ARCAblog Podcast: The Vinland Map

07/20/09 • -1 min

Reading from the research of John Yates, Yale 2010, ARCA Director Noah Charney discusses the mysteries behind Yale's acquisition of the Vinland Map. Additionally, he explains the multi-faceted controversy surrounding the authenticity of this mappa mundi, which some scholars believe is evidence supporting the theory that the Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America. On Friday, 17 July 2009, at an international cartographers' conference in Copenhagen, Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, told Reuters, "All the tests that we have done over the past five years -- on the materials and other aspects - do not show any signs of forgery." Accordingly, the map continues to make headlines. The podcast can be found here or by clicking the title of this post.

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ARCAblog Podcast: The Looting of the Amber Room

Reading from the research of Joel Knopf, Yale '09, ARCA Director Noah Charney examines the fate of the Russian Amber Room during World War II. In addition to discussing the history of the Amber Room, this latest podcast offers some analysis of the three major theories surrounding its looting and destruction. The podcast can be found here or by clicking this post's title.

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Venice in Peril at the RGS: Stealing the Mystic Lamb Part 1

On October 1, 2009, the Venice in Peril Fund hosted a lecture by Noah Charney at the Royal Geographic Society. This is the first half of the lecture in which Charney describes the lengthy history of art theft and looting that has plagued Jan and Hubert Van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece." This podcast can be accessed by clicking on the title of this post, or by clicking here.