Hermitage

• The theft is suspected to be an inside job that took place over a period of twenty years.
• This is not the first time the Museum has come under fire and its custodianship has been questioned.

The Duveen scouring

• There can be little doubt that the most notorious of them is the Duveen scouring scandal, so-named after Joseph Duveen, an ultra-rich art dealer of dubious ethics and benefactor of the British Museum.
• The marbles were later placed in the Duveen Gallery, named in honour of the man responsible for the damage to their historic surface.
• The Duveen scouring was not the only cleaning of the marbles to cause consternation.
• It is probable that, if these early warnings had been headed, the Duveen cleaning could have been avoided.

Other controversies

• During a 1999 conference in the museum, a sandwich lunch was served in the Duveen Gallery, and the delegates were encouraged to touch the ancient sculptures.
• Many among those present found the gesture so inconsiderate that they walked out of the gallery.
• A controversy of a different kind concerns contested objects in the Museum’s collection that are the object of repatriation requests.

The Museum’s current troubles

• About half of the Museum’s 8 million items are uncatalogued and this lack of an inventory has certainly facilitated the thefts.
• The fact that it took so long to discover the thefts also raises the question of what else might have gone missing without a trace.
• Yet one can’t help but wonder: Do the Museum’s current woes have other museum directors fretting with anxiety?
• What if some of the identified stolen items are contested items that have been the object of restitution requests?

Crisis as an opportunity

• Every crisis is an opportunity, and here too there is an opportunity.
• After the resignation of the director Hartwig Fischer, an interim director, Sir Mark Jones, has been appointed.

• West Virginia, Feb. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taylor Hospitality is pleased to welcome Anthony Eads as Executive Chef of The Hermitage Inn and Taphouse in Petersburg, West Virginia which is set to open at the end of this month.
• Prior to joining The Hermitage Inn and Taphouse, he most recently acted as Executive Chef at the Juniper Lounge in Lexington, Virginia.
• Eads is married to Christina Eads, General Manager of the lodging portion of the Hermitage Inn and Taphouse.
• “We are very thrilled to announce Mr. Anthony Eads as our executive Chef at the new Hermitage Inn and Taphouse,” stated Jason Kaposy, owner of the Hermitage Inn and Taphouse.

• STONE SPEAKSis narrative augmented reality (AR) artwork inspired by conversations between artist Nancy Baker Cahill and Sophia the Robot, Hanson Robotics' latest human-like robot, who was first activated in 2016.
• In the spirit of Baker Cahill's previous monumental AR works, such as Mushroom Cloud and CORPUS, STONE SPEAKS appears overheadas a massive particle field representing the elements silicon and carbon.
• The 1/1 NFT of this unique Augmented Reality artwork created between Baker Cahill and Sophia, will be available for sale through Aorist starting Tuesday, November 29.
• Nancy Baker Cahill is an award-winning new media artist who examines systemic power, selfhood, and embodied consciousness through drawing and shared immersive space.

• Petersburg, West Virginia, Oct. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taylor Hospitality is proud to announce the launch of Hermitage Inn & Taphouse brand new website, hermitageinnwv.com .
• Hermitage Inn & Taphouse offers 32 guest rooms and 4 extended stay studios with full service amenities and an on-site restaurant opening later this year.
• The website features several pages such as, the Hermitage Inns History, guest room experiences, The Taphouse, and West Virginia Adventures.Taira Gainer, lead Marketing Manager on the website, said, Creating the Hermitage Inn & Taphouse website has been a fun project.
• The Hermitage Inn & Taphouse is our newest venture into the West Virginia hospitality market, said Natalia Contreras, Director of Marketing for Taylor Hospitality.