An exhibition celebrating David Bowie’s career has become the Victoria & Albert Museum’s fastest-selling event.
More than 300 objects spanning his 50 years in showbusiness have been brought together for the first time, including hand-written lyrics, costumes, photographs, film, music videos, set designs and album artwork.
The museum in London, has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive for the exhibition, which opens this weekend and runs until August 11.
It showcases never-before-seen personal items such as story boards, Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, as well as hand-written set lists and lyrics will be on public show for the first time. (AP)
40,000-piece jubilee wooden jigsaw
A patient puzzle maker is hoping for a piece of history by making the world’s largest hand cut wooden jigsaw puzzle.
Dave Evans is honouring the Diamond Jubilee as he aims to enter the Guinness World Record by creating the 40,000 piece puzzle. The 63-year-old has estimated it will take him 200 hours to individually cut the pieces.
The theme is to celebrate the 60 years the Queen has reigned and, once complete, will be put on display in the ballroom at the Queen’s Sandringham Palace Estate. The interlocking puzzle will be made of 33, A2 size pictures and will measure about twenty feet by eight feet and will take three weeks to complete. (AP)
Heavy metal concert cancelled
London’s famed Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has cancelled an experimental concert by extreme metal band Napalm Death, fearing the noise level could damage the 104-year-old building. Ceramic artist Keith Harrison from the V&A, the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, collaborated with Napalm Death on a set to be played through a sculptural sound system which would disintegrate under decibel stress. (Reuters)
Painting of Chinese Girl sells for £1m
The original painting of the Chinese Girl, thought to be the most reproduced print in the world, was bought by billionaire British businessman and jeweller Laurence Graff for nearly £1 million yesterday.
The work by Siberian-born artist Vladimir Tretchikoff was part of a sale of South African art at Bonhams auction house.
Millions of reproductions of the picture, also known as the Green Lady because of the unusual blue-green skin tone of the subject, have been sold since it was painted in the 1950s. (AP)
Roman stone relief found in a cupboard
A Roman stone relief of a Cotswolds deity which had been missing for more than 100 years has turned up in a castle cupboard.
The artefact, dated 150-350AD, was first found in 1875 during an archaeological dig on the site of what was once a Roman villa in Stancombe Wood, on the estate of Sudeley Castle in Britain.
It turned up in a basement cupboard during a routine clear-out earlier this month of the archives at the Gloucestershire castle. (PA)