Man’s Best Friend

August 26 is recognized worldwide as National Dog Day. From ancient civilizations forward, images of dogs have been used symbolically as well as for their true canine attributes.

Anubis is the Greek name for the jackal-headed god that appeared frequently in Ancient Egypt. The protector of the underworld, images of Anubis accompany the dead in their travels through the underworld. Jackals are nocturnal hunters, well suited to lead the journey  through darkness, and small figures of them, such as this one in the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, are often found in tombs.

Portraits in the 17th century often included the loyal family pet.  Dogs were frequently used as symbols of fidelity and and watchfulness. The little black and white dog in Jacob Ochtervelt’s portrait, Lady with Servant and Dog, c.1671-1673, Carnegie Museum of Art,   may symbolize a happy marriage, as well as the watchfulness of the man-presumably the woman’s husband-looking in discretely from another room.

Man’s best friend is immortalized in New York’s Central Park with Frederick G.R. Roth’s bronze statue of Balto. Created in 1925, it is a tribute to the mushers and dogs who traveled 674 through blizzard conditions to bring life-saving medicine to the diphtheria stricken residents of Nome, Alaska.

If you have a dog, today is a good day to give it some extra love. If you don’t have a dog, it’s a good day to get one! My dog, Faey, agrees!

priceless

Plundered antiquities, brazen museum break-ins, war-time appropriations- art works, gems, relics , valuable books and documents have always been irresistible targets for thieves. The recent investigation of  the $145 million dollar smuggling ring that dealt  in antiquities from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand and Afghanistan  over the last 30 years brought to mind the book Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures   by Robert K. Wittman, founder of the FBI Art Crime Team. In this enthralling real-life who-done-it , Wittman shows that art thieves  can run  the gamut  from brazen, practiced criminals, to petty thieves looking to turn a quick profit; skillful criminals knowledgeable of the art world, or everyday people who simply helped them selves to something that they admired. The current Indian smuggling ring was broken by a multi-national collaboration of law enforcement organizations, much like the cases Wittman takes us through in his book.

Sadly, not all art thefts are solved. In Wittman’s book, he recounts the story of the theft of 13 works of art worth an estimated $500 million in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
That case has never been solved. In 1981, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, in my base camp, Pittsburgh, was robbed of a 16-carat pale yellow diamond. That theft, too, has remained unsolved.

To learn more about these, and other high profile art heists, I highly recommend reading :
https://www.amazon.com/Priceless-Undercover-Rescue-Worlds-Treasures/dp/0307461483