Arts, music, literature & entertainment

Karla Sofia Gascón at 2024 Cannes Film Festival

Karla Sofía Gascón just became the first out trans actor to score an Oscar nomination

By Peter Schulte / January 24, 2025

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made history by announcing that Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón has been nominated for an Oscar for her lead performance in Emilia Pérez. Gascón, who starred in the Spanish language musical as a Mexican drug lord who begins a new life after coming out as trans, is the first openly transgender performer ever to receive an acting nomination in the Academy’s 95-year history.

Egypt recovers 3 ancient artifacts found in the Netherlands

By Peter Schulte / August 27, 2024

The items retrieved include a mummified head from the Hellenistic period, a ceramic funerary figurine dating to Egypt’s New Kingdom era (664-332 B.C.), and part of a wooden tomb bearing an inscription of the goddess Isis from 663-504 B.C., the Egyptian embassy in The Hague said in a statement. The head was found in good condition, showing remnants of teeth and hair. Dutch police and the cultural heritage inspection unit retrieved the figurines and parts of the tomb after determining that they were smuggled out of Egypt.

Karla Sofía Gascón becomes the first trans woman to win award for Best Actress at Cannes

By Peter Schulte / May 30, 2024

For the first time in its 77-year history, the Cannes Film Festival’s jury bestowed the award for Best Actress on an out transgender woman. Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón received the award at Saturday night’s gala awards ceremony alongside Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez, her co-stars in French film-maker Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez.

Vienna Philharmonic, once an all-male ensemble, now has 24 female musicians

By Peter Schulte / March 6, 2024

A male bastion from its founding in 1842 until 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic now has 24 female players among 145 members. It is widely considered among the world’s preeminent orchestras. Harpist Anna Lelkes played with the Philharmonic for 26 years as a nonmember before she became the first woman admitted.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to return looted ancient art to Cambodia and Thailand

By Peter Schulte / December 15, 2023

Thirteen of the works are being returned to Cambodia in concert with an investigation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York and Homeland Security. Among the works are a large head of Buddha made of stone in the seventh century, and a tenth century sandstone goddess statue from the Koh Ker archaeological site.

UNESCO to launch world’s first virtual museum of stolen cultural artifacts

By Peter Schulte / October 6, 2023

Developed with the international police organization Interpol, whose database of cultural objects stolen from museums, collections and archeological sites worldwide lists more than 52,000 artefacts, the $2.5m virtual museum should open in 2025.

Netherlands to return nearly 500 looted objects to Indonesia and Sri Lanka

By Peter Schulte / July 22, 2023

“We’re not only returning objects; we’re also embarking on a period of closer cooperation with Indonesia and Sri Lanka in areas like collection research, presentation, and exchanges between museums,” said Dutch Secretary of State for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu.