ARCHITECTURE

Buildings that speak

Carl Laubin’s paintings of Ledoux’s ‘architecture parlante’ are a fine celebration of the bicentenary of the architect’s death.

Rembrandts Reassessed

Since 1992 only one of the 12 paintings in the Wallace Collection once attributed to Rembrandt has been accepted as a wholly autograph work. Since then debate has raged about the attributions of these – and many other – paintings by the artist. Christopher Brown gives his verdict on five of the Wallace’s disputed Rembrandts, the subject of an exhibition that he has curated there.

The gold crown of Magdala

Among the most spectacular items looted by the British from the fortress of Magdala in Ethiopia in 1868 after the suicide of King Theodore are a crown and chalice of solid gold. Now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, their origin, date and purpose have always been a mystery, which is elucidated here by Jacques Mercier.

Museum Acquisitions 2006: A Selection

Museum Opening of the Year

Philippa Glanville celebrates the newly reopened Historic Green Vaults in Dresden’s Royal Palace, a spectacular restoration that has brought back to life one of the greatest artistic losses suffered in World War II.

Review of 2006

Ernst van de Wetering has dedicated almost 40 years to the Rembrandt Research Project in Amsterdam. He talks to Samson Spanier about the challenges of attribution, the discoveries he has made – and why Rembrandt has absorbed him for so long.