The Arts

THE ARTS

Watchdog Group Wins on Da Vinci Restoration

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, has abandoned plans to restore Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Adoration of the Magi,” an unfinished work by the artist, in the wake of protests from ArtWatch, an international watchdog group dedicated to protecting works from what it regards as overzealous restorers.

According to BBC News Online, the international anti-restoration campaign is supported by dozens of scholars of Renaissance art from the United States, Britain and Italy.

Uffizi director Annamaria Petrioli Tofani had argued restoration was needed because of damage to the wood on which the painting was based and the weakening adhesion of the paint. But ArtWatch sent an open letter to the Uffizi asking that such action be put on hold until the art world had been consulted.

ArtWatch U.K.’s director, Mike Daley, called the prospective restoration particularly troubling because the painting was unfinished, he said. The Uffizi decision was especially gratifying, he added, after the Louvre’s decision not to restore the “Mona Lisa.”

“If the restorers had got to that, nothing would be sacred, nothing would be left alone,” he said. “It had seemed we’d reached a point where the whole heritage of the world’s art was fair game for restorers.”

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Report Disputes ‘Copenhagen’ Premise

Werner Heisenberg, the scientific genius behind Adolf Hitler’s secret atomic bomb program, revealed its existence in 1941 to Niels Bohr, the Danish scientist who became part of the Manhattan Project, according to secret documents cited in London’s Sunday Times. The material indicates Heisenberg did not express moral doubts about building a bomb for Hitler when he met with Bohr in Nazi-occupied Denmark. Neither did he hint he might be willing to sabotage the project.

Both premises underlie Michael Frayn’s award-winning play “Copenhagen,” which just concluded an L.A. run and is playing at the Laguna Playhouse. The drama speculates on the significance of the 1941 encounter on the eventual failure of the Nazi atomic project.

At the meeting, Heisenberg alerted Bohr to the existence of Hitler’s “Uranium club,” according to a letter Bohr wrote but never sent to his protege.

“Essentially, the letter shows that Heisenberg told Bohr it was possible that the war would be won with atomic weapons, indicating that he was involved in such work,” Finn Aaserud, director of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Archive, told the Associated Press on Monday.

Gerald Holton, professor emeritus of physics and the history of science at Harvard University, said that Bohr’s son had shown him the letter in 1985 but asked him not to discuss it until it was publicly released. The family had planned to do so in 2012--the 50th anniversary of the scientist’s death.

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TELEVISION

Couric Defends ‘Today,’ Knocks ‘GMA’

Katie Couric, co-host of the “Today” show, shot back at critics who said that the NBC morning program is softer than “Good Morning America,” saying that when it comes to programming, it’s a case of monkey see, monkey do.

“I have to laugh when they do toy drives, just like we do, when they do outside concerts, when they do a wedding,” she says of her ABC competitor in the current issue of Newsweek. “It’s flattering, but it would be nice for them to try some things that we haven’t done first.”

Couric, who just signed a record $65-million deal to stay with “Today,” said she was never close to leaving the network. Meanwhile, “GMA” news reader Antonio Mora is leaving the ABC program to become lead anchor at WBBM-TV in Chicago.

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MOVIES

Winners of Scientific Oscars Named

While the rest of the industry is out there campaigning for nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday announced the winners of 21 Academy Awards for scientific, engineering and technical achievements.

They include Pete Romano for the design and development of an underwater camera housing system, Tomlinson Holman for improvements in motion picture loudspeaker systems and Lance Williams for his “pioneering influence in the field of computer-generated animation and effects.”

The awards will be handed out in a dinner ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire on March 2. The awards cover developments of “exceptional merit” in such areas as camera lenses, camera cranes, camera motors, digital film recorders and color film restoration.

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QUICK TAKES

The Producers Guild of America will honor director-producer Robert Wise (“West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music”) at its 13th annual gala March 3 at the Century Plaza Hotel.... The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present “Reds and Blacklists: Political Struggles in the Movie Industry” Feb. 1 through April 21 in its fourth-floor gallery.... Director Stanley Donen (“Singing in the Rain”) will receive the board of governors award at the American Society of Cinematographers’ annual awards dinner Feb. 17 at the Century Plaza Hotel.... “In the Bedroom” director Todd Field and actors Nick Stahl and William Maypother will read excerpts from Andre Dubus’ work at Book Soup, 8439 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.... In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, a Memphis celebration of what would have been Elvis Presley’s 67th birthday today will remember him as a singer and patriot, according to a Graceland spokesman. Presley served a two-year hitch in the Army. A dance will be dubbed “G.I., Red, White and Blues,” and Presley’s “G.I. Blues” will play on a big screen in a hotel ballroom.... Stockard Channing will host the Sundance Film Festival 2002 Awards ceremony Jan. 19, which will be televised live on the Sundance Channel at 9 p.m.

Elaine Dutka