nd century BC is made of red sandstone and is from the Mathura region of Uttar Pradesh," said a senior government official.
Government sources here claimed there was a growing personal bonhomie between Modi and Abbott following their bilateral meetings last year. Modi last year became the first Indian PM to visit Australia after Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.
Author: Sachin Parashar | Source: Times of India [January 01, 2015]
Lubetkin Prize has got to the bird's nest

National Stadium in Beijing which in the people is called “the birds nest”, has received prestigious Lubetkin Prize, founded Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA, as the most outstanding architectural work outside of the European Union.
Speaking about a building, the main judge of the award and President RIBA, Sunand Prasad has told: “this year the short list looked excellently. Discussion was long, however the result is obvious”.
The National Stadium is a project of architectural company Herzog and de Meuron, executed together with China Architectural Design and research Group, Arup Sport and Ove Arup and Partners Hong Kong), artist Ai Wei Wei.

Circles of the applicants who have entered into a short list: Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal, project Foster and Partners together with NACO and Beijing Institute of Architectural Design; Watercube, National Swimming Centre, project PTW Architects together with China State Construction and Engineering Corporation; building Museum Brandhorst in Munich; Sean O’Casey Community Centre in Dublin; building The British High Commission in Sri Lanka, project Richard Murphy Architects.

The project jury in which structure were Sunand Prasad RIBA President, Tony Chapman, RIBA Head of Awards Paul Monaghan, the architect and Chair of the RIBA Awards Group Alison Brooks, architect Tom Dyckhoff — have visited all six buildings-applicants.
VIA «Lubetkin Prize has got to the bird's nest»
The French house of fashion Louis Vuitton

Female bags — the main accessory of an image of any girl. Therefore to buy a bag — a duty of each woman of fashion respecting.
Art handbags from Louis Vuitton
Manufacturers of bags Louis Vuitton have earned for a long time already to themselves excellent reputation. The company Louis Vuitton is engaged in manufacture of exclusive bags. Thus Louis Vuitton bags differ high quality, after all for their basis high-strength materials are taken only.

Bags Louis Vuitton become a fine variant for those who adheres to individuality in all. Louis Vuitton handbags comprise quality, beauty and an exclusive. Therefore real women of fashion cannot simply ignore a bag Louis Vuitton.

By means of elite bags it is possible to change the image when it it will want to you. Thus your expenses will be much less. Our Internet represents to a copy of elite bags also shop female bags.
However it is not necessary to forget and about other accessories, as a purse. Besides, female bags will look more effective if to pick up to them fashionable footwear.
In 2006, architect Peter Marino finishes work on three-storyed boutique Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong and receives important architectural award AIA.
Art boutique Louis Vuitton
VIA «The French house of fashion Louis Vuitton»
New interpretation of wall clocks

The designer from Hong Kong Leo Yiu has suggested to change a little representation of inhabitants about what should be wall clocks in office and official bodies.
Nextime has bought the patent
The manufacturer of clocks company Nextime with pleasure has got at the designer idea of a dial with the cut off lateral part which allows to suspend conveniently them to a direct plane.
Clocks for office
VIA «New interpretation of wall clocks»
Smart’s Future of the City Continues
Copyright by smart | Design Aram Dikiciyan
smart urban stage is a global online project dealing with the term FUTURE OF THE CITY. We ask pioneers from metropolises around the world to question the urban status quo. the results are visions, ideas and solutions for sustainable lifestyles, modern social systems and forward-looking developments in the fields of architecture, design and technology. the worldwide event series is exhibiting ideas and solutions of forward thinking future makers. the brand behind this online project is the car manufacturer smart, which hosted special events throughout Europe during the last two years.

Now smart initiated the online project FUTURE OF THE CITY. Within their Q&A series allrounder Marcelo Burlon asked photographer Aram Dikiciyan: How would a city look like without concrete? His answer: A city without concrete is bathed in light.
Burlon: A few years ago I was in the north of Brazil, in a little village called Jericoacoara and then I moved to Praia de Pipa. In this time the streets were made out of sand and all the little houses were out of wood. All was full of trees and the atmosphere during the evening is something really unbelievable. I imagined a city a hundred times bigger than this little village with the same concept. Imagine how the summer will be without all that concrete. How the kids will grow up and the older people will enjoy their last years.
Dikiciyan:Throughout the life over there he found that things are generally rather unpredictable but definitely either interesting to thrilling or surprising to wondrous thus a little predictable then again. He dealt with the inconceivable which allowed him to catch a glimpse of what he called then the futurity of his own: Fragments of what could be or how it could look like. He never knew exactly what it was but it provided an insight into what could have been. So what would he have imagined about tomorrow? Life to consist of dark days and bright nights? Or rather bright days and blinding nights? Reflective surfaces, glowing and pumping? Intermittent pulsating conducting the rhythm of time? Busy veins but orderly? Kindness? Goodness? Awkwardness? Frequent beauty?
Aram Dikiciyan was born in 1974 in West-Berlin. He moved to Tokyo in 2004, where he has been resident ever since. Exhibitions of his work have been held in Tokyo, Berlin and Hong Kong. He has been represented by Berlin Gallery Camera Work since 2008.
FUTURE OF THE CITY
VIA Smart’s Future of the City Continues