The South African government objected to the sale, which was scheduled to take place later this month, arguing that several items on the block, including the key to Mandela’s prison cell, had been illegally exported from the country. - Artnet
He'll receive the honor (the first since COVID arrived) at the traditional Kennedy Center tribute, this year on April 24 — joining a comic pantheon that includes Richard Pryor, Jonathan Winters, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Lorne Michaels, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Carol Burnett, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. - MSN (The Washington Post)
Phillippe Gaulier has been teaching clowns for about half a century, but his stature has grown in recent years, becoming an influential and divisive figure of considerable mystique, the Dumbledore of round red noses. - The New York Times
Best known in the anglophone world for the title roles in Hannibal Rising and Saint-Laurent, and one of the stars of the upcoming Marvel series Moon Knight, he was one of the most admired actors of his generation in French cinema and had won two César Awards. - The Washington Post
Revered as both performer and teacher, "Maharaj was known for his animated facial expressions and light-footed movements, accompanied by the sound of bells he wore around his ankles. He would often draw inspiration from his own life in his performances and was a skillful storyteller." - AP
"She achieved literary celebrity but called herself a 'literary failure,' was supported in a marriage that ultimately collapsed, resisted her family but didn't denounce it, became an icon of the civil-rights movement she relentlessly criticized, and wrote a masterpiece only to watch as it was widely misunderstood." - The New Yorker
The process came to a head earlier this month when the IRS, the US tax agency, asserted that the estate was worth $163.2m, twice the $82.3m figure previously submitted by Comerica. The higher valuation meant the IRS would claim substantially more tax. - The Guardian
"Basinski, who had taken classical violin lessons since childhood, played with the University of Buffalo’s symphony orchestra before embarking on his major league career in 1944." - The New York Times
Harrison, in his writings, "provided a theoretical structure for the Black performing arts, linking works by writers like August Wilson to a deeply rooted structure of African ritual and myth." - The New York Times
Bofill has died at 82. The Catalan outsider architect "spent a lifetime conjuring otherworldly buildings, which now stand like monuments from some future-primitive sci-fi civilisation. Half a century after their construction, his fantastical creations have inspired a whole new generation." - The Guardian (UK)
Poitier "helped reshape that world to such a degree that we’ll never be able to reckon fully with his impact." He was "a man who, with the delivery of a single pointed line or even just a commanding glance, could shift your thinking in small ways or large ones." - Time Magazine
"Terry’s ability to bounce month to month from film noir to the crisis of the symphony orchestra to the talents of Robert Mitchum to the musicality of Nat King Cole to the ever-sticky problem of how and when and whether to separate an artist’s noxious views from his art were the ultimate testament..." - Commentary
While it is mostly made up of classical music, it also includes: an old album of Édith Piaf’s greatest hits; Argentine tango tunes, especially by Astor Piazzolla; and a 25-disc collection of Elvis Presley’s Gospel songs, said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. - Catholic Sun
