Real Life

This moment will long be remembered, of that I’m quite certain. A telephone bidder had just bought Banksy’s Girl with Balloon picture for 1.4 million pounds when a concealed self-destruct mechanism built into the picture’s frame by Banksy himself sprang into action. And before the eyes of the incredulous spectators at the London auction house Sotheby’s the lower part of the picture emerged shredded from its frame. 

Some people seem to know it all; there's nothing you can show them or tell them that they haven’t seen or heard before. They never ask any questions because they know all the answers. They’ve lost their sense of wonder – if they ever had one, and for them curiosity is something puerile like an infantile disorder.

Seven years ago Taliban militia in Afghanistan destroyed the two largest statues of the standing Buddha in the world. The Bamiyan Buddhas were sacred objects that formed part of UNESCO’s world cultural heritage. Some three years ago the so-called IS destroyed over one hundred cultural sites in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Other ancient buildings have fallen into ruin over the centuries without any malicious intent by third parties. Hardly a single masterwork from the ancient world can be now admired in its former glory – up to present, that is. When our New World has put undreamt of opportunities at our disposal …