Monday, June 20, 2022

Russia Is Pulling Off a Massive Art Heist in Ukraine

IT’S A STICKUP

Museum curators are hiding out in basements across Ukraine trying to protect the nation’s priceless cultural heritage from Russian invaders.

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Correspondent-At-Large

Updated Jun. 19, 2022 3:20AM ET / Published Jun. 18, 2022 10:25PM ET

The looting of art at times of war dates back millennia, with the Greeks and Romans among the worst perpetrators. Museums and private collections around the world are filled with looted art that changed hands during conflicts. During World War II, a secret Allied army known as the “Monuments Men” worked to protect European treasures from being pilfered by invading armies—with mixed success. Hitler’s stolen treasures are still being discovered across Germany. Millions of stolen pieces may never be found.

So far there are no specially trained armies in Ukraine to protect treasures from the precision Russian art thieves working under the cover of war to empty museums and destroy important pieces of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. There are just brave museum curators in regions where the Russians have seized control doing everything they can to hide and fortify their art and antiquities, using supplies smuggled in from the West to help them crate up paintings and sandbag statues.

Since Russia began its invasion in February, 250 cultural institutions have been targeted by Russian munitions. Thousands of important museums pieces have been destroyed during the bombing of Mariupol and elsewhere. In Melitopol, Scythian gold artifacts worth millions that date back to the fourth century B.C. were stolen from crates the museum had hidden them in.

Brian Daniels, an anthropologist in Virginia, is heading a project that monitors the destruction of cultural heritage in Ukraine. “There is now very strong evidence this is a purposive Russian move, with specific paintings and ornaments targeted and taken out to Russia,” he told The Daily Beast. His team saw surveillance video supplied by Ukraine in which a Russian art expert in a white lab coat removed the gold with the precision of a surgeon, careful not to destroy them. “There is a possibility it is all part of undermining the identity of Ukraine as a separate country by implying legitimate Russian ownership of all their exhibits.”

Art historians are extremely concerned that Russia is stealing the country’s soul by destroying these items. “We have museum buildings destroyed, with all collections turned into ashes—it's quite a barbaric situation,” curator and art historian Konstantin Akinsha, who is an expert in Ukrainian art, told The Roundtable program on Australia’s ABC. “[The] other side of the problem is that in little towns which are occupied by Russians, we have the first cases of random looting of museums.”

In many cases across Ukraine, museum directors have refused to evacuate without their art so are huddling in fortified museums. “Directors cannot leave the building because [they will need to] return at night in case something happens,” Akinsha, who is in touch with many of them, said. “So they became kind of cellar hermits… all around the country.”

Among the destroyed art are 25 pieces by Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko which were in the Ivankiv museum near Kyiv. Ukrainian officials say the art was taken by Russian troops before they destroyed the museum in a missile attack.

The ALIPH Foundation, which has worked tirelessly in conflict zones including Syria and Afghanistan—where untold treasures were destroyed in recent decades—said they are sending supplies like crates, fireproof blankets and packing materials, to Ukrainian museums to help them fortify works in case bombing continues.

“The storage facilities themselves need to be up to standard,” Sandra Bialystok, spokesperson for ALIPH, said in a statement posted on their website. “They need to have proper humidity control, be away from the elements and the packing boxes need to be of a certain caliber in order to protect the artifacts because these artifacts are, of course, precious and fragile.”

key to Fitzpatrick's triumph

POWER PLAY

U.S. Open 2022: The key to Matt Fitzpatrick's triumph came as a shock to his fellow pros

By Tod Leonard

June 19, 2022

Matt Fitzpatrick drives from the 15th tee during the final round of the U.S. Open.

Jared Tilton

Bluntly, Matt Fitzpatrick’s slight, seemingly unathletic frame would tend to identify him as an underdog in a pillow fight with your 15-year-old. The 155-pounder makes the splndly Francis Ouimet look like Bryson DeChambeau. Even Rory McIlroy has a linebacker’s frame by comparison.

But this is golf in the 2020s, when guys can disappear into a lab, flanked by incredibly bright and motivated people, who possess the latest of high-tech gadgets, and emerge a far better player. And in Fitzpatrick’s case, as a U.S. Open champion.

MORE: Caddie Billy Foster gets the "gorilla" off his back with win

If the 27-year-old Englishman, who prevailed to win his first major on Sunday, didn’t exactly overpower The Country Club the way DeChambeau did Winged Foot in 2020, he didn’t dink it around either. For the week, Fitzpatrick ranked second in the field in strokes gained/off-the-tee at 4.82—his best stat. No. 1 in that category is one of the game’s longstanding bombers and another U.S. Open champ, Gary Woodland.

It is a number significantly boosted by the fact that Fitzpatrick hit the ball far and straight. While tying for 10th in the field in driving distance at 309.20 yards, he was fifth in fairways found (70 percent) and was a machine on Sunday, reaching the short stuff on 11 holes en route to hitting 17 greens in regulation. So this was not “bomb and gouge.” It was bomb and birdie. Fitzpatrick scored in the red a field-best 19 times over the 72 holes, including 4-for-4 efforts on the short par-4 fifth and the par-5 eighth.

Believe us, the players are beginning to take note of Fitzpatrick’s power. Why? Because only three years ago, he ranked 151st on the PGA Tour in driving distance. This year, he’s 63rd, having gained 12 yards. In a stat for which people are often separated by tenths of yards, that’s a lot.

“Tip of the hat to Fitzy. He's been playing really good golf, and he definitely deserved to win this event,” Scottie Scheffler said. “I don't know if you guys noticed, but I feel like he has made some extreme improvements off the tee in a matter of months.

“I played with him in Austin this year, and he was not hitting it nearly as far as he is now. I don't know what he was doing. Maybe he was on the Bryson program or something.”

When Scheffler’s praise and quote about DeChambeau was relayed to Fitzpatrick in his own press conference, he flashed his braces, laughed and and offered, “I’ve done my drug test, and it was negative, so we’re all good.”

In reality, the gains have come from some from painstaking work with some brainiac stuff thrown in. Fitzpatrick explained that he was been working with his coach, Mike Walker, and biomechanist Sasho Mackenzie on a system called The Stack. Without diving too deep, it uses a speed stick and an app to improve sequencing and swing speed.

“I’ll be honest, it’s worked wonders,” Fitzpatrick said Sunday.

If there was a hole in the final round that displayed Fitzpatrick’s newfound power, it was the 561-yard par-5 eighth. Hs striped his drive 288 yards on a string, and while playing partner Will Zalatoris chose to lay up, Fitzpatrick chose 3-wood and chased it 267 yards to nearly pin-high on the green. From there, he made a tap-in birdie while Zalatoris could only manage par. And as we know, Zalatoris, along with Scheffler, lost by a single shot.

“I feel like maybe three years ago if I was in this position … and I was playing with Will in the final group, I'd be concerned that I'm going to be 15, 20 [yards] behind him,” Fitzpatrick said. “And I felt comfortable all day that I was going to be past him—which, to me, gives me confidence, obviously going into the next shot knowing that you've got less club.”

Then Fitzpatrick uttered two sentences he’d never have dreamed when he first turned pro: “There's a bit of a mentality thing that when you're hitting it past people, it's quite nice.”

Saturday, June 18, 2022

A Procrastinator’s Guide To Booking A Cheap Summer Getaway

TRAVEL

A Procrastinator’s Guide To Booking A Cheap Summer Getaway

Suzanne Rowan Kelleher

Forbes Staff

I write about travel trends and news you can use.

May 31, 2022,10:13am EDT

summer vacation cheap book flights — There ain't no time for the summertime blues, say travel experts. Just be open to possibilities.
GETTY

With Memorial Day weekend now in the rear window, millions of Americans still haven’t yet booked a summer vacation. If you’re among them, don’t panic. There’s still time to snag a super deal.

The key is to have an open mind and a smidge of flexibility, something a lot of people have in spades these days thanks to remote and hybrid work policies.

The smartest travel companies have taken note, offering up tools to help travelers widen the lens and view a bigger breadth of possibilities. Most often, there’s not only a perfectly dreamy Plan B but also a Plan C, D and E.

Adopt A “The World Is My Oyster” Mindset

“People are coming out of the pandemic with a real openness to where they travel,” says Laura Lindsay, a spokesperson for Skyscanner, a travel booking engine and app with 75 million active users. “They're thinking much broader and that's a really great thing, because supply and demand is what impacts prices. Being open actually gives them the ability to uncover some really good deals.”

To wit: The most popular destination on Skyscanner is a search setting called “everywhere.” When searching for flights, the traveler plugs her home airport into the “from” field. In the “to” field, an option appears for searching “everywhere.” This simple trick can surface a panoply of tempting — and very affordable — options far below the average cost of airfare.

For example, if you search for roundtrip tickets from Chicago to “everywhere” in August, options include Miami from $87, Denver from $152, and New York from $183, among many other domestic possibilities. A traveler eyeballing an international trip can also find cheaper-than-average airfares for Portugal (from $372), France (from $451), and Australia ($1,040). To expand options further, compare different travel months and be sure to tick the boxes for “add nearby airports.”

It’s Not About Where To Go, But Where To Stay

Earlier this month, Airbnb unveiled what it touts as the biggest change in a decade to the platform’s search function. Airbnb users are now able to explore more than 50 categories that group listings by a particular interest — for example, “design,” “amazing pools” or “lakefront.” Because these settings are keyed to feature rather than a specific destination, the results can open a window to an experience you might never have considered otherwise.

Setting the search parameters to “lakefront” and “anywhere” for a week in August turns up a good number of waterside bargains under $200 a night in under-the-radar resort towns like Osage Beach, Missouri, in the heart of Lake of the Ozarks; Gilford, New Hampshire, on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee; and Sugarcreek, Ohio, known as the “gateway to Amish country.”

But that’s just the beginning. From railroad cabooses to yurts to converted grain silos, the “OMG!” category can also unearth some very cool and unusual finds that won’t break the bank, like a covered wagon on a farm near Las Vegas ($120 a night) or a windmill in Greece ($301 a night).

For the work-from-anywhere crowd, Airbnb now offers “split stays,” widening search results to make it easier to divide a longer trip between two homes in the same vicinity. Previously, a listing would remain hidden if it was unavailable for any part of a searched time frame, so this single tweak unearths a great many more options for those who are keen to get to know a destination from different vantages.

When Airlines Add Routes, Be Ready To Pounce

No travel company obsesses about timing like Hopper, an app conceived to determine the optimal moment to book flights, which, it turns out, is very much a moving target.

“An individual fare can change multiple times in a day, let alone over the course of a few weeks in advance of a flight,” says Hayley Berg, Hopper’s chief economist, noting that the right time to buy can change due to something as granular as the departure airport, arrival airport, departure dates or booking dates.

Berg says several factors can make airfares rise — fuel costs, pilot shortages, travel demand — but there’s also a tried-and-true rule for predicting when and where airfares will fall.

“Specifically, when a low-cost carrier starts a new route from a given airport, prices will drop by an average of 20% on all carriers that fly that route. So if a lower-cost carrier enters a route, it's a great opportunity for travelers,” says Berg. Even better, the low-cost carrier will almost always offer promotions for the first couple of weeks or months that they're running that service.

One easy way to keep an eye on how route maps are changing is to monitor your home airport through the Hopper app. “Rather than doing a ton of research, you could use our tool to track a couple of different destinations and when there’s a price drop, you’re ready to book,” suggests Berg.

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Suzanne Rowan Kelleher

I watch trends in travel. Prior to working at Forbes, I was a longtime freelancer who contributed hundreds of articles to Conde Nast Traveler, CNN Travel, Travel + Leisure, Afar, Reader's Digest, TripSavvy, Parade, NBCNews.com and scores of other outlets. Follow me on Instagram (@suzannekelleher) and Flipboard (@SRKelleher).