Banksy donates migrant crisis paintings to charity
London: Banksy, the acclaimed anonymous British street artist, has donated migrant crisis paintings showing life-jackets abandoned on a Mediterranean beach to charity.
Titled Mediterranean Sea View 2017, the works are estimated to sell for between 800,000 pounds and 1.2 million pounds, the Metro newspaper reported on Sunday.
The elusive artist took 19th century-style Romantic seascapes and added the abandoned life-jackets and buoys in reference to the deaths of migrants travelling to the European Union during the 2010s.
The triptych of framed oil paintings were created for Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, where they have hung since its opening in 2017.
The hotel, which overlooks the West Bank wall dividing Bethlehem, deems itself as having “the worst view of any hotel in the world” and is filled with original Banksy artwork.
The piece will feature in Sotheby’s Rembrandt to Richter cross-category evening sale on July 28.
Proceeds will be used to help build a new acute stroke unit and purchase children’s rehabilitation equipment for Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation. (IANS)
Mountain rescuers heft ailing St. Bernard off English peak
LONDON: St. Bernards are known for helping to rescue distressed travelers in the mountains, but the tables were turned on Sunday in northern England. Sixteen volunteers from the Wasdale mountain rescue team took turns carrying Daisy, a 121-pound (55 kilogram) St Bernard, from England’s highest peak, Scafell Pike. The mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing Daisy, who had collapsed Friday evening while descending the mountain with her owners.
Rescue workers said Daisy was displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move. After consulting with a veterinarian’s office, they administered some pain relief and adjusted their stretcher, which is designed for humans, to be more dog-friendly. They also packed a few treats to help settle her down. “Having team members with their own pampered pooches at home, and also our much-adored search dog Jess, we recognize the distress that both an animal can feel and also that of their owners,” the team said. They said Daisy was recovering from her ordeal.
Scafell Pike, 978 meters above sea level, is located in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria. The Wasdale Mountain Rescue team relies on donations to fund their mountain safety efforts. (AP)
Faithful return to Mexico City churches with masks, gel
Mexico City: Temperatures were taken and anti-bacterial gel applied before the faithful walked through a disinfecting arch set up in front of centuries-old wood-and-stone doors. They sat spaced out on pews while robed priests donned face masks.
Mexico City’s Roman Catholic churches, including its main cathedral, began celebrating Mass again Sunday after three months of pandemic lockdown with a new normal that seemed to have more rules than faithful in the pews.
I felt a great need and that is why I came, to ask that all that is happening pass,” Hermelinda Olivares, 53, said in a church in southern Mexico City where barely a dozen people listened to a priest pray for COVID-19 patients, healthcare workers and the deceased.
Most said they were just happy their churches were open again and felt it was important to take physical communion. Some protested that authorities had taken too long to allow churches to reopen.
They let the supermarkets stay open but kept us closed until today, so here we are,” said M nica Robleda, sitting alone on a pew far from anyone else.
Federal authorities left the decision on whether places of worship could open to state governments and city councils. Mexico now has topped 385,000 confirmed new coronavirus cases and more than 43,000 deaths.
Masses have been held in some parts of Mexico outside the capital with similar sanity measures in July. In other parts, religious services remain virtual.
The clergy has been hard hit by the pandemic. According to a count by the Catholic Multimedia Center, 46 priests, six deacons and three nuns has died of COVID-19 as of July 15. Some churches, such as the Evangelical ones in Mexico’s capital, decided to wait for the number of infections to go down further before opening, despite official authorization. Mexico’s Episcopal Conference said each priest should assess the situation in his parish before resuming services.
The options we chose – both parishioners and priests – must be taken with special care to preserve health and life, said Cardinal Carlos Aguiar, the archbishop of Mexico City.
While the capital’s iconic cathedral lacked its habitual tourists on Sunday, it offered modern pandemic options like being able to give alms through a QR code that can be read by cellphones although nobody appeared to use it.
About 500 faithful gathered on Sunday at the Basilica of Guadalupe, only a small part of the 5,000 that can be hosted by the north Mexico City basilica that is the destination of one of the largest Catholic pilgrimages in the world. (AP)